Stanross Robinson

WRT 303
Portman-Daley
15 December 2017

It Should Be Easy For Me and You

For years now people with physically disabilities have been attending universities of higher

education. Over the years more and more people with physical disabilities have been attending

universities so in recent years it has been brought to attention that many colleges were not accessible for

these students. In the 1970s because of the section 504 Rehabilitation Act the government mandated that

all universities have to remove all physical barriers from their environments and implement plans made to

provide appropriate services and programs for physically disabled students. According to research done in

the 1980s, many colleges and universities have tried to make an effort to accommodate the needs of

students with physical disabilities. (RASE) Many institutions have come up short in providing these
accommodations though. Students that took part in a study in 1988, found that the colleges or

universities academic experiences and extracurriculars were satisfying and positive but their physical

environment was still difficult to navigate. If you were to take a look around the country you would see

that most universities have made a good effort to adjust their campuses to the needs of students with

physical disabilities. Yes a lot of universities around the nation have adjusted their campuses, but there

are still plenty of universities that do not have full accommodation of social and academic problems

students with physical disabilities face.

When thinking about students with physical disabilities there are multiple areas of support that

play into the growing issue that they have as students. Besides the physical accommodations that are

lacking, many feel pitied instead of respected. In a study, some students reported using their disability as

an advantage (18%) whereas 24.6% did not like to be pitied by others. In the early 1990s, a study found

that students with disabilities had more professionals within their support network. Students with

disabilities found concerns related to physical barriers within the buildings. In regards to faculty, not

everyone is willing to help those with disabilities. Some faculty understand the needs of those with a

physical disability and work with the student to maximize their academic success, while others who are

not directly communicated to refuse to help the student. Faculty members believe that is it important to

communicate the needs and accommodations that the student needs in order to be a successful student.

With all of this being said we need to consider if the University of Rhode Island properly

accommodates students with disabilities and how do we adapt to these students? This issue is widespread

across campus, however, it is not often addressed. Students with physical disabilities have had enough

and are starting to stand up for their own rights on campus.

 An example of this can be seen through Nicol Hernandez who is a junior at the University of

Rhode Island and an advocate for students with disabilities. Nicol was born with spina bifida which

caused her spinal column to never fully finish developing before birth. Nicol uses a wheelchair to

navigate campus and often comes into trouble with getting to multiple floors. The campus as a whole,

makes it difficult for someone who is wheelchair bound because it is basically all a hill. This affects her in

such a way that she has to leave earlier than the average student. Here on campus we have a disability

services office that does what they can to fix any accessibility issues that a disabled student may have.

Nicol states Anytime I have an accessibility problem, I go to them [Disability Services Office] and they

try their best to fix the issue. Issues may include broken elevators, bumpy sidewalks, or inaccessible

classrooms. This is concerning because she has to go through an entire process if she is unable to get to

class and may even miss class due to an issue that is out of her control. Something Nicol believes that can

be improved is how frequently the elevators are inspected. If the elevators are inspected more regularly,

then the chances of them being broken so often will be much smaller. Something that stood out to me that

I discovered while interviewing Nicol is that while some buildings appear to be accessible to handicapped

individuals, they are not taking all aspects into account. For example, Chaffee is an older auditorium and

is labeled as

handicap

accessible.

While Nicol is

taking a course

in this building,

she is not able to sit

among the other

students and is

forced to sit up

front next to the

professor so she can take sufficient notes. Additionally, the school does not offer adaptive sports for

individuals in wheelchairs. While a varsity sport would be hard to coordinate, a intramural organization

would be a way to assure that those disabled students are able to participate in campus rec activities.

Something reassuring about URI is that they offer a lot of services in the hopes of making our campus

inclusive. These services include an aid, a student volunteer to take notes, a transportation service, and a

department catered to trying to make all students more comfortable. URI is doing its best to be

accommodative so that students are not discouraged and wanting to transfer after realizing how difficult it

is to attend a school that is built into a hill and experiences harsh season changes such as snow and ice.

In an interview with academic advisor Kristen Casamento I learned even more about the obstacles

that disabled students, such as Nicol, face everyday. Kristen is also a professor on campus and Nicol

happened to be one of the students in her class this semester. Nicol was the first disabled student that

Kristen had ever taught and she really learned a lot about the struggles that she faces on a daily basis.

Something that stood out to me from our interview was that after Kristen finished talking to Nicol she

realized that Nicol just wants to be treated like a normal human being. Kristen said Nicol didnt want

anyone pushing her wheelchair and that is why she took the handles off. She just wanted to be normal. As

being a person without physical disabilities, Kristen reminded me how sometimes we fail to realize that

people with disabilities are people too and they just want to be treated like they are normal. Sometimes

we try to give them so much help and assistance that they start to feel like they are not normal. This was
very eye-opening to me because I didnt realize that going out of your way to give these students help can

actually make them feel like they are abnormal.

Overall, both the interviews I conducted helped me gain a better understanding of what it is like

to be a disabled student here at URI. I definitely feel bad for anyone who has accessibility issues like

Nicol because they face so many challenges everyday. The fact that they cant easily get from class to

class is hard enough, but when you add poor accessibility conditions inside the buildings on top that

makes it even worse. I hope that in the near future these issues are addressed and everyone can feel

comfortable and welcomed here on campus.

References:

Rase http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.819.6187&rep=rep1&type=pdf

5 sources:

1. Opening doors for students with disabilities on community college campuses

2. Promoting disability-friendly campuses to prospective students

3. Students with disabilities in higher education: a review of the literature

4. Physical disability and accessibility issues on campuses (Chapman University - California)

5. Yale Daily News: Student in wheelchair find campus inaccessible