SHOCK THIS SPACE! Crafting a student-centered effort to nurture accessibility at WSU By Darren DeFrain Professor of English, Wichita State University Faculty Innovation Fellows Candidate
Students and faculty here at Wichita State University (and beyond) typically accept that universities are wellserved to make sure they offer equitable and accessible education for all students. If you’re fully sighted, imagine attending a lecture where the only seat you could find was near the back and the lecturer’s slides were in such a small font and on such a small screen that you couldn’t follow along; imagine you couldn’t even get into the lecture space in your wheelchair, or if you could, you needed to ask for help from strangers who were then only able to awkwardly sit you beside the speaker’s podium; imagine you can’t hear, but you read lips well enough — but then you attend a lecture where the speaker decided to liven up their presentation at the last minute by playing several pop songs to illustrate key points. What faculty and students sometimes don’t understand is that embracing accessibility and equitability in education can actually create some of the most potent collision spaces on campus. Changing facilities is one difficulty, but to nurture and sustain effective change, the campus culture also needs to be changed. Campuses are places that value competing and conflicting ideas, but this kind of attitude can be something for those averse to change to hide behind. “I shouldn’t have to change my whole curriculum for one student”; “Why can’t they just take classes with other students with similar needs?”; “Doing everything necessary to make my class/classroom accessible will compromise the quality for other students”; “Disabled students don’t even typically have interest in these classes.” Even with an administration committed to creating and supporting a fully accessible campus, convincing skeptical faculty and busy students that accessibility ultimately benefits everyone needs to be part of any solution. 60
During my time teaching English, I have catalogued a library of anecdotes concerning what happens when universities don’t take accessibility seriously or seriously enough. I’ve talked to peers at other institutions who unveiled new laboratories, meant to showcase innovation and entrepreneurial vision, only to have someone show up at the launch in a wheelchair who can’t easily navigate the space. While this isn’t something any public-facing university wants to project, it goes beyond embarrassment (for the institution and the affected individuals). Lawsuits against institutions that fail in their efforts to make their classes and spaces accessible and equitable are gaining steam. We are more than 30 years on from The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and affected Americans looking to get their education or take part in public events at public colleges and universities probably feel their patience at its limits. If colleges and universities had more deeply understood these issues after the ADA, there wouldn’t be this sense of urgency now to make overdo changes and repairs to facilities and offerings. Change is always hardest when it needs to happen yesterday. The Shock This Space! App looks to marshal the energies and talents of WSU students to increase campus accessibility awareness and potential through a unique combination of graphic storytelling and 3D modeling. Working with Disability Services, Shocker Studios, and the Office of Student Involvement, Shock This Space! will start with a hack-a-thon this fall (2021). Just prior to the hack-a-thon, students will provide opportunities for faculty and peers to experience life without sight, sound, or full mobility. At the hack-a-thon, students from all walks will then generate graphic stories (comics) that explain and explore what accessibility is
