5 minute read
‘a lot of challenges’: Tufts’ failures as an accessible campus
by Delaney Clarke Senior Staff Writer
One evening last semester, former Tufts sophomore Morgane Hanley was on their way to their 6–9 p.m. lab, only to find that the accessible entrance that they typically used to enter Pearson Hall was locked.
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The entrance that Hanley, who is physically disabled, was taking was the accessible entrance into Pearson. It is a side entrance with a ramp and a push button that automatically opens the door. According to Hanley, there was a sign on the side of the building that stated that this entrance was locked after 5 p.m.
“I was able to reach out to the StAAR [Student Accessibility and Academic Resources] Center and they were able to get that changed — now it’s no longer locked,” Hanley said. “[But] it was really disheartening for it to be my responsibility to have to change that and for me to have to be going to my class and face that barrier.”
Inaccessible infrastructure on campus limits access to various on-campus structures
For Hanley, moments like this have been commonplace throughout the 1 1/2 years they spent as a Tufts student.
“I have had to report many, many broken accessible door opener buttons, for example,” Hanley said. “Sometimes several times a day at Tufts I would just be navigating campus [and] going to different classes, [and] I would run into several broken working buttons on campus, which is really unfortunate when that’s something that really helps me navigate a space.”
In the fall semester, Hanley recalls that there was no system implemented by Tufts Facilities to routinely check the accessible door buttons.
“It was my job to then report [broken buttons] to either StAAR or directly to facilities and they would be in charge of fixing that,” Hanley said. “[That] is understandable; however, when that’s happening many times a day … that can really take a toll.”
Greg Walters, the senior director of Facilities Services at Tufts, wrote in an email to the Daily that facilities is planning to add a system to check buttons on a periodic basis soon.
“Facilities is adding the push buttons to their preventive maintenance plans to check them on a periodic basis for proper operation and function,” Walters wrote.
Walters added that if a student encounters a broken button they should submit a work order to facilities either online, through the Facilities Service Request System or by calling the Operations Control Center.
“We strive to make our facilities as accessible and welcoming as possible to all, so we appreciate hearing from community members when they notice a problem such as an inoperative door push button,” Walters wrote. “If there is a request to add a push button opener to an existing door, these are best placed through the StAAR Center.”
Hanley explained that repeatedly encountering broken door buttons took an added unnecessary toll on their ability to navigate campus each day.
“It shouldn’t be on the disabled person to have to report that,” Hanley said.
The Daily asked Associate Dean of StAAR Kirsten Behling what a student should do when an accessible door button is broken.
“The best thing to do is submit a Facilities Service Request. You can also let us know and we will contact facilities as well. Finally, Tufts has a barrier reporting form that we check daily,” Behling wrote in an email to the Daily.
In addition to inaccessible entrances, certain infrastructure inside on-campus buildings present barriers to accessibility as well.
Noe Montez, chair of the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, highlighted the challenges of navigating the Jackson Performance Hall.
In order to access Jackson’s dance labs, most entrances require using stairs. Without the use of stairs, one has to navigate a back entrance, wait for an elevator and enter a tight space.
Montez explained that the theatre department would like to make the space more accessible, but the outdated infrastructure makes that difficult.
“We’re trying to do things to make our spaces accessible as much as we can but what’s really needed is a significant infrastructure [update],” Montez said.
Students on campus have had difficulty acquiring accommodations
Beyond issues with navigating on-campus infrastructure, Hanley also encountered difficulties with the StAAR Center’s accommodation process. Their biggest problem with accommodations was with the opportunity to have an in-class note-taker.
Hanley explained that the note-taker program is set up on a volunteer basis, meaning that they did not receive notes until another student in the class volunteered to take notes for them.
Last fall, they recalled that they did not receive notes for their Global Environmental History class until November.
“I’ve had many instances where at least once a semester, two months into my courses, I still didn’t have notes for a class,” Hanley said.
Hanley explained that they felt their overall experience at Tufts was marked by continuous self-advocacy in order to acquire the accommodations they needed to succeed academically.
“Everyone’s accommodations and situation looks different, but to me there isn’t that: ‘Oh, we hear you when we’re going to try to make change, and this is what we’re doing,’” Hanley said. “Of course, in a university setting, change can take a long time, and I understand that, but this is what I need to be a successful student and to show up every day.”
Ultimately, Hanley decided to transfer schools, citing Tufts’ accommodations services as a primary factor. When Hanley spoke with the Daily, they were in the midst of officially transferring colleges while taking courses at their local community college.
“The underlying reason I decided to leave Tufts was because of the difficulty I had with the accommodation services and just the toll that [that difficulty] was taking on me, not only physically … but also the toll that [it] was taking on my mental health” Hanley said. “A lot of these issues are unfortunately in other colleges as well … [but] I felt like I did deserve a better environment.”
This difficulty with requesting accommodations is an experience shared by a Tufts first-year student who wished to remain anonymous and will be referred to as Bella throughout this article.
When she was accepted to Tufts, one of the first things Bella did was reach out to StAAR to begin the process of requesting accommodations for her hearing aid, among other accommodations.
“I applied to Tufts ED II and right after I received my decision, I pretty much turned around and emailed the StAAR Center, asking to set up a meeting,” Bella said. “That meeting was held in February of last year. That meeting did not go very well. It seemed right from the get-go that accommodations were going to be a barrier.”
She explained that the StAAR Center told her that the accommodations process typically starts in the summer before school begins, but the student explained that she needed assistive technology and that starting the process the summer before school began might be too quick of a turnaround.
Behling discussed the typical process the StAAR Center follows when students begin to request accommodations in the email.
“Students who need academic accommodations are more than welcome to connect with us when they decide to come to Tufts in May,” she wrote. “However, we recommend that we wait to meet about academic accommodations until August, so that the resources are more front of mind. If a student wants to meet earlier that is fine too. We also meet with a lot of [prospective] students as they look at and consider Tufts.”
Bella described that she was unable to retrieve information from the StAAR Center on which hearing aid brand she should get. At the time, she was choosing between two of the top hearing aid brands — Oticon and Phonak, both of which she described as being mostly only compatible with their own brand of equipment.
She explained that since she needed a hearing aid before the first day of school and the inner ear piece is custom built. The student decided to select a brand based on recommendations from her audiologist. As she arrived on campus, Bella realized that the equipment at Tufts was not compatible with their new custom hearing aid.
“[My audiologist] mostly works with Oticon so we got an Oticon,” Bella said. “Well guess