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University Dally Kansan, November 11. 1982
Handicapped find KU access difficult
By BRET WALLACE Staff Reporter
No matter how hard David Wilson
to play, he'll win or lose two-
for-1s for 10-30 MWF club.
***
As soon as the 10-20 whistle blows, he leaves his class in the Military Science Building to go to his next class in which he can never make the class by 10:30.
Wilson is not able to climb the stairs as other students do, because the polio that afflicted him when he was 3 years old left him confined to a wheelchair.
To get to Wescoe, Wilson has to go down by Murphy Hall, up the street to the Art and Design Building, up one elevator and across campus to Wescoe.
Physically disabled people have fought since the late 1960s to destroy physical barriers and make programs accessible. They believe that they have been exploded from before.
Mount Oread is a barrier that disabled students at KU have not been
ROBERT TURVEY, associate director of the student assistance center, said recently that the transition between upper and lower campus was a big problem for students with disabilities. The normally brief trip from Wesco to Malott becomes a major excursion for a person in a wheelchair.
Students such as Wilson with motorized wheelchairs, can go around the room in one time. Turvey said. Other students have to wait for a van to take them around.
Wilson, who is secretary of Students Concerned with Disabilities, said his teacher was understanding about his tardiness, but some students had problems because a certain room was needed for special facilities.
Turvey said many students had scheduling conflicts because of the delay caused by having to ride a van from upper to lower campus.
"During class breaks a van has to wait on pedestrians, so it takes more than 10 minutes for a student to get from one class to another," he said.
Katherine O'Hara, president of Students Concerned with Disabilities, said disabled students realized they were unable to meet their academic needs and tried to schedule around them.
"THE TERRAIN creates a problem, but I wouldn't want them to change it. It is so beautiful the way it is. I chose to come to KU because of the campus, not because of the accessibility." O'Hara said.
Donald Whipple, assistant director of facilities planning for architectural services, said administrators had talked about building a skywalk between Malott and Wescoe to eliminate the hill problem.
"more planning would be done if the tending situation looked brighter."
Although the problem with the hill is not conquered, the University has improved greatly in the last five years in other aspects of accessibility, said O Hara, who contracted polio when she was 12 years old. "Now she now walks with the aid of crutches.
cooperative in helping make classes accessible. This semester, one of his professors moved a class because it was in an inaccessible room.
O'Hara said KU was still behind many other universities, because it was built on a hill and many of the buildings were old.
Wilson said the University was
"IT IS hard to adapt old buildings to be accessible. You have to put in elevators and ramps and make entrances level," she said.
The University of Missouri began making buildings accessible to the handcapped in the middle 1960s, so they are way ahead of KU, which did not begin to make large changes until the early 70s, Wilson said.
Although awareness and activity has increased at the University in the last five years, the national movement, which was intended to inform people and bring about concrete action by the government, has slowed down, he said.
Concrete action would be the construction of ramps and other things that would bring handicapped people into contact with other people, he said.
"Once we start getting concrete action, the disabled will interact more in society and people's attitudes will change."
But now the general movement has slowed down and switched to a community emphasis, he said.
"AFTER A big period of activism, there is a tendency for things to slow down." he said.
The increase in community independent living centers has shifted the involvement to the community level,
and many communities are now improving, Wilson said.
Kevin Martin, housing specialist for Independence Inc., 1910 Haskell Ave. said "Lawrence is a little below average, but he still bled compared to other communities."
Independence Inc. is an independent living center in Lawrence that acts as a clearing house for groups that advocate the needs of the disabled, Martin said. It also gives technical assistance to disabled people living on their own.
Many of the physical barriers in Lawrence are slowly falling because of advocacy for the disabled by many groups, Martin said.
Wilson said curb cuts needed to be made in many places around town.
"YOU CAN go along for 12 blocks just fine and then all of a sudden there is no curb cut and you have to drive in the street for you." he said. "I don't feel too safe in the street with cars towering over me."
Martin said advocacy in Lawrence had not been strong enough to get things changed, but said this was the first time he was aware of the problems of the disabled.
"Since the early 70s there has been a trend among special interest groups to pay more attention."
Shirley Wenger, president of the Mayor's Commission on the Needs of People with Disabilities, said that Lawrence was increasingly becoming more aware of the needs of the disabled.
The mayor's commission was formed in 1890 to advise the city governing body about changes that need to be made in the community, Wenger said.
The commission has been granted revenue sharing money from the city to make such improvements as curb cuts, automatic door openers on city buildings and paths through city parks for wheelchairs, she said.
THE COMMISSION is working on a parking ordinance that will punish people who park in handicapped parking stalls, Wenger said. The city has the authority to have illegally parked vehicles in public parking lots, but not private lots.
Martin said the lack of development in Lawrence also had caused it to fall behind other communities in access for the disabled in access for the disabled to be worked for.
"Lawrence is at a crossroads with downstream redevelopment. Martin said."
"With the downtown redevelopment there is a strong desire by the disabled to make sure access is available. It can be dealt with in the architect's office."
Wenger said the mayor's commission would monitor the plans for the redevelopment to make sure it would be accessible to all people.
The commission originally applied to have a representative on the Downtown Redevelopment Committee, but it was later rejected because of the size of the committee. Wenger said
A presentation by JAMES E. GUNN, professor of English, author, and critic of science fiction, at the November meeting of the Ad Astra L-5 Society. Thursday, Nov. 11. 7:30 p.m. Walnut Room, Kansas Union.
THE CASTLE
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Completed applications must be returned to Mary Wallace, assistant to the dean, 200 Flint Hall, by 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18.
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BURGLAR STOLE A $500 videotape recorder from Smitty's TV, 1447 W. 23rd St. Friday evening, Lawrence police said yesterday. The burglary was not reported to police until yesterday.
The Kansan is now accepting applications for the positions of editor and business manager for the spring semester.
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