Campus deters the physically disabled

As all Tufts students are painfully aware, the daily uphill trek is a tough one, especially when you're already late for that pesky 8:00 a.m. class. The complaints continue throughout the day as students grumble about the distance from classes to dorms or about the trek up Memorial Steps. Imagine those same trips, but in a wheelchair.

According to the University's Disability Services, there are approximately ten physically disabled students on campus this semester, including those with neurological, motor, medical, and physical impairments.

This number probably will not rise anytime in the near future as the physical layout of the Medford/Sommerville campus is difficult for disabled students to navigate. Changes are not forthcoming either, because of the legal and financial requirements of creating handicapped accessible buildings, elevators, and transportation around campus.

The number of offices, classrooms and residence halls that are currently handicapped accessible are limited, but for the most part are adequate for the current handicapped community.

Manu Thakral, a graduate of the Class of 2002 who is wheelchair-bound, experienced difficulty in attending lectures that were not held in handicap-friendly classrooms.

"I had problems because a lot of the buildings aren't accessible on campus, but people helped me in terms of scheduling my classes in places that were accessible," Thakral said. "The police were very helpful as well, with snow removal and things like that."

Thakral explained that she lived uphill until her senior year. "It's a lot harder going up than coming down," Thakral said. "But it's all part of the character of the campus."

Should the University administration be providing more services for prospective students with disabilities, making them more comfortable despite the inconvenient hill dividing the Tufts campus?

One prospective member of the class of 2006 decided to attend Wellesley College over Tufts because the college offers an orientation for physically disabled students, which acquaints them with the campus. The student reports that Wellesley was the obvious choice for her because of Tufts' lack of handicapped services.

Professor Steven Hirsch of the Classics department became physically disabled five years ago and is now in a wheelchair agreed that the campus is a difficult one for handicapped people.

"I am only aware of one student in a wheelchair, and there have never been more than a few students on campus with severe disabilities. This is a difficult campus," Hirsch said. "But I'm wondering if we still shouldn't encourage students with disabilities to come here, it is a different kind of diversity and it sensitizes people if those people are around... people have done things without malice that have made life hard for me, but it's only because they have so little experience that people don't think about it."

The Tufts campus is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These statutes require only that buildings constructed after 1988 be handicapped accessible. There has been discussion over the years about installing new elevators in buildings or altering other structural parts of the campus that were constructed prior to 1988 but no action has been taken.

For example, about four years ago, the administration considered renovating Eaton Hall so as to install an elevator that would reach the Classics department and an upper floor of the computer lab. This would have made it easier for Hirsch to reach his office in the Classics department. However, a study showed that it would be too expensive.

"The overall attitude is that these tasks would be prohibitively expensive, so [the University] does it on an ad hoc basis: when something comes up that is necessary, they take care of it," Hirsch said.

Former Vice President Bernstein commissioned a study in recent years on disability and accessibility. The study examined issues of accessibility and physical disabilities at Tufts for one year because Bernstein and others were concerned that Tufts was not doing enough to attract physically disabled students to the University. According to Hirsch, the study was never published, however. The reasons for this are not clear, yet it has been alleged that, due to monetary restrictions, nothing could be done at the time to solve the problems, thus making the publication of the study futile.

Although, the campus is not as accessible as other campus, the University is making an effort to reach out to the handicapped community. For example, Tufts has designed a campaign to raise awareness on campus which coincides with the National Disability Awareness Month in October.

The projects include collecting old cell phones to benefit people with disabilities, hosting an exhibit featuring athletes who are physically impaired, and displaying information on National Disability Awareness Month in the Mayer Campus Center.

"The University's commitment to students with physical disabilities is rising dramatically," Christy Galatis, the University-wide Office of Equal Opportunity Specialist, said. "President Bacow is very committed. He is making [increasing services for students with disabilities] a priority. It's not that we don't have services but we're trying to get the information out there and easily accessible to people, especially to those students who are thinking of attending Tufts."

Additionally, the University reaches out to prospective students with disabilities by sending out a letter and a brochure, which talks about accommodations for disabled students. The Veterans and Disabled Persons Act of the University has also been revised and posted on the Internet, making it easier to read and more available.

"It's is a step forward to be out in front of the issue and anyone who calls and is thinking of coming to the University will know that there are services for them and that we will do everything we can to accommodate them," Dean of Students Bruce Reitman said.

Still, the question remains whether Tufts will truly make the effort to attract students with physical disabilities.

The design of the campus leaves only the most resilient disabled students willing to come here. "Landscaping on top of a hill does deter prospective [physically disabled] students from coming to Tufts," Thakral explained. "Even women with baby strollers have come up to me and complained."

This problem cannot ever be completely solved as much will always be situated on top of a hill. There seems to be a consensus, however, that Tufts' inability to matriculate many students with physical disabilities can be remedied to some degree. Despite the landscaping, additional programs and a campaign increasing the accessibility of the campus through elevators and ramps would help to attract physically disabled students. This task requires a larger commitment by the administration, however _ a commitment that has not been present in the past.

"...As facilities at Tufts are renovated, we are certainly going to make them fully accessible to anyone who needs access due to any physical challenges," Reitman said. There may not be as many physically challenged students as one would expect to see on a college campus because Tufts is a hilly, northern campus with difficult winters.

"Those factors could make another setting more attractive," Reitman said, "but we're always working to create easily accessible accommodations for anyone who wants to come here, and I think that the brochure is a step in the right direction in reaching out to physically disabled students who are considering coming to the University."

@keywords:disability#handicap