Collegiate Times

Michele Shebroe began avoiding the stairs on campus her sophomore year.

After her father, who suffers from a long-term back injury, complained of Virginia Tech’s hilly campus while moving her in freshman year, Shebroe wanted to survey the campus’s accommodations for those with a physical disability. Using only paths that accommodate wheelchairs, she discovered the lack of disability access on the stair-covered residential side of campus, and the mechanical engineer decided to contact the Americans with Disability Act office on campus.

Virginia Reilly, director of the university’s ADA office, informed Shebroe of a task force that was created in 2009 to analyze the accessibility of the north side of campus — the entire academic area between McBryde Hall and Hahn Hall North. The task force is part of an ongoing mission to not only comply with federal standards but to also create a more inclusive environment on the campus for those with a disability.

While she hopes to improve the access points on campus for students, faculty and visitors, Shebroe doubts her dad will be making the nine-hour drive from New York back to Tech.

“He might not even be able to come and see me graduate,” Shebroe said.

A FEDERAL LAW SETS THE STANDARD

When Virginia founded the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in hilly Blacksburg in 1872, the state planned for the enrollment of able-bodied cadets, and not the diverse Tech population that exists today.

Now 138 years later — and with the help of a federal law — Tech administrators, professional staff, faculty and students are working to enhance the growing campus to accommodate the nearly 550 students with a documented disability on campus as well as those who aren’t documented or are visitors.

“How do you make the university work for all these folks?” asked university architect and Blacksburg Town Council member John Bush. “That’s a struggle on a campus as large as ours, with as many buildings as we have.”

Tech as a government entity has to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits discrimination based on a disability and also sets architectural standards for any buildings built after 1990. A 300-page guide outlines all ADA regulations for buildings, from entrances to ramps. Even miniature golf facilities and amusement park rides are regulated.

Tom Tucker is the building information manager for University Planning, Design, and Construction and has worked for Tech for the past 25 years. When the ADA was enacted, he took classes on what the new laws required and was responsible for reviewing architectural plans to ensure they included the new regulations. 

“As you can imagine, it was new to everybody,” he said.

Additionally, the university had to make accessibility priorities and present them to the state every two years to determine the budget.

“The federal and state government said you shall do this, but there was very little funding for that,” Tucker said.

Bush said that ADA codes have been integrated into the architectural planning process.

“Good design isn’t adding a piece,” he said. “It should be integral.”

A lot of regulations are ones that Bush said people no longer consider intentional design aspects. Doorways must be wider than 32 inches, but Bush said most at Tech are 36 inches; bathrooms must have a five-foot turning radius for wheelchairs; doorknobs are all replaced with door handles to accommodate those who can’t turn a knob.

This all falls under universal design, a concept that is generally defined as accommodating everyone and keeping everyone in mind when planning a facility.

Tucker said the university has people with disabilities check out the access plans. He said the university’s attitude is to go beyond its most basic responsibilities.

“This is what the law says we have to do at minimum, but what would be the best practice for you?” he said.

Bush said that while new buildings on campus are ADA compliant, some alterations are still necessary. The Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science behind McBryde Hall was built fully ADA compliant in 2008, but some users of the building asked that the doors be replaced with less heavy ones, and that there be a color difference between the sidewalk and the beginning of the access ramp.

Bush said these two renovations are in the works.

---

Continue Reading: 1 | 2 | 3 | Next »

---