UMW senior Adrianna Giddings is this year’s Citizenship Award for Diversity Leadership winner. Now legally blind, she began losing her sight at age 16. As president of UMW’s Delta Alpha Pi honor society for students with disabilities, Giddings has become a force for enhancing accessibility at UMW.
Adrianna Giddings leaves her white cane behind and makes her way to the front of the room.
Drip-drop, drip-drop … Tasha Page-Lockhart’s Tears flows through the University of Mary Washington’s Chandler Ballroom, and Giddings breathes it in. “It’s like I’m in my own bubble,” she said of the performances she delivers with UMW’s Praise Dance Team, of which she is president. “I close my eyes and the words become movement in my mind.”
When she opens them, Giddings, a UMW senior who is legally blind, cannot see the audience.
Adjusting to a world with limited vision is a journey she began at age 16, just two years before she arrived at Mary Washington. Since then, she’s pushed for improvements in accessibility for people with blindness and other disabilities on campus. This year’s Citizenship Award for Diversity Leadership winner, she’s used her voice to make her own college career a success, but she’s focused on lighting the way for others long after she graduates.
“She’s helped this University move the needle forward in a very thoughtful and inclusive way,” James Farmer Multicultural Center Director Marion Sanford said of Giddings, president of UMW’s Delta Alpha Pi honor society for students with disabilities. “And she does it in such a compassionate way.” Read more.
