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One man’s cause
St. Cloud State is not accessible and not anyone, besides me and a few others, seem to think that anything needs to be done about it.
When the past semester began, I started attending a class in the Performing Arts building. To my dismay, I learned that there wasn’t a bathroom in the entire building that I could use. I’m in a wheelchair, and the bathrooms in the building weren’t, and still aren’t, handicapped accessible. My condition limits the time that I can hold my bladder, so having an accessible bathroom is not only the law, but necessary as well. Unfortunately, I learned about the lack of adequate facilities the hard way. And after rolling into an unusable bathroom, I lost a race to another bathroom in another building and had to go home. I live ten blocks from school, and roll back and forth. This trip takes a lot out of me, and, needless to say, I missed my other classes for that day as well.
I talked to a number of people about getting the bathrooms fixed, or moving the class to another location, an accessible location, but I got the runaround. Steve Ludwig, the head of Buildings and Grounds, even told me, and I quote, “I’m sorry YOU chose not to go to class.” I guess my rights and dignity don’t count for much to Mr. Ludwig. In my opinion, from my experience of running into dead ends when trying to get things to be made more accessible on campus, Mr. Ludwig is the root of the accessibility problem on campus. He simply isn’t doing his job. And, judging by the accessibility of this campus, hasn’t been for quite a while.
It took the suggestion that legal action was my only alternative to finally get anything done. They took a wall out of the bathroom between two stalls, and without even a door for privacy, called it accessible enough. I called Steve Ludwig back and asked if they could fashion some kind of door on the stall for privacy so I could use it. He then told me that I would have to wait for the parts to come in, and that I could use it in case of emergencies. Again, my dignity didn’t seem to matter much. I was treated as if I was bothering him.
Again it took the suggestion of legal action to have the bathroom “fixed.” They finally put up a curtain and said that it was only temporary, that it was only going to be there until the parts for the bathroom stall came in. We’re now into another semester and there still isn’t any stall installed. I guess after they shut me up and their measly little problem went away, they forgot about the issue.
Another issue that I’ve been getting the runaround with is the location of the Disability Services office. The office is located up the biggest ramps on campus and is virtually inaccessible to people in manual wheelchairs. I’ve been trying to get this office moved for two years now, but to no avail. People like to tell you what you want to hear when they’re talking to you face to face, but as soon as you are gone, so is the issue. I have a friend who quit using the services that the disability office offers because it was up that ramp, and thus inaccessible. He no longer attends SCSU, and the ramp was part of the reason. Doesn’t it seem ironic that disability services is inaccessible? Shouldn’t this be changed immediately?
Stewart Hall is another of many buildings on campus that needs some accessibility renovations. All of the bathrooms in Stewart Hall have handicapped accessible signs on them. In reality, only one bathroom in Stewart hall is accessible, and that is on the first floor. Why aren’t the bathrooms accessible? Why are there signs on them saying that they are? Why should I, as a wheelchair bound student, be forced to use the bathroom way downstairs when the bathrooms on each floor should be accessible in the first place?
The latest happening in my accessibility fight on campus happened last week. I was in a chemistry class in Brown Hall a little early. I suddenly felt that I had to go to the bathroom so I decided to go before class started. Sure enough, the bathroom on the first floor wasn’t accessible. I barely made it to another building. I missed class that day talking to people about getting the bathroom to be made accessible.
Here I go again.
Brett Colgrave
Sophomore
Mechanical Engineering
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