By Solen Aref, Gurjot Kang, Kiyomi Kishaba, Victoria Norman and Chloe Wilhelm
Reporter, News Editor, Reporter, Arts & Culture Editor, and Opinion Editor
Walking from one class in Morken to a class in Admin, trekking up Hinderlie Hill to grab lunch at the Anderson University Center, or going to the bathroom without getting stuck in the doorway are all incidents that some Pacific Lutheran University students might not think twice about on a typical day. However, for students with disabilities on campus, these are everyday issues that make accessibility an issue at PLU.
For able-bodied students at PLU, we often access spaces across campus with a sense of ease and lack of concern due to our privileged identities. This concept of privilege becomes most noticeable after having a conversation with someone who has had to navigate PLU through an injury or disability. In order to address PLU’s institutional battle with ableism, it’s important to consider those most impacted by a lack of inaccessible spaces across campus.
Issues with mobility around campus
Coming onto PLU’s campus looks different for every student, especially one with a disability.
Jazzmin Kelley, a transfer student with cerebral palsy, spent her first year on campus growing accustomed to the issue of accessibility that should have been the least of her concern.
Dips in the concrete on walkways create problems that may not bother everyone, but such grooves along these paths present daily struggles in mobility for students with disabilities. A seemingly small task, such as clearing sidewalks can make all the difference.
“I have been the one to pick things up sometimes. If it’s pinecones, I kick them out of the way, or branches I pick them up and throw them away,” Kelley said.
Kelley says it’s the little things that shouldn’t really be a problem in the first place, especially for students with disabilities just trying to get from one class to another, that end up causing her the most difficulty. The pinecones and smaller branches on walkways get caught in the wheels of walkers and wheelchairs, while the larger branches force students to contemplate whether they’ll be able to simply roll down a path or not.
“Making sure that things are okay for students is essential,” Kelley said.
Kelley has also experienced difficulties with finding parking around campus. For Kelley, having more marked handicap spots around campus would make a huge difference. Even in the main parking lots, there are only two handicap spots. The lots are perfect for those who arrive on campus at a decent time but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s a shortage of parking in general.
“People circle like vultures just trying to get any available spot,” Kelley said. “I get that there is only so much that you can do with a parking lot, but maybe if they were more aware, then it would get treated differently.”
She mentioned that perhaps more monitoring on campus could ensure that accessibility is up to code, but she knows that it’s unlikely any necessary changes will be made during her time at PLU.
“It’s simple things that people don’t think about that wouldn’t just make my life easier but others’ lives easier as well,” Kelley said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen [people] push the buttons to open the doors, or use the elevators just because they don’t want to open the door or walk up the stairs.”
Kelley listed Ingram, the Administration building and the Department for Student Services as areas that need the most attention. With Ingram, adding an automatic door near the parking lot could make a big difference, as well as repaving the pathways leading up to the building, and maybe even adding just one more handicap spot in the Wheeler parking lot.
The elevator in Admin was broken earlier this year, so people with crutches began using the stairs. However, for people without this option, navigating the building becomes more strenuous. Although the elevator has since been fixed, many still view it as unreliable.
Additionally, for Kelley, it’s important that the actual location of the Disability Support Services center doesn’t change.
“They have moved about twice since I have been on campus. Where they are now is definitely the most accessible but consistency is key,” Kelley said.
While Kelley knows that the majority of these things will not be resolved within her time at PLU, she wants to help future students with a disability have an easier time getting around.
Another thing she wants to emphasize is that accessibility concerns are a problem that impacts everyone, not just the disabled students at PLU.
“I don’t want people to think it’s only a problem for the disabled kids. It’s not. It’s for everyone. Being aware is really important and a lot of people aren’t.”
Residential problems push people off campus
Ayanna Cole, a senior student who initially lived on campus, now finds it more accessible to live off campus.
Cole, who has spina bifida, a congenital birth defect caused from malformation of the spinal column/nerves, often uses a wheelchair to get around campus.
