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Lara Korte
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KANSAN.COM/NEWS | MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017
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Associate social media editor Emily Juszczyk
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SECTION EDITORS
News editor Chandler Boese
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Sports editor Amie Just
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Opinion editor
Vince Munoz
Visuels editor & design chief Roxy Townsens
Photo editor Missy Minear
Copy chiefs
Candice Tarver
Brendan Dzwierzynski
Ashley Hocking
ADVISERS
Chief financial officer Jon Schlitt
Editorial adviser Gerri Berendzen
66045
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Accessibility measures still need work
Disability advocates say Hawk Route and elevators on campus are not inclusive or consistent enough.
Angie BALDELOMAR @AngleBaldelomar
File Photo/KANSAN The University's ADA compliance office is looking to improve communication about the Hawk Route, an accessible pathway through campus.
Every time Alice Zhang uses an elevator, she crosses her fingers and hopes it will get her to the floor she needs without breaking down. A graduate teaching assistant in the department of applied behavioral science, Zhang can't even count the number of times an elevator not functioning has prevented her from getting to her workplace.
Like Zhang, many people on campus rely on elevators to get to class or to work, such as wheelchair users, people with physical disabilities or senior-age people. Zhang said getting into an elevator is like "limbo" because you never know if it will break down.
For Zhang, who spends most of her days at the Dole Human Development Center, and moving from her office on the fourth floor to her workplace on the first floor, elevators are essential to her everyday work life.
Catherine Johnson, director of the University's ADA Resources Center for Equity and Accessibility, said she does not believe elevators on campus break down any more often than any other elevator.
"My guess is that it's not any more frequent than any other elevator in the world," she said.
Just last Friday, Zhang and colleague Kelsey Shinnick needed to go to from the fourth floor, where they had a meeting, to the first floor, where they were to supervise the Child Development Center, but they could not go because none of the elevators were working.
"It's very inconvenient for a lot of us, especially for people with physical disabilities," she said. "There's just no way for us to use the stairs."
Shinnick, a doctoral student in the applied behavioral science department, said elevators not functioning properly affects their ability to get to places on time.
"It affects the timeliness to which we arrive to class, work or any event," she said.
Another issue with accessibility on campus, according to Zhang, is the lack of signage in buildings and routes on campus. Zhang said she once went to Chalmers Hall to go to a friend's presentation, but she could not find the elevators or the accessible route on that building.
"I wanted the Hawk Route to be something that an individual with a vision impairment or maybe
On that matter, Johnson said she is working on a project to improve signage along the Hawk Route, an accessible route connecting Sunnyside Avenue with Jayhawk Boulevard. The plan is to put up the signs this summer. She said she knows it can be hard to navigate the route, especially the first time.
"I got through the main doors, and there were only stairs," she said.
She said she eventually figured it out, but it took a while because people did not know where the accessible areas of the building were. The same happens for people when visiting buildings that they are not familiar with, Zhang said.
a memory or cognitive issue could use," Johnson said. "We did an audio description of the route, a navigation assistant that people can download on their smartphones and use it while navigating the route."
If you take [an elevator] away, you take away a person's ability to independently navigate through campus, which is not something we want to do.
Catherine Johnson
Director of KU ADA
Resource Center
She understands the importance of elevators working properly, especially for people with a mobility impairment, who cannot use steps and whose path of travel is stopped whenever an elevator breaks down.
"If you take that away, you take away a person's ability to independently navigate through campus, which is not something we want to do," she said. "It removes that
independence."
As part of her work at the center, which is in charge of providing accommodations to anyone at the University, Johnson also runs the Accessible KU Twitter account, where she posts whenever an elevator breaks down and is repaired, among other accessibility issues.
Among her office's other projects, she has created the Architectural Accessibility and Inclusion Committee, a group of people from the community and on campus knowledgeable in terms of building accessibility issues. This group is currently working on the transition plan, required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"It requires us to identify buildings or physical parts of buildings that we know are not accessible and then develop a plan to list them in priorities on and when they are gonna be accessible," Johnson said. "That group is in the process of updating the transition plan. It will happen soon and will be posted on Accessible KU once it's done."
Shinnick said that although Facilities
FROM DORM
PAGE 1
prep."
Reiske said it will have a similar set-up to Mrs. E's and will have an open terrace. It will be opened in May for Dining staff to start training on the equipment.
Reiske said the residence hall is also being built faster than most buildings.
including the apartments that are being built nearby, which are scheduled to open in Fall 2018. The building is using a press framing system that will eliminate most waste and will save time because each part of the frame has been tested, planned and labelled.
is important to the University because it will allow for an earlier opening and to help with the issue of having enough housing for students.
Dan Moylen, a real estate developer working on the residence hall, said this
"It allowed us to compress the construction process into a much shorter amount of time," Moylen said. "When you think about the interest on the loans, there's cost savings
there."
Reiske said that he expects this building to last, though the construction process has been brief.
"This will probably be a 50-year building," Reiske said. "It will probably be more than that."
Edited by Ashley
Hocking
FROM GUNS
PAGE 1
Harrington also said that the other five state universities have also passed similar resolutions.
Pam Keller, president of Faculty Senate, said that University governance still holds the same view today as expressed in the December resolutions.
something we oppose. This is something that's being imposed by Topeka," said Joseph Harrington, president of University Senate.
"We've done, I think, what we can, which is to express what the large majority of faculty believe — that campus will not be safer or better off by allowing concealed weapons on campus," Keller said. "In addition to that, though, we understand that we have to follow the law."
However, Harrington
.
More recently, University governance has been focused on insurance, specifically regarding whether or not the University needs additional insurance to protect students, staff and faculty from death, injury, long-term disability or lost wages due to weapon-induced incidents.
"You cannot be a state employee and talk to the legislature about gun control or anything related to it," Harrington said. "The legislature passed a law last session. We call it the gag rule."
said the resolutions were not addressed directly to the legislature, as Kansas law makes it illegal to do so.
Harrington said an ad hoc
"As I understand it, basically, I think that faculty want to better understand what their current insurance is for an injury by firearms, whether it be accidental or intentional." Keller said.
committee is being created to evaluate the shortfalls of current insurance and to evaluate the logistics and cost of adding additional insurance.
Harrington also said that University Governance is focused on communicating to students, potential students, faculty and staff that, as of
The goal is to put on record as saying that this is something we oppose. This is something that's being imposed by Topeka."
Joseph Harrington President of University Senate
right now, guns will be on campus in the near future.
As a result, another governance ad hoc committee is
asking the University to link the campus carry page to the University's main page HR page and undergraduate admissions page.
"This is the time of year when prospective students are making their decisions about what school to go to, and I think a lot of us feel the University has an ethical obligation to notify people who are thinking about coming here," Harrington said. "It's like a product warning label."
Harrington also wants to ensure that the University is transparent as possible.
"I hope the administration doesn't wait until April or May to create those links. That will make it look like we waited until prospective students had already made their decisions before we sprang the news on them," Harrington said in an email. "The issue is transparency."
Services are quick to respond to issues, the University should work on a more permanent solution.
"It's a little scary to think it might fall down when you're in there," Shinnick said. "It makes you think it's a liability for the University if the elevator falls down."
Zhang said elevators breaking down disrupts her ability to move around and her sense of safety whenever she takes an elevator.
"I just feel like now that every time I take the elevator, I'm like, 'I hope that I'm lucky this time,' that I will arrive to wherever I'm going safely and successfully," she said.
Edited by Paola Alor
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Slumgang 777
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Snow The Product
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Truckstop Honeymoon
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Open Mic @ The Bottleneck
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The Songs of Joy Division
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Red Money
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