Separate, not equal
Photo by Devin Sizemore
As he drags his legs, crooked and bent inward at the knees, Jeremiah Frank slowly pounds his canes into the sidewalk for support. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, Frank struggles to walk to his University of Nevada, Reno classes. At “the campus on the hill,” Frank battles stairs, narrow walkways and lengthy routes to accessible entrances.
“It gets tiring sometimes,” the 28-year-old political science and history major said. “I don’t have a lot of extra energy to give at the end of the day.”
Frank, who also has scoliosis, is one of 24 UNR students who are mobility impaired and used the Disability Resource Center in 2007. Several faculty and staff members have mobility impairments, but the university does not record official numbers.
The university works continuously to provide access for people who are disabled through building improvements, academic accommodations and special assistance at Wolf Pack sporting events.
But sometimes that’s not enough.
“We always need to be diligent in stressing advocacy and more resources for people with disabilities,” said John Burnett, director of the Equal Opportunities and Affirmative Action Office.
Traversing the terrain
When Frank arrives at school after his hour-long commute from Truckee, Calif., he first scans the parking lot behind the Fleischmann Agriculture Building in search of an open handicap space. Usually unsuccessful, Frank finds alternative handicap parking across campus by the Reynolds School of Journalism. Then he treks back, walking about two or three times slower than most students.
“It’s time consuming, but it’s just the way it is,” he said.
Along the way, Frank often faces stairs. Some staircases, like the steep set leading to Edmund J. Cain Hall, he tries to avoid. But others, like the few steps at the entrance of the Reynolds School of Journalism and many other buildings on campus, he can handle.
“Most of the stairs, thank goodness, have railings, but if they don’t have railing that becomes really difficult,” he said. “I just have to be really slow and methodical.”
If there are handrails, the canes clamped around Frank’s wrists often get stuck against the metal railing. In some of his worse case scenarios, the entanglement snaps one of his walking crutches off his arm, sending it tumbling to the bottom of the staircase. If this happens, he shimmies his hands down the railing for support and heads back to the base of the steps so he can start over.
To avoid the stairs, most buildings have accessible entrances at the side or back, instead of the front and it’s often a longer route to get there.
The American Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which contains all technical building requirements, only mandates one accessible route into buildings.
Although UNR is up to standards, some say that building design should reflect the intent of the law — to make access for people with disabilities easy.
“It would always be nice to shoot for the spirit of the law,” said Marry Anne Christensen, assistant director of the Disability Resource Center. “It may be up to code, but it may not be as accessible as it could be.”
For example, the main entrance to the Joe Crowley Student Union is not ADA accessible. People who are handicapped use the south side entrance near Starbucks, which is across the building from the elevator.
“Separate but equal didn’t work for other issues, and it doesn’t work for people with disabilities either,” Christensen said.
Geoff Kettling, accommodations coordinator at the Disability Resource Center, said he thinks it would be best if no one had to use a separate door.
“I always look for the easiest route to get to and from point A to point B,” said Kettling, who uses a wheelchair to get around campus. “I can’t think of any building where I can’t get in in some way, shape or form.”
When Frank travels from Hilliard Plaza to the William Raggio building, he passes two entrances with stairs. He continues clunking his canes on the concrete ground, as he slowly walks to an accessible ramp, which is a bit further north. The extra distance means exerting more energy that Frank doesn’t have.
“Everything is just extra time and that gets tiresome, but it’s just a way of life,” he said.
In the past, getting from one building to another was harder.
During the mid ’90s, people with disabilities had to travel through buildings to get between south and north campus.
Scott Youngs, the project coordinator of ADA Nevada, said he remembers rolling his wheelchair through the Leifson Physics building and taking the elevator up to the second floor exit to get to the WRB.
Now, a ramp provides access to the northern part of UNR.
But improvements like that are expensive. Youngs said a small ADA accessible ramp could cost $30,000. A push button for automatic doors costs $8,000.
Each year, the state gives money to UNR for ADA improvements. The university received $400,000 for the 2005-07 biennium and $620,000 for the 2007-09 biennium, said Lyle Woodward, director of facilities services. Most of the money for the 2007-09 biennium went toward making improvements at Mackay Stadium.
“You run through that in a heartbeat,” Youngs said.
Since Youngs started working at UNR in 1994, he said access has improved. He’s spearheaded several projects, including designating handicap parking spaces in each lot, building more ramps and increasing signage.
The Disability Resource Coalition’s list of 200 plans to improve access even more waits to be accomplished.
“I could go to any building on campus or in the community and find (ADA) violations,” Youngs said.
Officials from the UNR facilities department were not available to comment on disability access over the past two weeks.
Building better access
Once Frank gets to class, he runs into more barriers.
In lecture halls, the stadium seating accompanies several steep and narrow steps.
“Those are really difficult because they’re really small and you’re kinda squished together,” he said. “I always feel bad because I try to put my canes somewhere where people aren’t tripping over them, but space becomes an issue. Sometimes people trip over them. I feel really bad, but I do the best I can do.”
Although there is ground access to the rooms, Frank said he has difficulty sitting in seats where the desk portion is connected. Usually, he opts for a seat at a table, but those are usually situated in the back of the room and he has trouble seeing the board.
“It’s not the most conducive way to learning,” he said.
The Disability Resource Center serves students with any disability with the main goal to provide academic accommodations, Christensen said. That could include anything from getting to class to making academic materials accessible.
Frank said he addresses his concerns with the resource center if he can think of a realistic solution.
He said he understands the NSHE budget strain and that older buildings are grandfathered in under the ADA.
If a building was built before the ADA was passed in 1990, major renovations to bring the facility up to code are not required. The buildings are required to have basic access for all people, but don’t need to follow all technical specifications.
Despite many detailed requirements, the ADA does not require doors to have automatic or power access, which poses a problem for UNR student Mack Johnson.
Paralyzed from the shoulders down, the 48-year-old undergraduate student sometimes waits as long as an hour for someone to walk by and open a door for him, he said.
When the Fitzgerald Student Services building was built in 2000, students rammed their wheelchairs into the doors to get them open because they weren’t automated, Christensen said. The university eventually installed automatic doors at the building.
Other recent improvements include extensive work at Mackay Stadium, Lawlor Events Center and Peccole Park.
Several accessible seats, routes and signs were added at the stadiums throughout the past three years. About 10 percent of game day staff are dedicated to assisting people who are disabled. Plans to install an elevator on the east side of Mackay Stadium are in motion.
“It’s important for us to provide every Wolf Pack fan with easy access to all of our activities,” said Keit Hackett, associate athletic director who served on the disability resource coalition from 2005-08. “Because they are in a wheelchair or have a mobility impairment doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the same access as everyone else.”
Jessica Fryman can be reached at jfryman@nevadasagebrush.com .
Click here for a video of Jeremiah Frank’s journeys around campus.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 1:43 am and is filed under Administration, News, News CP.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
October 28th, 2008 at 11:04 am
If we werent so busy letting everyone be handicapped for every minor problem they have (real or imagined) people with serious problems wouldnt have trouble finding a parking space.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I personally know this guy. He was in two of my Political Science classes and his conviction should drive other individuals who have it easier than him.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
If he actually uses that staircase, he’s not very intelligent. There’s an elevator like 200ft away.
I don’t think he’s an idiot, which means the Sagebrush staged this photo–on one of the longest staircases on campus–to make the reader sympathetic.
I know this isn’t hard hitting journalism, but still…
October 31st, 2008 at 3:21 am
Jeremiah Frank is an inspirational character and a quality person. As David has stated already, I have had him in several political science courses and he is one of the nicest people I have encountered at the University of Nevada.