Wednesday, February 22, 1978
Handicapped barriers falling
BY ALLEN HOLDER and PAM MANSON
Staff Writers
A simple flight of stairs. A narrow doorway. A high curb—simple physical barriers that can block a handcapped person's chances for a college education.
About $300,000 already has been spent at the University of Kansas to provide training and technical assistance enter and use KU buildings and facilities. According to a recent study done by a campus committee, though much still remains unclear, the university accumulated ability to the entire University.
The report, completed by the committee in December, outlines steps to be taken to comply with Section 504 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and its amendments. The report also establishes the basis of handicaps in programs and activities that receive federal money.
Minimum accessibility to the handicapped depends on whether a building has a ground level entrance, whether all the building's floors can be reached by a person in a wheelchair and whether the restrooms can be used by a handicapped person.
MAX LUCAS, director of facilities planning, said yesterday that it would take $3 million to provide minimum accessibility to all University programs but that he did not want to guess how much it would cost to provide complete accessibility.
Lacas said, however, that he hoped the University could in time provide total accessibility, which would make all facilities available to the handicapped, including drinking fountains, telephones and classroom facilities.
About $300,000 already has been spent on renovations of campus buildings. The money, received in matching state and federal grants in 1975, was spent on curb cuts, restroom improvements, elevators and grade level entrances.
Lucas said he met Monday with facilities officers from other Kansas Board of Regents' institutions and with the facilities associated with the Regents to discuss those renovations.
HE SAID the other schools had plans similar to KU's.
"We hope to jointly present a fund request to the Legislature for fiscal 1980," he said.
University Daily Kansan
The funds would be used to complete renovations of campus buildings.
However, Lucas said the department of Health, Education and Welfare required KU to be in compliance with the rehabilitation act by June 3, 1980.
"We feel that by that time all of our modifications may not be completed," he said. "But if the Legislature provides they should be under construction."
Roger Williams, chairman of a committee that has studied architectural barriers to the handicapped since 1973, said yesterday that he thought the Legislature might not provide funding in one lump sum for all Regents' schools.
"THINK members of the Legislature are going to have reservations when they see what a large amount is requested." Williams said. "It's like a snowball effect when all the schools add their request together. It can be overwhelming."
Williams also objected to labeling all the
"A lot of the renovations have to be made whether or not there are handicapped people using the building," he said. "It's not a problem for improvements for the handicapped."
renovations needed on KU buildings as being necessary only for the handcapped
WILLIAMS SAID he thought about $1.5 million was needed to make KU buildings accessible to the handicapped. The additional $1.5 million is needed for other renovations, he said, which are not made exclusively for handicapped students. Elevator repair or construction is an example, he said.
According to the University, 29 buildings currently are considered accessible. Most of those buildings either have been built since 1973 or have undergone major renovations to bring them in compliance with federal regulations.
Luca said no modifications would be made to temporary facilities. Also, he said, no elevators would be constructed in two-story building.
IN THOSE buildings, Lucas said, arrangements could be made to bring the class to the student. The class could be taught in a ground-level classroom, he said.
Williams said that moving the class was a permissible way to make a program available to a handicapped student but that it was not always practical.
"Sometimes there are problems if a classroom on an upper level has special features, like lab equipment, that can't be moved." he said.
Lucas said the committee considered accessibility in four stages.
The first stage, he said, was to get the person from the parking lot to the building. The second stage was to carry his curtains.
The second stage, getting the person into the building could be solved by level or raise the floor.
Elevators and wheel-chair lifts could solve the third stage, getting the student to reach the floor.
He said KU probably ranked second among the Regents' institutions in ac-
THE FOURTH stage is convenience. Lucas said that could be solved largely by modifications in restrooms—railings and wider stalls.
Locas said the University had been actively concerned with making KU more accessible to the handicapped for about seven years.
"Emporia State has for many years been concerned with accessibility to the handicapped," he said. "Overall, they probably have the best accessibility."
Williams said he thought KU was doing a good job in removing architectural barriers.
"KU is moving as fast as possible in making renovations," he said. "I think they rank well in comparison with other Regents' schools."
Buildings currently considered accessible to the handicapped are:
Blake, Watson Library, Flint, Bailey, Strong, Hoe, Marin avenues, Dionn, Faworth Church, Malpitt, Murphy, Summerfield, Learned, Robinson Gymnasium, Fraser, University of Wisconsin, Waukee, Wescohn, Walkins Library, New Green, Visual Arts, Spencer Museum, Computational Services, Oliva, Kramer, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and the Drug building design.
Surcharge funds new Oliver staff
By PAULA SOUTHERLAND
A $2 surcharge on next year's Oliver Hall contracts will provide another staff member for some of the positions.
Staff Writer
The surcharge, which will be part of Oliver's contracts for the next five years, will be used to hire a program coordinator and to build additional facilities, John McGee, Oliver resident director, said last week.
The surcharge also will finance an additional security monitor to work four hours each night and will help fund an orientation program for new residents.
McGee said the amount of the surcharge might fluctuate from year to year, depending on the cost of the new facilities and on the success of the programs.
For example, McGee said, if the hall's security monitor to emplify the security monitor after the first attack, the program coordinator was not successful, part of the surcharge would be
IF THE COST of additional facilities for the property charge may have to be increased, be said.
The idea of financing the programs through a surcharge came from a task force that has been working on improvements for Oliver, McGee said.
would work with academic, cultural and athletic programs.
The coordinator will not be hired until April 1 because the force wants at least one of next year's staff members on the job before he will interview the candidates, he said.
The surcharge was approved by the Oliver Hall Council, which is the governing body of the hall, by the contract coordinating committee of the Association of Illinois Teachers, and by the Administrative Housing Board and the Kansas Board of Regents, he said.
Applications for next year's resident
residents and resident assistants are being taken now.
The coordinator also would work with the resident directors on programs already in progress, such as the Academic Success for Kids program, which would help implement new ones, he said.
"MCEEG SAID A specific job description is now being drafted but probably would not have been done."
The current resident directors are swamped when they try to keep up with the programs at Oliver, he said, and the task requires the management of the programs by hiring a coordinator.
Samuel Burns, assistant resident director at Oliver, said the program coordinator
Bruns said Oliver had never had a program coordinator. Hasinger is the only woman with that job.
program coordinator would help ease the load.
JOE BANDY. Oliver president, said that JOE保管 did not seem to have enough money to pay his fees and costs.
Ann Eversole, assistant dew of women,
said that the position would be half-time and
that the coordinator would not be a live-in
staff member.
Oliver has only three apartments for staff members, she said, and those are currently used by the resident directors. Some of them will be moved to the coordinator wanted to live in Olver, she said.
Another part of the surcharge will finance facilities improvements, such as the multipurpose court to be built on the west side of Oliver this summer. Maze said.
Burns said other projects included a recently completed weight room and a training room.
COMMISSION ON THE
STATUS OF WOMEN
Wed., Feb. 22 at 7:00 p.m. International Room-Union
The additional security monitor will be hired probably for the hours between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. after 1 a.m. guests must be registered by a resident to remain in the McGee said, and the two nowmorners work at that time cannot handle all the guests.
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