During her time at PLU, Cole has been met with unreliable elevators.
“Especially in Harstad and Admin, I’ve had to miss classes because when I lived in Harstad the elevator would break down constantly,” Cole said. “Now, all my classes are in Admin, and if the elevator is broken or down for some reason, then I can’t get to my class, so yeah that’s definitely been the biggest issue.”
Elevators weren’t the only problem Cole faced as a resident.
“When I called moving into Harstad, they told me that the room I had was accessible, but I guess their idea of accessible was that my wheelchair could technically fit into it…not ADA accessible,” Cole said. “So I just think if I was more physically disabled…I would not have been able to live there.”
Cole discussed how one of the best ways to recognize the issue of ableism is to create spaces on campus that encourage open dialogue and conversations surrounding accessibility.
“The thing about disability is that it’s completely intersectional—all identities can intersect with disability and that just makes it all the more important to highlight those voices,” Cole said. “If you want to know about accessibility…ask somebody who is disabled and get that word out.”
As graduation fast approaches, Cole hopes to see more representation of students with disabilities across campus, and continued efforts toward improving residence halls, bathrooms and classrooms.
When the bathroom doesn’t fit
84 percent of buildings at PLU don’t have the minimum number of accessible restrooms.
68 percent have doors that aren’t labeled as accessible.
44 percent of restrooms at PLU don’t have bathroom stalls wide enough for wheelchairs.
This is the conclusion that communication professor Dr. Marnie Ritchie and her COMA 303: Gender and Communication class arrived at when they conducted a study on bathroom accessibility at PLU in fall 2018.
Ritchie said that before the study began, her students had suspicions that accessibility was a larger problem on campus than it originally seemed.
“This verified their suspicions,” she said.
The class collected data using the “People in Search of Safe and Accessible Restrooms” survey (PISSAR). It is comprised of a checklist of factors which help determine whether bathrooms are up to code.
Armed with measuring tapes and rulers, students analyzed 25 bathrooms across campus, including restrooms in the Anderson University Center, Administration Building, Ingram Hall and the library.
“First, we noted how many accessible stalls there were, whether they were workable and whether they had accessible handles,” Ritchie said. “You [need] to meet a certain standard width for stalls, and we found that it was not met in accessible stalls.”
She explained that when stalls were labeled as accessible, the door width to get into the bathroom often couldn’t fit a wheelchair. She said the problem became worse due to double doors.
“A lot of the restrooms were not accessible, especially those at the library,” Ritchie said.
The data that Ritchie and her students collected revealed the restrooms located in the library’s second floor had some of the lowest accessibility scores. When compared to PISSAR standards, which uses measurements from the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the men’s restrooms only passed 48 percent of the study’s standards.
Similar ratings were also found for restrooms in Ingram Hall and the Administration building. The worst score was found in Ingram Hall’s first-floor women’s restroom in the southeast section of the building. Only 36 percent of the study’s standards were met in this bathroom.
Not all of the restrooms at PLU have the same accessibility issues. The gender neutral bathrooms in the Anderson University Center received the highest PISSAR score after meeting 90 percent of the study’s standards.
Ritchie said that changing accessibility on campus starts with focusing on part of PLU’s mission statement: care.
“I think that the most important thing…is the value that the university holds about care,” she said. “That’s in its mission statement.”
She explained that it is important to focus on these issues and ensure that people who need these services have access to them.
“It’s a huge part of our identity that we project out to other people, and it’s what we ask our students, staff and faculty to model,” Ritchie said. “Inaccessible structures provide an image of not caring, when it is our responsibility to care.”
An athlete’s injury becomes a learning moment
Kyle Hippe is a sophomore on the PLU swim team. He experienced a chronic posterior tibial stress along with a pinched nerve in his foot which put him out of competition and into intense training for seven months. During his recovery process, Hippe was required to wear a boot for three weeks to stabilize and ease pressure on his ankle while walking.
