On July 27, 1990, an article titled “Local activists laud signing of federal disabled rights legislation,” referring to the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act, ran across The Daily Texan’s front page. Since then, UT’s landscape has changed over the years to accommodate disabled students, and advocates for disability rights are continuing to fight for an increasingly accessible campus.
When former President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA — which established enhanced protections and accommodations for people with disabilities — into law in the summer of 1990, UT had already spent over a decade on audits and improvements to campus infrastructure, but the ADA accelerated efforts to make the campus more accessible.
After the ADA’s signing, the University launched a “report a barrier” feature, created a committee to prioritize and allocate funding for accessibility improvements, and established the disability access center. UT has made recent strides to increase accessibility with plans to demolish the former East Mall fountain to increase pedestrian and ADA compliance.
“As part of our role, we have forums with the campus community in the fall and the spring where we gather information about what people need on campus,” said Stephanie Myers, UT’s deputy ADA coordinator. “But then there’s also smaller things that (are) still meaningful, like changing a doorknob from a knob to a lever.”
UT ADA coordinator Jennifer Maegden said student and community advocacy for equitable facilities and programming also contributed to accessibility improvements, such as the creation of an endowment to cover disability testing costs and prioritization of restroom accessibility in response to a student petition.
“One of the things that is our biggest, best resource here is our students,” Maegden said. “Them being students, voicing and making sure that their priorities are known has been really important and informed a lot of change.”
Evie Olsen, a human ecology senior with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), fibromyalgia and several anxiety disorders, has used the Disability Access Center since her freshman year when she was diagnosed with POTS. Because of POTS, Olsen said every time she stands up her heart rate shoots up by 50 beats per minute, which makes her dizzy and nauseous each time she reaches up, bends over or walks. Olsen said accommodations such as increased time on tests, access to a note taker and breaks during tests have been very helpful.
However, while the ADA requires professors to abide by student accommodations, Olsen said recently a professor told her he “does not give accommodations no matter what the case is.” So she had to scrape by and was stressed about whether she could pass the class. After spending an entire semester fighting for her accommodations, the professor finally let her use them, Olsen said.
“Respecting my accommodations is just as simple as respecting my right to my education, and I deserve that right just as much as every other student in the class,” Olsen said. “When you don’t give me my accommodations, you’re … taking away my right to learn. I wish more professors would see it as the need that it is, and not just a preference or a want.”
For the future, Olsen said she hopes UT implements a better system for disabled students to get around campus. She said the golf carts that currently drive down Speedway require students to wave them down, and there’s no guarantee that a golf cart will be there when a disabled student needs it. Additionally, she said she hopes there are structural improvements to the Disability Access Center since getting accommodations can take several weeks.
“It’s important to note that the burden should not have to be on students to make campus more accessible, and it’s really up to the University to step up and fix their accessibility barriers,” Olsen said. “Whether that’ll happen or not, I can’t say.”
