Accessibility on campus: A  new student’s experience and administrative solutions

Heidi Burke, a freshman history-secondary education and journalism major who began attending Southern Adventist University this fall, navigates campus using a wheelchair. Accessing buildings on campus isn’t always easy, and the university’s architecture doesn’t feel wheelchair-friendly, Burke told the Accent. 

According to Dennis Negrón, vice president for Student Development, his department has begun working on a plan to improve accessibility on campus. He added that Southern’s overall growth has been accompanied by an increase in the number of disabled students. 

“Southern is growing, and it has also become an attractive educational opportunity for students with physical disabilities,” Negrón said.

Southern’s campus includes hills and hundreds of stairs. Some buildings lack elevators and ramps, and, according to Southern’s website, many were constructed in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The university moved to its current location in 1916, and Lynn Wood Hall will celebrate its 100th birthday next year, according to details on the website.

However, the accessibility problem isn’t limited to the older buildings on campus, according to Burke. She said the three-year-old Bietz Center has only one accessible door with a button, and that door is on the second floor at the back of the building. 

The ongoing McKee Library renovations are also lacking accessibility, according to Burke. She said the new library entrance will include ramps, but it seems they are not easy to get to based on blueprints she’s looked at. As a history major, the library is a building she needs to access often, Burke added.

Marty Hamilton, associate vice president for Financial Administration, elaborated on the university’s renovation plans for the library. He said although he had hoped there would be access to the library from the promenade for those with a physical disability, there was “no physical way they could add a ramp from the promenade.”  Hamilton did clarify, however, that renovations include two accessible ramps, one leading to the library from the Bietz Center and the other from Lynn Wood Hall. He added that the updated library will also include accessible doors. 

Burke said she has been very proactive in sharing her feedback on Southern’s accessibility issues with administration. 

“As far as I can tell, if I had not done the investigating myself, no one would have noticed the problem,” Burke said. “It concerns me that no one in positions of power investigates accessibility issues. Instead, everything is reactive. If the [advocating] I did a week ago had been done by someone a year ago, I doubt any of this would have happened.” 

Negrón said the Student Development committee has been meeting recently to begin work on a five-year strategic plan to make Southern’s campus fully accessible to students and employees who are permanently or temporarily disabled. 

“What we’ve done is identify the problems,” Negrón said. “And … we’ve created some benchmarks of where we’d like to be. And then what we’ve also done is listen to stories of students who have a physical disability.”

The committee’s focus has been placed on external accessibility, accessible parking, entrances, interior access, making bathrooms easier to access, accessible stalls and sturdy handrails, as well as signage including braille, overhead and easy-to-read signs.

Although Burke may not see the results of her advocacy and the five-year accessibility plan completed before she graduates, she said, “If I leave and another person who comes with a wheelchair next … will have a better time, I will have to say it all will have been worth it.”

Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Southern is required to make its programs accessible for students with disabilities, according to Mariella Pechero, disability services administrator for the university’s Disability Support Services. 

“Section 504 mandates that qualified individuals with disabilities not be excluded from participating in a recipient’s program because its facilities are inaccessible to, or unusable by, persons with physical disabilities,” she wrote in an email to the Accent. 

However, Pechero wrote that Southern is exempt from The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) due to its status as a private Christian institution. Although many universities fall under ADA, which was designed in part to ensure that physically and mentally disabled individuals be provided equal access and opportunities, many religious institutions are exempt from certain ADA provisions under the First Amendment. 

The ADA National Network website states: “Religious entities are completely exempt from Title III of the ADA. All of their facilities, programs, and activities, whether they are religious or secular in nature, are exempt.”

“If a religious entity controls a school that is open to both members and non-members of the religious entity, the school is still considered a religious entity and is exempt from Title III,” the website continues.