As soon as he strapped on the boot, Hippe’s mobility around campus became more difficult. He said he quickly began to notice the many daily obstacles toward accessibility across PLU which hadn’t crossed his mind before.
Hippe’s athletic injury, along with an unaccommodating class schedule made it difficult for him to travel between upper and lower campus.
“I had a class in Admin and a class in Morken, and it was hard to make it there on time,” Hippe said. “Some of the paths are super small so it would cause a bottleneck of people trying to pass me, and I would end up stopping to let them pass because I didn’t want to be a burden.”
Swim team head coach Matt Sellman commented on the changes made to the pool for accommodating accessibility.
“We have deck space that we corner off during competition for disabled people or people with wheelchairs who can’t sit on the bleachers,” Sellman said. “We have our ADA lift and removable stairs for those who choose not to use the regular vertical pool stairs.”
Sellman also noted that cardio machines are available on the ground level of the gym for those who can’t make it to the top floor. However, there wasn’t much he could say about the lack of an elevator in Olson auditorium.
Injured athletes like Kyle Hippe or students with permanent physical disabilities have no way of comfortably accessing the upper floors of Olson Auditorium. Unless one has the ability to walk up a flight of stairs, accessibility to the offices of coaches and professors and various classes remains an obstacle.
Disability Support Services; the bridge to accessibility
The Disability Support Services (DSS) center focuses on providing accommodations to students with disabilities across the PLU campus. While DSS provides assistance for students inside and outside of the classroom, their work goes beyond that. For students who seek support, DSS works to create a plan for accessibility. As of now, there are approximately 210 PLU students who utilize DSS services.
According to Connie Gardner, who is the Associate Director for Student Rights and Responsibilities, accessibility plans vary between every student depending on their specific service requests.
Additionally, according to Simone Smith, the Coordinator for DSS, the center prioritizes ongoing accommodation management, which helps students navigate changes in the resources needed to ensure their success in the classroom between semesters.
It is the student who needs to seek out the accommodations. From then on, after the first initial connection is made, DSS converses with the student on ways the institution can provide them with the necessary resources, says Eva Frey, Dean of Students at PLU.
DSS works with campus partners, like Campus Safety and Facilities Management, when it comes to addressing mobility issues, such as clearing pathways after snow or fallen tree branches.
When mobility becomes an issue, it is DSS who works with Facilities Management to help students with permanent or long-term disabilities address these concerns.
Facilities Management’s take on the accessibility issue
Two and half years ago, Raymond Orr, Associate Vice President of Facilities Management, brought in a consultant to assess all of the PLU facilities for compliance with ADA law at the time. There were minor and major adjustments needed, so it was seen as important to create priorities for what needed to be changed.
In response to the lack of elevator in Olsen and other buildings on campus, Orr said the construction of elevators is very costly which is a big factor with elevator accessibility.
However, if buildings are being reconstructed, they are built in regulation with ADA law.
“Our biggest focus is on access to buildings and pathways to make sure they are accessible to students. We work with residential life to help with any accommodations we can with changing out furniture, and with bigger renovations we try to make the space we are touching accessible,” Orr said.
Orr also recently mentioned future plans on behalf of the PLU MarCom Department to focus on accessibility needs when updating the signs in newly renovated spaces.
According to Orr, they are “ensuring that the signage that is used meets ADA code as much as possible, which includes adding Braille and installing the signs at the proper height.”
In the recent snowstorm, facilities used the minimal snow equipment they had to keep critical paths clear. They utilized help from students to keep the campus in a safe condition, salting paths and working on parking spaces to be accessible.
Orr mentioned that PLU facilities can only work on pathways on campus; any sidewalks surrounding the school is property of the county and cannot be fixed by PLU workers.
Orr said he wanted students to know that they can reach out to facilities or the DSS office with problems of accessibility and to submit ideas for improvements.
“As long as we know about it, we will do what we can to fix it,” Orr said.
