As student enrollment grows each year, NC State administrators must provide ways to accommodate increasing numbers of students with disabilities.
Disability is a multifaceted issue composed of visible and invisible disabilities, as well as physical and mental disabilities, all of which require equally multifaceted solutions and accommodations. According to Sabina Vermeulen, associate director of the Disability Services Office and access consultant, accessibility on campus isn’t a one-time achievement, but rather an issue that requires constant attention and upgrades.
This semester, 1,270 disabled students registered with the Disabilities Service Office, according to the organization’s webpage.
“The focus is on effectively accommodating students, and that’s individual,” Vermeulen said.
Students with disabilities on campus are encouraged to register with the DSO in order to get the best out of their education, according to Maggie Faulkner, an access consultant with the DSO.
“We provide academic accommodations for students that have any sort of disability- documented disability,” Vermeulen said. “So that ranges from classroom accommodations, testing accommodations and things like early registration for a student who needs to set up a schedule that’s accessible.”
The DSO also works closely in tandem with Facilities and the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity in order to ensure that students receive the full scope of their accommodations.
“If a student needs an accessible classroom, the student can request that and then we will notify facilities in advance and they’ll check out the classroom and make sure the location is accessible,” Vermeulen said.
Vermeulen emphasized the steps the DSO takes to accommodate students with disabilities before classes start.
“We have a number of students that we plan way in advance for accommodations like interpreters, captioned format if someone cannot hear what’s on the computer or in the classroom, planning for a student that has vision loss and maybe taking a class where things are written on the board, you know, so there’s a lot that we do making sure students have the right format,” Vermeulen said. “Some students are braille readers, or they need large print or in digital format to be accessible.”
In addition to needing classroom accommodations, students with temporary and long-term mobility issues often need ways to travel across campus to get to class.
Handicapped-accessible walkways and entrances are simple mobility solutions, but for more challenging areas, such as the rough ground in the Brickyard or steep hills around campus, students may not be able to easily commute between classes.
In the summer of 2013, Paige Maxon, a now NC State graduate, founded the Wolfpack Pick Up program to solve the problem. Wolfpack Pick Up is a service that allows students to arrange on-campus transportation between buildings. Since then, the program has grown steadily, serving on average as many students in a month as it did in its first semester of service.
”Wolfpack Pick Up is a service where we help people with mobility issues to ensure that they have the best transportation,” said John Miller IV, graduate coordinator for Wolfpack Pick Up. We try to factor in a lot of the things that they do, like where [buses’] stops are in relation to buildings and where accessible features are. Instead of just being a driving service, we’re moving toward being a service that serves the community: being able to train our drivers with cultural competency as well as figuring out what our riders need.”
Aside from the DSO and Wolfpack Pick Up, NC State University Transportation is primarily responsible for directing accessibility accommodations on campus.
“Transportation’s mission is to provide access to, within and between campuses for all individuals,” said Catherine Reeve, director of NCSU Transportation. “We work primarily with employees and students who have short-term disabilities. Upon review of the individual’s needs provided by their physician, our accessibility coordinator will meet with the individual to discuss the best transportation option based on the physician’s recommendation.”
Because larger transportation services around campus, such as the pickup service and bus transportation, are so popular, it is often more difficult for students such as Swati Bhatt, a senior majoring in design studies, to maneuver around campus, even if the services are tailored to their accessibility needs. Bhatt is one of nine registered, permanently disabled students on campus who utilizes a wheelchair or mobility scooter, according to the DSO’s database.
“When I’m going to class, I have to check for parking, I have to make sure that the areas that I’m going are accessible,” Bhatt said. “I also have to think about the steepness of the roads and whether or not I can push myself up them — where I can take a break — it’s a lot of planning.”
NCSU Transportation provides an alternative for students like Bhatt, but many features in on-campus buses — slowly lowering accessibility lifts and steep entry stairs — cause some students with physical disabilities to feel uncomfortable riding on them around campus, according to Reeve.
Reeve expects that adding 40 new buses this coming semester with more space and lower access points will alleviate some of the accessibility problems present in the current system, and the Wolfpack Pick Up program continues to expand this coming year.
Given the success of the DSO in accommodating disabled students’ needs in their classroom environment, organizations like NCSU Transportation and Wolfpack Pick Up will be responsible for further expanding their means of communication with their disabled users to fully accommodate their needs and provide equitable campus access to all students.
