KSU keeps campus handicap-accessible during construction
Outside of White Hall at Kent State University, wooden boards cover the primary entrance doors and ramp. Attached are signs reading “No Entry” and “Pedestrian Entrance,” the latter with directions to the other side of the building. These areas were blocked off at the beginning of the fall semester, causing students to take advantage of the alternative openings the building offers.
For non-disabled students, this wayfinding may present itself as a minor inconvenience. For students who utilize wheelchairs, there is potential for increased difficulty in navigation when en route to their lecture hall.
David Thum, junior Paralegal Studies major, has found issue with exterior and interior areas on campus. As a commuter, Thum is driven by his father to the university from his Green, Ohio home. Although enrolled in mostly online classes, he attends class in-person at Bowman Hall. This location, however, can sometimes prove to be problematic.
“There’s only one elevator in Bowman, and if that one breaks and I have class on the second or third floor, I’m kind of sunk,” Thum said. “There will be a little sticky note on the side of the elevator saying they’re trying to fix it, and it’s just like, ‘Oh boy. Now what?'”
With this being the final class of the day, Thum said he nowhere to go but home. His father, who typically waits in a chair on the building’s first floor until Thum is dismissed, is then required to make the hour-long drive back.
However, officials at the university are looking to alleviate these obstacles and others that may arise with campus infrastructure.
Student Accessibility Services (SAS) is the department on campus that provides physically disabled students accommodation. According to a 2015 report, four percent of Kent State students are registered with the office as having a mobility or physical impairment. While principally providing academic accommodations, the organization also assists students with housing and navigation adaptations.
“We allow the students to have, and enjoy, equal access to the university’s courses, programs and curricula,” said Amy Quillan, director of Student Accessibility Services, said.
Along with of those educational services, SAS also provides for mobility-impaired students of transportation assistance. Like Student Accessibility Transport Services, a door-to-door service in partnership with the campus bus system. If a student is approved for the program, they are granted access to a personalized route where they are able to select pick-up and drop-off points that are convenient to their schedule, eliminating the various stops the regular campus loop might make.
“It allows that student to generally navigate the campus more easily so they don’t have to go from Rockwell to Van Campen or [Music and Speech] to the Science Plaza,” Quillan said.
Thum, however, experiences frustrations with the PARTA bus system from time to time. On several occasions, he resolved to calling the company and asking when the bus would be at his pick-up location.
“They wouldn’t be there until a half hour, forty-five minutes later,” he said. “We stopped using the system because of that. They’re great buses; it would just be nice if they were a little more punctual on a consistent basis.”
Compared to a metropolitan area, Portage County lacks similar resources to provide constant public transit for its citizens. Phillip Rumrill, director of the Center for Disability Studies in White Hall, said the Kent State campus acts as “a model within [the county] for accessibility.” Because most of Portage County is made up of rural areas, public transportation is limited.
“They can’t use the fixed route buses. Those people with physical disability can’t travel before hours, after hours, or on the weekend, unless they make special accommodations,” Rumrill said. “People with physical disabilities have to take advantage of the fixed route system. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t do a good job with what it attempts to do, but it means we’ve got a ways to go.”
Portage County has room for improvement. On a smaller scale, the University Architect’s Office provides services for physically impaired students while campus buildings they visit daily are under construction.
“In my estimation, they do an awesome job of considering accessibility. When they do a project, particularly if it’s going to impact an accessible route, they will generally contact our office just to notify us. They will construct an alternative,” Quillan said. “That’s not to say, however, that sometimes Route B might be more inconvenient. If you’ve been to White Hall, sometimes, it’s inconvenient for everybody.”
Thum said entering Bowman Hall brings about some difficulty as well.
“There’s this little circle and parts of it are chipped and damaged,” he said. “Going over it is not that hard, per se, but it’s a little uncomfortable because it’s almost like you’re off-roading.”
With construction of the new student center parking space during the summer of 2016, Thum experienced navigation grievances. He was required to go around the periphery of Bowman Hall to get to the student center.
