The search for access

Jim Jackson is a Portland State student with degenerative eye disease, a condition that progressively worsens his eyesight as time goes by. Because of his condition, he needs to use special technology and adapted textbooks in order to keep up with his class work–technology that is often scarce around campus, he said, and books that require extra steps to order.

With a slim scope of accessible technology and the extra effort required to order textbooks, Jackson said he feels that students with disabilities are outsiders to a university that prides itself on being diverse and accepting.

“You hear that PSU values diversity so much, but why is it that disabled students aren’t a part of that focus?” Jackson said. “Obviously I can’t get the same experience as other students, but come on.”

Jackson said that even finding a textbook requires finding an audio edition of the text from the Library of Congress, and ordering it via the Disability Resource Center. Students may also request a classroom text be adapted to a digital format by the DRC. Sometimes, Jackson said, after reserving an adapted textbook, he must wait weeks into the term to receive it.

Advocating for students with disabilities

Michael Malinowski, former coordinator of the PSU Disability Advocacy Cultural Association (DACA), is vying to create a Disabilities Studies minor that would instruct students on what a disability is, how they occur and how to overcome stereotypes against people with disabilities.

“There are some serious flaws at this university regarding accessibility,” Malinowski said.

He pointed out such flaws as a faulty automatic door opener at the north entrance of the Smith Memorial Student Union, a lack of wheelchair access to the restrooms in the Fifth Avenue Cinema and cramped, small seats in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science building. The seats are barely large enough for someone of an average build to fit in, he said, let alone an obese student.

“People at this university seem to forget that morbidly obese people are handicapped, and that building is evidence that they would rather spend money on a nice looking facility than making sure that every student can have access,” Malinowski said.

Addressing the issue

When the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990, PSU created a plan that outlined areas on campus that needed upgrades or repairs to comply with the federal act. Burt Christopherson, director of the Affirmative Action Office, said he is a member of the President’s ADA Physical Access and Policy Committee, a group that meets monthly to discuss accessibility issues on campus.

Christopherson said there are several places around campus that meet ADA standards but only offer limited access, such as doorways and hallways that are wide enough to pass inspection, but are still a challenge to navigate in a wheelchair. He said the committee struggles with a limited budget and with having to plan for both short- and long-term work, but that the group has been successful at large.

“Whenever someone says ‘we need to fix this,’ we usually do it,” Christopherson said. “Money is always a problem, so we’re always deliberative about that.”

One major access flaw that still exists on campus, Malinowski said, is getting to the Women’s Resource Center. The main entrance is a flight of steep stairs from the courtyard of the Montgomery Building. For wheelchair access, a student has to enter the building on the north side and travel through several offices, narrow hallways and a locked break room before arriving at the center.

“We know it’s a challenge for disabled students to reach the WRC, and we really want that to change,” said Bridge Gorrow, the center’s acting coordinator.

Malinowski said he appreciates that it would be expensive to renovate some areas for easier access, but he said campus-wide access for disabled students would be priceless. He said a Disabilities Studies minor would make PSU a better school for unimpaired and disabled students alike, and that the program could begin as early as next fall term.

Hannah Fisher, advocacy coordinator for DACA and a candidate for next year’s student body presidency, said she endorses the Disabilities Studies minor and that her platform will include increased accessibility at PSU.

“Too often, students with disabilities are left out of the conversation about diversity,” Fisher said. “I want that to change and give students a chance to learn about disabilities, because until students are educated, people with disabilities will continue to be segregated and labeled with unfair stereotypes.”

Continuing to make campus more accessible

Polly Livingston, assistant coordinator of the DRC, said they use resources such as Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, a national nonprofit organization, to locate audio books for visually impaired students. She said the DRC ordering process is carried out according to university policy, and that she tries to make the ordering process as easy as possible.

At a meeting on Tuesday, April 8, the president’s ADA committee worked with project manager Ernest Tipton to ensure that the future student recreation center will meet ADA standards when it opens in late 2009. The committee’s next short-term project, Christopherson said, is installing automatic door buttons to the Student Health and Counseling Center entrances.

Jackson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in arts and letters at PSU and is now a graduate student, said he knows that his experience differs from the common PSU student. What matters most to him is knowing that there are people around campus willing to accommodate his needs without treating him rudely or ignoring him because of his disability.

“It’s really important to me that PSU acknowledge the needs of students with disabilities,” Jackson said. “I hope that faculty and staff know that we’re students just like anyone else, and that their jobs are to educate everyone who makes the effort.”