Are Campuses Really Accessible to Everyone?

            Each and every day, we, as physically capable and non-impaired individuals, take the simplicities of every day life for granted. Many people with physical disabilities can’t come and go as they please as we do, and until I really took the time to make the observation and look around for myself, I never realized how much of an advantage we have when it comes to accessibility.

            While making my way around campus to my classes on Tuesday, I realized just how difficult it would be for someone in a wheelchair, blind, or hearing-impaired to make the route I do. Three out of my five classes are located upstairs in Dunlap and Young Hall, and as I walked around the buildings I noticed that neither have an elevator. Both buildings have ramps that are wheelchair accessible, however, they are both located on the opposite side of the building and take a longer route through the building just to get to my classrooms and lecture halls. At first, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, it’d only take a little longer to get to class; however, this becomes an issue when one has back to back classes as I do, with only 10-15 minutes in between each class. I can barely make it around campus in that allotted time, so having the buildings and structures inaccessible to those in wheelchairs would only make it that much harder, limiting there abilities to have a normal campus life. 

            Along with accessibilities into classrooms and buildings around campus, I also noticed we have limited access for students who may be blind or hearing-impaired. In my psychology class, there is a student who is deaf and has a professor who signs for her during each lecture. I actually went to high school with this girl, and this has been the case for as long as I have known her. Of course, this is a great help to her within the classroom, however, after knowing her for so long, I have learned that she doesn’t have the same opportunities as the rest of us on campus. She doesn’t attend events as simple as campus movie night on the drill field, just because there aren’t subtitles on the screen.

            If we would just take a moment to acknowledge these students, their disabilities, and their need for better accessibility around campus, we could make a tremendous difference in their everyday lives. According to a Disabilities Study by Beth A. Haller at Towson University, “About 9 percent of students on college campuses have some form of disability. These students are all are supposed to receive accommodations on those college campuses based on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act” (Promoting Disability-Friendly Campuses to Prospective Students:

An Analysis of University Recruitment Materials, 2006). Better accessibility to these students would be as easy as making campus events accessible to students with hearing or vision impairments, but even as extreme, but needed, as altering the campus for easier access to classrooms and buildings to students in wheelchair. Each and every student deserves equal opportunities in able to enhance their educational and campus experience.

 Haller, Beth A. (2006). Promoting Disability-Friendly Campuses to Prospective Students:

            An Analysis of University Recruitment Materials. Disability Studies Quarterly.     

            Retrieved from dsq-sds.org: http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/673/850