Accepting Disabilities

By: Sarah Remelius

December 6, 2016

Caroline Graves worked hard all through high school, receiving good grades, graduating at the top of her class. She did everything she could to get into her dream school- Tufts University in Massachusetts. In the end, it wasn’t her grades that held her back.

When she met with representatives at Tufts University they hinted the school wouldn’t be a good fit for her because she uses a wheelchair.

“I really wanted to go there,” Graves said. “But they said that all of their classes for a department I was interested in were on a hill where there was only a spotty wheelchair lift to get up there. I knew that wouldn't really work for me.”

Graves, a freshman liberal arts student from Austin, is one of only 11 students at the University of Texas requesting a wheelchair accessible room. When applying to colleges, students with disabilities have to make sure the universities they are considering fit any accommodations they may need, especially when it comes to important aspects such as housing and parking.

“I had to revoke applying to some colleges because in info sessions with representatives they would either outwardly say that their campus wasn't accessible, or hint at something that I knew would be immensely hard for me to work around with a wheelchair,” Graves said.

Here at UT Students are not asked if they have any disabilities until after they are accepted. They then work with the Services for Students with Disabilities office to figure out what accommodations they may need, which are then turned over to housing.

“Students making a housing accommodation request have to do it by a deadline every year,” said Kelli Bradley, executive director for Services for Students with Disabilities. “Once that deadline passes, they would go on a waitlist, although every attempt is made to accommodate the request.”

Students who have disabilities are more limited when it comes to housing because some of the older dorms on campus, such as Brackenridge, Roberts and Prather, are not wheelchair accessible. Because of this, anyone approved for an accommodation through the SSD office is charged at the lowest rate for on-campus dorms, which is $10,223.

“That’s just because they cannot live in a shared traditional space so we don’t want to charge them for a room they can’t live in due to a disability that has been approved by the SSD office,” said Ryan Colvin, assistant director of occupancy management. “So even if they have a private bathroom in San Jacinto, they’re still going to pay the lowest rate.”

Colvin said anyone who has requested and been approved for special on-campus housing has received a room, and there “has not been a problem” with a lack of space. Whether or not students get the dorm they want depends on the date the student turns in their application, so students with disabilities do not have priority over other students. But there are rooms set aside for people needing accommodations.

“When we are going through renovation projects like the one we are doing in Jester, we make sure that some accessible rooms are created in that process so we have more of them,” Colvin said. “As we look to build future resident halls we will continue to look to make sure we are maximizing the number of spaces available for private bath accommodations, private room accommodations, and things of that nature.”

In the 2016-2017 school year six new students requested wheelchair accessible rooms and five students renewed their accessible rooms from last year. There are about 7,400 students currently living on campus.

“These numbers aren’t shockingly small compared to other institutions and percentages,” Colvin said. “Due to student mobility issues a lot of the time these people are staying closer to home. I feel like mobility a lot of the time does impact a students’ decision to attend certain universities.”

Mariah Ramirez, president of the DisABILITY Advocacy Student Coalition, said many students who have housing accommodations enjoy their housing experiences and “speak very highly of them.” But parking is a different story.

“There is a lot of campus to cover with very little parking,” Ramirez said. “Parking is not necessarily the easiest to find and distances between available parking spaces and buildings can be difficult for some depending on the location and disability.”

UT has 622 parking spaces for students with disabilities. The university is required to have at least 304 spaces. The Parking and Transportation Services officials said they work to make sure there is enough parking for anyone with disabilities.

“When we find or hear from users that certain areas of parking for people with disabilities are insufficient, we increase parking in those areas if our occupancy counts confirm the shortage,” said Jamie Woods, senior administrative associate to the director of parking and transportation services. “This can occur when people begin using the spaces that temporary ADA allows or when students have a schedule change and need parking in different areas of campus. These spaces are fluid and we adjust them to meet the needs of the users.”

Parking and Transportation Services said they cannot treat parking for students with disabilities any different than regular parking, so for spots in garages these students are also a part of the random draw, where students are randomly picked for a garage.

“That said, for those with special parking needs, we work with them to ensure that the parking meets those needs,” Woods said.

Graves said that while there are accessible parking spaces, some of them are in awkward places or have people parking in them who do not necessarily need them.

“Parking isn't that great,” Graves said. “I don't really know what could be done to fix this problem unless there was a drastic redoing of all the parking places on campus, but I do wish campus police would maybe enforce more the fines for people parking in handicapped parking spaces that don't have a permit to do so.”

According to a study done by the website “College Choice,” the University of Texas ranks as the fifth best disability friendly university due to the “different services provided,” such as assistance programs with alternative text, and adaptive testing. The University of Michigan is ranked first.

“I think overall UT is doing a good job of being inviting,” Graves said. “They do try to get to you the accommodations you need, and are very welcoming towards students in general. You don't feel like an outsider because of the administration; it is mainly because of more infrastructure problems, such as parking, construction, the geography of campus, etc. Some of these problems they could maybe do a better job to solve, but others are kind of just the baggage you accept by going to UT.”