The Extended Studies Building, located on the corner of Southwest Ninth Avenue and Mill Street, just across the South Park Blocks from Lincoln Hall, is a multi-story building without an elevator. The lack of accessibility has been the subject of many complaints from students with disabilities, along with poor signage on campus and slow-to-open doors on some campus buildings.
The Extended Studies Building, located on the corner of Southwest Ninth Avenue and Mill Street, just across the South Park Blocks from Lincoln Hall, is a multi-story building without an elevator. The lack of accessibility has been the subject of many complaints from students with disabilities, along with poor signage on campus and slow-to-open doors on some campus buildings.
The XSB building, acquired by Portland State in 1956, houses the offices of several academic programs such as the Office of Graduate Studies, the Black Studies Department and the Chicano/Latino Studies program. Only the building’s first floor is wheelchair accessible, and stairs provide the only access to the basement and second floors of the building. The building’s parking lot has two designated disabled parking spaces next to an entranceway containing a set of stairs, making wheelchair access to that door impossible.
Despite this lack of accessibility, the university generally receives positive feedback. “By and large, what I think and what I hear from students, especially those with accessibility issues, is that PSU does a pretty good job. I don’t really get any major complaints, except for XSB,” said James Tar, front desk receptionist for the Disability Resource Center.
Officials from PSU Facilities and Planning, as well as Associate Vice President of Finance and Administration Mark Gregory, claimed that the lack of handicap access points to certain buildings has to do with age. Because PSU buys preexisting buildings, sometimes historic ones, the structures simply don’t meet modern building codes. According to Gregory, the university added a handicap-accessible bathroom to the XSB but explained that “like most older buildings, it has many issues.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act, civil rights legislation passed in 1990, states, among other things, that public accommodations cannot discriminate against persons with physical or mental disabilities. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, part of the act concerns building codes that ensure handicap access points to public structures.
These codes can be enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice. ADA code specifies that alterations to a building that could “affect the usability of a facility must be made in an accessible manner to the maximum extent feasible.” For example, the ADA code states that if during building renovations a doorway is relocated, the new doorway must be wide enough to meet the new standard for handicap accessibility. Furthermore, when public areas like lobbies or cafeterias are altered, the bathrooms, telephones and drinking fountains in the surrounding area must also be made accessible.
However, ADA code also allows existing buildings to upgrade accessibility measures only when it is “readily achievable,” meaning “easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense.” PSU Facilities and Planning has made efforts to make ADA updates to campus buildings as they renovate them. For instance, the completion of the Lincoln Hall renovation in 2011 added direct access to the elevator and street-level lobby of the building.
Additionally, renovations scheduled for Blumel Residence Hall—construction scheduled to begin in fall 2012—will include the renovation of four units in the building to meet ADA codes. These handicap accessible rooms will have roll-in showers and rearranged kitchens to allow more access space for student residents with disabilities.
Tar commented that other issues brought to the DRC usually concern doorways, stairways and difficulty finding wheelchair access into campus buildings. He said that a recent concern has been the slow opening of ADA automatic doors and unclear signage leading to handicap access points on buildings. Tar said there have been complaints about the automatic doors on the first floor of Neuberger Hall, where students with disabilities may have to wait 30–40 seconds after they push the handicap access button for the door to open. “It’s hard because everyone is in a hurry and no one wants to wait, especially that student who may need some extra time getting to his or her next class,” Tar explained.
One example of the difficulty in finding access points, Tar said, is that Ondine Residence Hall’s only wheelchair access is located around the back of the building, through an alleyway, and the signage leading students to it can be easily missed.
The DRC is located on the first floor of Smith Memorial Student Union and is part of PSU’s Enrollment Management and Student Affairs department. It is a campus resource that provides a plethora of different services available to all PSU students.
According to Pauline Livingston, DRC director, the goal of the center is to make sure that students with disabilities receive equal access to both academic and non-academic opportunities at PSU.
The center provides services like note-taking, extended time for examinations, alternative forms of learning software, specialty seating and tables as well as finding alternative ways for students to demonstrate course understanding. “We have been in contact with facilities regarding building accessibility issues and work closely with scheduling regarding classroom access,” Livingston wrote in an email.
