Facilities for disabled on campus
Are things getting better or worse?
By: Mark Bell
Posted: 2/11/08
We see students with disabilities on campus everyday, but when we do, many of us simply look the other way or ignore them altogether.
What many of us are blind to when it comes to these students, is that, in many ways, they are just like the rest of us.
John Harris, director of Disabled Student Services since 1985, says the most important thing everyone on campus can do to make students with disabilities feel welcome is "to make sure that they are involved in the campus process."
Harris, whose job includes making sure MTSU is complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, is visually impaired and knows all too well the difficulties associated with having a disability.
"We need to invite these students to be in the sororities, fraternities and other campus organizations," he said. "We need to give them the opportunity to work on campus."
One such student used Sidelines as a platform to voice her criticisms about problems concerning facilities for disabled students on campus.
Not only were there problems with facilities in this particular case, but a complete lack of training on how to use appropriate equipment to assist the physically disabled in cases of emergencies (such as the breaking down of an elevator) by the campus police.
Sarah Crotzer, an MTSU graduate who experienced this, wrote, "The fact that our campus police have an evacuation device is admirable. That they have no training in how the device works, how to lift a disabled adult, or how to listen to someone's needs and concerns-all of that is absolutely inexcusable."
Furthermore, Crotzer said she believed there should be a discussion "between the administration, those campus agencies charged with aiding students, and the same students who depend on that aid."
Almost a year after that incident now, have things gotten better for disabled students on campus?
"Most disabled students, if you talk to them, would say yes," Harris said. "If you look at campus as a whole you will find that, especially in the core of campus, things are very accessible."
There have been many improvements in facilities on campus, including a second elevator in Peck Hall.
And more are coming.
"We are going to add a new lift in the Boutwell Dramatic Arts building, make restrooms in the Kirksey Old Main more accessible, and we're wanting to add an elevator to Stark Agriculture building," Harris said. "We also need to add more curb cuts to sidewalks throughout the campus."
The trick, according to Harris, is to make steady changes over time without draining the universities budget.
With all of the construction going on all over campus where does that leave handicapped facilities such as elevators, restrooms and curb cuts in this renovation plan?
Under Title III of the ADA, which states, among other things, "no individual may be discriminated against on the basis of disability with regards to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation," any building constructed after 1992 "must be fully compliant with ADA accessibility guidelines."
Where does that leave older buildings such as the KOM and Stark?
Title III of the ADA also covers these older buildings, albeit with weaker standards, such as the requirement that facilities built before the passage of ADA still have obligations to remove accessibility barriers, but only if removing such barriers can be accomplished without placing the owner in a tight financial situation.
The Tennessee Board of Regents, since 2003, has been providing MTSU with $180,000 a year to work on accessibility issues.
"The university has a standing committee called the MTSU Committee on Disability Issues," Harris said, "That committee's job is to review things on campus and provide advice to the president on how to best serve students with disabilities."
That committee, which is required to meet once a year, is made up of six faculty members, four students (appointed by the student body president), directors from DSS, directors from housing and the director of the information technology division.
"While you can never have enough money, I think our budget is adequate," Harris said.
"I think we are very fortunate on our campus to have the highest population of students with disabilities in Tennessee, and I believe that is a testament to the great job we are doing with updating and building new facilities," he added.
In 1985, MTSU had 109 students with disabilities. That number has grown exponentially. MTSU now has more than 1,000 students with disabilities.
"Granted, our topography lends itself to serving students with disabilities so we can't take all of the credit there," Harris said.
DSS is also responsible for relocating classes in cases where disabled students cannot reach the original location.
"One of my favorite stories to tell is when the elevator in peck hall broke at the beginning of one semester we relocated 37 classes for 24 wheelchair users," Harris said. "We were able to do so in a weeks time."
What happens when there are problems with handicap facilities on campus? How do these problems get reported?
"We want our students to let us know if there are problems with facilities so they can be addressed," Harris said. "Then I'll work with Watson Harris (MTSU's ADA and 504 coordinator) and Patty Miller (MTSU's campus planner) to make sure that the situations are resolved."
According to Harris, the university only receives around five complaints a year regarding facilities for the disabled.
An issue raised by Sidelines concerning broken buttons on electric doors for disabled individuals, was the first complaint Harris heard in 2008.
"Sometimes you really don't know about problems until students use the facilities," said Harris. "We rely on our students to let us know if there are problems."
There are problems with expecting some disabled students to communicate problems to the proper department's however.
What happens if this situation is an emergency and the disabled person is unable to communicate?
"That's a good question but I'm not sure I know the answer to that," Harris said. "But I'm not sure that I would say that you could have people trained well enough to know how to assist someone with a disability in every situation."
So, is there a lack of communication between DSS and campus police regarding how these situations should be handled?
It is questionable if campus police have received the proper training when it comes to assisting someone with a disability.
Harris said it is important to know if a situation is a true emergency or not.
"You have to kind of look at what is a convenience to you might be inconvenience to me," Harris said. "Was it a true emergency, or did the person just want to get out of the building?"
"With all of the work MTSU has done, I would be very disappointed to find that we have failed to assist someone who really needed that assistance."
With all of the strides MTSU has made in advancing accessibility on campus, is it possible that there is a lack of potentially very important communication between campus agencies charged with assisting disabled students and emergency personnel who do that assisting?
You be the judge.
© Copyright 2008 The Sidelines
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------
Ok, so my thoughts on this article are that it boiles down to money & loopholes in the law. I still haven't seen a second elevator in Peck Hall. Yes, there are doing construction in the building but they have been working in there for about a year now. Peck Hall & KOM two of the buildings mentioned in the article were built before 1992 so changes are slow in coming to thos e buildings. KOM has four floors but the elevator only goes to the first three floors & I haven't seen any indication of plans to install a secord elevator or make the fourth floor accessible to disabled students. I served on the Committee on Disability Issues for one year & w only met one time to recap what happened the previous year & I never heared anything else from that committee, yes I was appointed by the SGA but I expressed an intrest in serving on the committee due to my understanding of issues that disabled students deal with on campus. I am visually impaired, I have limited sight. John Harris is totally blind. There is a differeence between visually impaired & blind people but they are generally put in the same catagory & treated the same. There is a difference, I can see some.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
exhausted
