Undergrad study finds disabled access poor

By: Payal Patnaik

Posted: 11/8/07

Walking to the library or entering Levering Hall are two simple actions that people without disabilities sometimes take for granted, students in a sociology class said last week.

Six groups from a Sociology and Disabilities class looked at the O'Connor Recreation Center, Levering Hall, Hodson Hall, Krieger Hall, Shriver Hall and the MSE Library to evaluate the disability access to each building and found areas of improvement for every building. They noted their own observations while comparing their results with American with Disabilities Act standards.

"ADA only sets standards for designs and people reserve the right to file a complaint," an ADA specialist from the Department of Justice said.

"I wanted students to look at disability in the physical environment and give students hands-on experience to see what are the obstacles of being disabled in one's environment," said Christian Villenas, a sociology graduate student and professor who uses crutches himself. Students were also asked to make recommendations based on their findings for improving accessibility for the hearing, visually and physically impaired.

In the library, students found that the doorways to the graduate rooms are 26 inches wide while a normal wheelchair is 30 inches wide. "This creates a physical barrier and therefore a social barrier, though the library does a pretty good job," student Jeffrey Vlasic said.

Students pointed out that a simple trip to the library took a physically disabled person a lot of effort since the library is located uphill from everywhere with the exception of the freshman quad. The group also pointed out that a lot of wheelchair accessible buttons do not work on weekends. The bathrooms on the B- and D- levels are not wheelchair accessible, a member said. "Our main concern is that the library is the hottest spot on campus - it's well-frequented and used, but it still is not accessible," a group member said.

The group recommended more extensive online reserve and delivery services so that the disabled can avoid an arduous trip to the library if they choose.

"The trips to the library would certainly be discouraging, and I can imagine that someone could be turned off by it. A responsibility of a university is to provide reasonable accommodations, and I expect the library is obligated to do it under the law," Villenas said.

It takes a person in a wheelchair eight minutes to enter Levering Hall, the Levering group remarked, a stark contrast to the amount of time it takes for someone simply to walk up the entrance steps. Another main issue the group had was the Arellano stage, since it would take one with a wheelchair tremendous effort to get on stage, which may discourage them from theatrical pursuits. "As a student union, Levering is a really important social building - it should be the most socially conscious building, but it reinforces negative stereotypes where people in wheelchairs can't even get up onstage," Levering group member Lelia Chaisson said.

Students also found that if someone in a wheelchair was on the second floor in the event of a fire, the only way for that person to evacuate the building would be through elevator use.

Additionally, the Center for Social Concern is only accessible by a narrow staircase, making it out of the way for those who are physically disabled. "That the Center for Social Concern is not accessible for people with disabilities is not acceptable at all," Villenas said.

The O'Connor Recreation Center had a few problems with inaccessibility, but the group determined that 100 percent of the users were not disabled, which is tracked by the JCard swipes at the entrance of the Center.

Shriver Hall also posed a few problems to a physically disabled person in a wheelchair. According to the Shriver Hall group, there is no direct path to an accessible entrance, since there are no signs directing one to the alternate entrance. The auditorium has no designated handicapped seating, and the only way to get on stage is by a free elevator.

"For a university with a large endowment for health, it is surprising that there aren't more accommodations," Villenas said. "I had the students do this project for two reasons. I wanted them to go out there and be health professionals who are better equipped to deal with problems with people disabilities and treat them better and treat them equally in the way they deserve to be treated. I also wanted [the project] to lead a mini-movement in making campuses more accessible to people with disabilities. I would like to see the University make changes with regard to accessibility and show other universities how to move in that direction."

Hopkins Director of ADA Compliance and Disability Services Peggy Hayeslip said that her office was aware of limitations of disability access in Levering and Shriver. "There's a budget for accessibility at the Homewood campus and we look at that budget each year in terms of priorities of projects, and so certainly some of their recommendations will be considered," she said.

Hayeslip acknowledged that disabled people may have trouble evacuating both Levering and Shriver Halls when the elevators are not working.

"At this point, to ramp those buildings is very costly, but that is definitely something that has been discussed. [The Office of Facilities Management] has done accessibility studies for us and made contacts with companies that have specialists in ADA access; they coordinate those studies for us."

According to Villenas, the campus has made improvements in disability access in the past four years he's been on campus. He has since observed ramps, the elevator in the library and the Office of Disability Services addition to campus.