Collegiate Times

Freshman Sarah Gilbert switched dorms because of elevator issues.

Sarah Gilbert, a chemical engineering major from Goochland, had narrowed her college search to four colleges. Accessibility was a factor for the freshman, who had been in a wheelchair for six years since a surgeon accidentally damaged her spinal cord. Also on her list was Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, where 10 percent of students are in a wheelchair. The school has seven private vans that take students from residence halls to classes and wheelchair maintenance services.

Gilbert knew she would have received a lot of care at Edinboro, where her teal wheelchair with her name engraved on the side could have been one of more than 700 on campus. But she decided to go to the hilly, wintry, less-accessible Tech where she wanted to study chemical engineering.
“I’d rather put up with crap than put up with bad schooling,” she said of her decision.

Unlike Jones, Gilbert started out on campus in Harper Hall. But after Thanksgiving break she moved to the GLC because the elevator broke so many times in Harper, leaving her unable to reach her third-floor room.

Having handicap rooms on floors other than the first “didn’t make any sense,” she said. When this would happen, she would try to call Hudson or the SSD office, but sometimes no one would answer. She would have to call the Virginia Tech Police Department, which would have to go up to her room to grab her books for the next class.

“It was kind of a pain in the butt,” she said. She will live in the GLC with a friend next year, and she plans to move off campus the year after.

Now, Gilbert says she has a good relationship with SSD and has been able to get her classes changed when needed. As someone who came to Tech as a prospective student with a disability, Gilbert is happy with her decision to come to Tech.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said

BEYOND THE WHEELCHAIR

In the 2008-09 school year there were 546 students with documented disabilities within the SSD office, and Angle says there are many more on campus who either don’t go to SSD for special accommodations or who have undiagnosed disabilities.

The most common disability is a learning disability — 245 students were documented with a learning disability in the 2008-09 year. There were 113 students with a documented psychological disability and 91 students with a medical disability, which could include allergies.

In addition, the office worked with 33 students with a temporary disability.

About half of the students with disabilities were not diagnosed until coming to Tech. Angle said between 45-53 percent of students with a documented disability were either referred — usually by a professor — or came in with questions and were eventually diagnosed. The SSD office handled 338 referrals in the 2008-09 year.

A reason for so many referrals is the difference between high school and college when it comes to workload and independence level.

“Parents had been their guide,” Angle said of high school students. “That’s where it starts to fall apart in college.”

Patricia Amateis has referred many students to SSD in the 26 years she’s been a chemistry professor at Tech. She says sometimes students who have problems taking tests don’t think of the possibility that they have a learning disability.

“It never crossed their mind,” she said. “Then they realize, ‘Wow, maybe this could help.”

CREATING A MORE ACCESSIBLE UNIVERSITY

For all the students that come to Tech already with a disability or are referred, there are eight full-time staff and four wageworkers at SSD.

“There’s a lot to be done,” Angle said.

The ADA executive committee, comprised of administrators, professional staff and faculty, plans to draft up a “refined mission statement,” over the summer, according to Ferraro, a member of the committee.

With the university-wide budget cuts, he said accessibility priorities are about being frugal.

Angle said that her office has developed its own missions in the 16 years she’s been at Tech that now include creating awareness in addition to the accommodations.

“We are evolving,” she said.

Read tomorrow’s installment about access renovations on campus.

Continue Reading:  « Previous123

A version of this article appeared in the May 4 issue of the Collegiate Times.