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Friday, December 8, 1972
University Daily Kansan
Robert Harris, Mission graduate student, encounters one of the many barriers persons confined to wheelchairs must try to overcome on campus. Stairs, railings, and staircases require special buildings on campus virtually inaccessible to a person
in a wheelchair. Formerly, 20 buildings on campus were unaccessible, and even with the construction of over 35 curb cuts this summer, there are still 11 buildings that cannot be reached, according to Harris'
survey. Because Murphy Hall and Woodruff Auditorium have stairs at all entrances, a person confined to a wheel chair could miss a great deal of the entertainment offered on campus.
Wheelchair Operators Face Campus Barriers
By MIKE LEWIS Kansan Staff Writer
Whenever a bicycle rider or pedestrian uses one of the small rampas which have been built into curbs on campus, it supports the conviction of Robert Harris, Lawrence graduate student, who claims: "Environmental barriers are not just problems of people in wheelchairs, they're people problems."
AT THE TIME of his survey during the last spring semester, he found 20 buildings were unaccessible because of the lack of drainage. He had the construction of more than 35 curb cuts this summer, Harris's figures show that a person in a wheelchair still could not gain access to 11 buildings on campus because of imbalance or a door which he would not be able to open.
Harris, who spent four years in a wheelchair himself, surveyed 27 University buildings for the ability of a person in a wheelchair to approach the building, enter the room once inside the building, use the restroom facilities and reach other floors.
Those buildings mentioned in Harris's survey as having barriers in the approach to the outside doors were Carruth O'Leary Hall, the Museum of Natural History, Green Hall, Hoch Auditorium, Learned Hall, Lindley Hall, Mallot Hall, Marvin Hall
Harris said that while the curb cuts, which were made last summer, were designed with wheelchairs in mind, the removal of the curb's architectural barrier was helping a much broader segment of the University community.
Harris said several surplus surrounded persons confined to wheelchairs at KU.
"One is that people in wheelchairs are incompetent and have no effect on their environment," Harris said. "The other is that KU is architectural free of barriers."
Murphy Hall, Spooner Art Museum and Walking Hospital.
In some instances the barriers were one step.
Harris found a particular abundance of barriers in restrooms. Using a wheelchair 24 inches wide Harris found restrooms in only five of the 27 buildings surveyed had stalls wide enough to admit a wheelchair, and he expected the number to decrease.
"THE ONLY reason we could get into the stalls in Strong and Watson was that someone had jerked the doors off of them," Harris said.
Although total modification of the KU environment is unlikely in the near future, Alain Wierchie of the office of facilities, planning and operations said, the main reason for this is with regard to persons in wheelchairs is to determine the need for restroom facilities.
Wiechert said changes were still in the planning stages and actual work would not be done.
As is often the case, the problem of change is a problem of cost. As Keith Lawton, director of facilities, planning and operations said, "We have a lot of thoughts about the future but no money to perform them."
While Wesco Hall and the new student health center are being built to accommodate a growing population, recently enacted state statute, Lawson said older buildings, which were without elevators and had prohibitive entries, could be fitted with only if and when finances permit.
PRESENTLY A STUDY is underway by
architectural barriers across the campus.
Kansan Photos by CHRIS CANNELLA
Harris said he undertook the investigation of building accessibility because those who were not confined to wheelchairs had a long time understanding wheelchair mobility.
Seeing-Eye Dog Is Companion, Aid
By PATTY JOHNSON Kansan Staff Writer
Blindness is a handicap to Gary Marshall, Rochester, N.Y., graduate student, but it does not keep him down. Along with Slip, his hand has been broken on campus at the University of Kansas on campus at the University of Kansas.
Marshell, 27, is a recent winner of the Bob Dole Scholarship award for handicapped students. Sen. Dole, Republican national party chairman, donated $1,500 he received from the Vickers lecture series to a scholarship fund for handicapped students on the campus.
BLINDED by an automobile accident several years ago.
Marshall applied for the award to the Endowment Association, which is handling the scholarship. There are three scholarships. 5000 each.
decision to have a seeing-eye dog to help him get around more easily. Both he and
MARSHALL said learning the campus had been somewhat difficult. He has classes on Monday and Wednesday, Bailey Hall and Snow Hall. Friends help them to learn the routes at the beginning of each semester. He said that Slip had been able to adjust to the different routes fairly
Slip went through rigorous training at Seeing-Eye Inc, in Morristown, N.J.
"they do a top-netch job," he said. "I was with Slip 24 hours a day. We walked two to three miles daily in city streets, elevators, department stores, everywhere."
"He thinks he knows where he's going." he said, "but sometimes he stops at Bailey, and then goes to the ballpark."
and the two have been together for more than a year.
Marshall did his undergraduate work at a junior college in Wichita, and received a B.A. degree in sociology and education from Wichita State University. He worked in Topeka as a social worker before making the decision to return to school last year.
THIS IS Marshall's second semester at KU. Marshall, a graduate student in the School of Education, said he hoped to get a master's degree and teach sociology.
Slip is Marshall's first seeing-eye dog,
"People who have not had previous experience with wheelchairs cannot learn what it is like to be confined to a wheelchair and dug around in it for one day," Harris said.
Harris, far left, demonstrates one of the other problems a person in a wheelchair has when he tries to enter Watson Library. In order to enter the library, he has to call ahead for someone to unlock the lower-level front door. The entrance is made
He said he had a good relationship with most of his teachers. He said he did not find it difficult to work with them.
A PERSON in a wheelchair would react to being called handicapped much the way a black would react to being called an Uncle Tom. Harris said.
He said invalid in one sense implied a helpless person and in another sense meant void. There were shades of difference between disabled person and a person with disability, because the former is representing a person but the former connoting something less than normal.
Harris used the analogy of a janitor who was unable to put trash in a container taller than he. Harris said one would not call the janitor incompetent but put the blame on his environment which made it impossible for him to get up in a wheelchair and person in a wheelchair incompetent was like blaming the janitor for being too short, he said.
"They have to realize," be said, "there is going to be a different method to deal with me. I like teachers to be flexible with me as teachers and assignments are concerned."
very narrow by the stand in front. Once he is inside, there is no way for him to get out quickly, which could be disastrous in case of a fire. Harris also suggests that the buttons in elevators be put on the side wall instead of the front wall as they are now.
Harris said society's stereotype of the person in a wheelchair was that of one who was unable to help himself. He also had a disability, invalid, disabled person and handicapped.
He said that most teachers were flexible to move most of them bend over backwards to help them.
Harris said persons with disabilities had been depicted as having little impact on their environment because of being weak and sickly.
It is not the incompetence of the person, Harris said, but the restrictive nature of his environment which made it hard for a person in a wheelchair.
This would make them easier to find, and would prevent the person from having to turn the wheelchair around to reach the bench. Below Mary's chair, Marshall, Rochester, and Stub Bob Dole Award winner, is guided around campus by his seeing-eye dog, Slip.