W E E K E N D E D I T I O N | S E P T E M B E R 2 8 - O C T O B E R 1, 2 0 17 | T W I C E W E E K LY I N P R I N T | O U D A I LY. C O M
OUDAILY
For 101 years, the student voice of the University of Oklahoma
GOING UP AGAINST ALL ODDS
Continued lack of accessibility options on OU’s campus creates difficulty for students IPEK DUMAN • @IPEK_DUMAN1
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hen Brady Reynolds broke his ankle, he lost not only the ability to walk, but the ability to attend one of his classes. Last year, the computer science sophomore was forced to drop his astronomy class located on the third floor of the OU Observatory because the building had no elevator or lift access to accomodate his scooter. “You have to go up stairs to get to the class,” Reynolds said. “There’s no other option.” Reynolds said that because it was just a general education class, he was able to drop out of the course without major repercussions. Had he been an astronomy major though, having to drop a class due to lack of access would have been detrimental to his learning, he said. Reynold’s experience is not necessarily unique. Other students at OU have also encountered obstacles in receiving accommodations for their medical disabilities and accessing buildings on campus, often at the expense of their education.
ILLUSTRATION BY ABBIE SEARS/THE DAILY
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION Mallory Brurud can’t use elevators like other students. Brurud, a geology sophomore at the University of Central Oklahoma, suffers from a chronic illness affecting her central nervous system that can cause fainting at altitude. Brurud said the lack of help she received from the Disability Resource Center led her to withdraw from OU in the winter of 2016. Brurud has Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS, which causes her to experience migraines, increased heart rate and even fainting any time she steps on an elevator. Before beginning her freshman year in fall 2016, Brurud requested to live below the fourth floor of the dorms. Instead, Brurud was placed on the 8th floor of Walker Tower and was told she couldn’t move to a lower floor unless she gave up living with her roommate and moved in with another student with a disability. “As a person with disabilities, that’s super frustrating because I pass out and I need assistance sometimes, and having someone
there who I trust and know around all that is so important,” Brurud said. “It’s almost more important than being on a lower floor.” That November, Brurud said she became physically unable to attend class and was advised by the Disability Resources Center to go through a medical withdrawal from all of her classes. Brurud said she received little assistance from OU after that advice. Chelle Guttery, director of the DRC, said the goal of the DRC is to work with individuals on a personal basis to make sure their disability is not an obstacle to any person’s success. “(Being unresponsive) is certainly not what we want to do,” Guttery said. “That’s never the message that we want to convey to anybody, and I think we work really hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.” But Brurud said OU’s lack of accommodations were a huge impediment to her success. “I 100 percent felt like a student who could not go to OU w i t h a c h ro n i c i l l n e s s a n d be successful,” Brurud said.
PHYSICAL ACCESS Navigating campus in a wheelchair became an unexpected challenge after anthropology sophomore Alyssa Cherry shattered her kneecap last fall.
I 100 percent felt like a student who could not go to OU with a chronic illness and be successful.”
Cherry found difficulty using the Physical Sciences Center’s ramps and making her way around other buildings on campus in a wheelchair, even with help from a friend. “It was really hard getting around in general because you had to have someone pushing you at all times,” Cherry said. “(My friend) Joseph pushed me around the entire time, and there were a lot of instances where even he had trouble pushing me.” Hans Butzer, the dean of the College of Architecture, said many buildings on campus are very old and don’t have to meet Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, requirements because they were built before the requirements were in place. The Americans with Disabilities Act, established in 1990, requires certain accommodations to protect disabled individuals but only requires that newer, public buildings be ADA compliant. “Buildings that were constructed prior to (the ADA laws) are grandfathered in, meaning that you cannot force those buildings to be changed, and you cannot sue that owner for those conditions,” Butzer said. Thus, students still have daily issues navigating steep ramps with sharp curves and handicap doors that do not work well or at all. Reynolds said while he was in the scooter for his ankle, he noticed very few of the buildings on campus have ground-level classes, and the steepness of some of the ramps caused the
MALLORY BRURUD, FORMER OU STUDENT
CAITLYN EPES/THE DAILY
Anthropology sophomore Alyssa Cherry and biological sciences and human health sophomore Joseph Schnitker stand in the stairwell of Bizzell Memorial Library Sept. 27. Cherry shattered her kneecap last fall and struggled to navigate campus in a wheelchair.
brakes on his scooter to wear out. Guttery said in an email the DRC is constantly working to make sure any disability is not a barrier to success for students navigating OU’s campus. “The DRC, in collaboration with Architectural & Engineering Services and Facilities Management, are continuously evaluating our buildings to ensure the accessibility needs of our community are being met,” Guttery said.
“You have to go up the stairs to get to class. There’s no other option. ” BRADY REYNOLDS, COMPUTER SCIENCE SOPHOMORE
Some buildings at OU have been renovated to meet, and, in some cases, go beyond ADA requirements, such as Gould Hall, which expanded the width of its ramp to 60 inches to allow plenty of room for both wheelchairs and walkers, Butzer said. But other buildings like the Physical Science Center and Dale Hall pre-date the ADA laws, Butzer said, meaning those buildings do not technically have to be ADA compliant. Cherry said that, when in a wheelchair, handicap doors that don’t work well or don’t work at all become a major issue. She said the ADA-labeled accessible doors at Richards Hall lacked buttons and one of the doors opened at an angle that made it impossible for her to get through in a wheelchair. “(The signs are) not saying that (the building is) compliant, it’s just saying that this is the best door to come in,” Butzer said. “When they put up a sign that says ADA accessible, what they’re saying is this is your best option because it wasn’t a building that was built with ADA jurisdiction.” To fix these issues students are encountering, it comes down to not only the budget, but the amount of physical space the university has to make these adjustments, as well as the historical significance of these buildings, which also limits the amount of construction that can take place, Butzer said. Butzer said OU President David Boren has made retroactive improvements, but the list of needed improvements is long and not all of them can all be tackled at once. Butzer said students can expect to see ADA compliance in new buildings and upcoming campus renovations. In the meantime, Guttery said students can reach out to the DRC for accommodations and assistance. “I want to emphasize that any student who is experiencing difficulty with accessibility on our campus should contact the Disability Resource Center,” Guttery said. “We are here to help.” Ipek Duman
ipek.duman-1@ou.edu