“It was a little more of a roundabout way,” Thum said.
Jay Graham, associate director of architecture and engineering at Kent State University, said the construction workers look to alleviate any frustrations students may have. In fact, the office seeks to be “beyond compliant” in its treatment of campus infrastructure. He said they attempt to develop a work plan building by building in hopes that all have at least one main grade-level entrance. This type of entrance is the one connected to the first floor of the buildings, excluding doors connected to ramps or stairs.
“We work with Accessibility Services in communicating that ahead of time,” Graham said. “They’ll often let us know if there’s an area of impact where there might be a high level of traffic or a high number of students that do need accommodations in an area.”
Thum mentions the sidewalks as being problematic. The turning radius on his wheelchair tends to be fairly loose on the tight pathways.
“People like me tend to take wider turns,” he said. “We’re kind of like semis. Sometimes people park so far forward that the front of the car is taking up basically half or more of the sidewalk. Trying to get around that is a pain. I would probably have to drive in the grass…I don’t want to rip campus apart.”
Other spots around the Kent State campus have qualities of an “area of impact.” Cunningham Hall‘s main entrance in the form of a half-flight of stairs. The architect’s office acknowledges this entrance is inaccessible for students with physical disabilities and are building a new addition as a solution.
If a student or faculty member uses a wheelchair, they “have to go around the back, through the loading dock, so you don’t have the same experience as [a non-disabled person] would have entering the building,” Graham said.
The office is held to a standard by Industrial Compliance of Ohio, meaning their construction projects must comply with specific sizes, heights and dimensions in order to be approved by expert contractors.
Graham said the architect’s office “go[es] through a large laundry list of items, page by page” to confirm they are meeting the requirements set by the statewide construction and maintenance corporation.
Both campus entities and Portage County infrastructure have boxes to check. The Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, is the standard that all architects, whether renovating or creating a building, must comply with. Because the university uses federal dollars and is a public building, current projects are required to obey the code. The standards are renewed every six to eight years, according to Graham.
Accommodations such as curb cuts, the lowered sections of sidewalks, and entrance ramps are a result of this legislation.
“The campus is 100 and some years [old],” Quillan said. “In 1990 there were accessible entrances, but [navigation] wasn’t as successful as it is now” based on campus renovation.
These laws also remain applicable to the general architecture and specific businesses within the county. Companies must provide accommodations for their employees who need it, said Lynn Leslie, director of human resources at the Portage County Board of Developmental Disabilities. The board’s mission is to help specific citizens live as active members of the community. They provide services to qualified individuals with developmental disabilities.
Both public corporations and government buildings are required to follow these ADA regulations.
“We tend to build more new Walmart buildings than we build new county courthouses, right?” Rumrill said. “So we have to kind of retrofit county, city and state buildings that are here.”
The ultimate goal is inclusivity, whether on the Kent State campus or the surrounding areas.
“We do keep our eye on all the things that are happening on campus as far as students with disabilities,” said Rumrill from the Center for Disability Studies. “That’s our role in making the campus a welcoming place for all students.”
Thum said he does not travel enough of campus to have a full understanding of what the university is doing right or wrong.
Regardless, Graham, associate director of the office of architecture and engineering, recognizes the difficulties that come with having a physical disability.
“What makes us appealing to most students is our rolling terrain,” he said. “However, we certainly understand there are going to be areas of campus with the topography that are difficult to traverse. There’s a code requirement, but how can we be better?”
check out our group's final story on campus accessibility in the middle of construction !!! https://t.co/HStJ4uXAS0
— kelly powell (@kellpoww) December 14, 2016
Building renovations and construction keep KSU handicap-accessible, but can also inconvenience handicapped students: https://t.co/1oDxMNB7th
— Ben Orner (@Ben_Orner) December 14, 2016
Construction on campus can prevent @KentState handicapped students from going to class: https://t.co/12e3KOJTYD #JMCRPP
— Alyssa Schmitt (@AlyssaSchmitCJN) December 14, 2016