By WILLIE FUNK
We at Beloit have a history of activism and work towards accessibility on campus, yet there are places that physically disabled students can never get to. Look at Hendricks, CELEB, the Makers Lab, and especially the World Affairs Center. On the other hand, newer buildings and renovations, such as the ramp at Pearsons, Aldrich Dorm, and the Powerhouse, are accessible. If we are trying to make this campus better, why are there places that some disabled students, staff, or faculty can not use?
Of course, there is a spectrum of usability and accessibility on this campus, much like a spectrum of ability with people. But it is striking to hear from Danae Jaggard‘26, who uses a wheelchair, that many clubs and events aren’t accessible, as they are in houses, with the only entrance being stairs. This includes clubs for their own major of Anthropology, such as the Anthro club or the Campus Mounds Sustainability and Advocacy Initiative(CMSAI), which usually hold events in their houses. The problem is that many of these houses aren’t accessible for wheelchair or limited mobility students, visitors, or staff.
Anthro club and CMSAI are not alone in this, with many clubs or special interest houses offering events in their dorms. Think of the Rush Week parties for Greek houses, the BSFFA and ABC (formerly SPIEL) Haunted Wood, or weekly events such as French House Wednesday and any events held at the Maker’s Lab.
Adding to that, Victoria L. Perry, Director of Learning Enrichment & Disability Services (LEADS), mentioned that student social interaction can be limited by mobility. Normal events like hanging out in a friend’s room might not be possible if the dorm room is only accessible by stairs.
So, how can we tell if something is accessible? It’s not as easy as one might think. The obvious goal might be to have an elevator reaching all floors and or a ramp to reach from the ground level to the first floor. Looking at some of the buildings on campus, missing an elevator or ramp is not the only issue.
First, can you even enter a building, or is there a giant step separating the front door from the normal walking floor? Many buildings on College Street have this issue, and so does South College. Or how many buildings have main entrances that are just staircases? The Wright Art Museum and World Affair Center (WAC) have this issue. Others, such as Middle College, Campbell Hall, and Eaton Chapel, have ramps beside the main entrance to allow access. But once you get inside the building, there is no way to get up a level, leaving you trapped on the main floor. WAC is the worst, as it is entirely made of staircases, making the building, even without physical disabilities, tiring.
Now, let’s look at the living spaces, disregarding getting into them. What other issues will crop up? Does the dorm have bathrooms with handles at levels for using the restroom and shower heads that can be moved if you can’t stand up? Is the laundry on a floor you can access?
Can you even get up to another floor or get down in the case of a fire drill or emergency? This is especially concerning, as the only dorm with an elevator is Aldrich. It horrified me to learn the fire escape recommendation for people in wheelchairs. If you are on a floor with only the elevator, and it turns off, Jaggard informed me, “the escape plan is to stand by stairs and hope someone gets you.”
Another issue, even for accessible buildings, is where the entrances are located. Look at Pearsons(until this semester), The Logan Museum, and Wood or Haven dorms, the latter two only accessible on the bottom floors. These entrances are separated from the main entrance, requiring students to go around the back of the buildings, physically and figuratively separating students from their classmates. There are elevators in the Logan Museum, Morse-Ingersol (MI), and Pearsons, but they are hidden away in the back corners or out of sight of other students.
In the case of Wood and Haven, the only option is to literally pass the garbage and recycling bins to enter the building, which is not the most welcoming entrance to any event. As Grace Suttman ‘25 describes this issue, “it’s almost like the college is shameful of being accessible by hiding the areas that they have accessible for students with disabilities.”
This sentiment has been brought up in the past, as during a panel about disability accessibility on Feb 9, 2019, Nicholas Keller reported that “‘Alexis Kosik’19, president of the Beloit Cross-Disability Coalition (BCDC),…said ‘unfortunately you have to go in the back entrance where there’s garbage cans […] people, even if they can get into a building are often treated–not necessarily intentionally–but they might feel like they’re second class citizens because they’re going in the back where the trash is and that’s not very pleasant.’”
Outside the classroom and buildings, there are invisible problems for able-bodied people. The main two outside challenges are stairs and the concrete.
Firstly, there were mixed results regarding the concrete pathing from my interviews. As Hannah Flores, the program coordinator of World Affairs Center and Morse-Ingersoll, described, coming from a bigger campus, having mostly flat surfaces is a positive. The sidewalks and pathways we walk across campus make it much easier to traverse than a hilly or uneven surface.
On the other hand, despite the concrete looking quite smooth, it can be bumpy. When riding her wheelchair, Jaggard described going over any bumps in the concrete as “like a speed bump.” To get an idea of this, remember the experience of moving things over bumps with the campus carts at Move-In or Move-Out Days. Now, imagine you were riding one of those carts. This is what it might feel like to be in a wheelchair on campus paths.
Secondly, there are a lot of staircases on the academic side of campus. When Dr. Gloria Bradley, assistant dean of SSEC and co-director of the Weissberg Program, was traversing campus with her cane, she described our campus as divided into two sections by stairs, which split the academic and the residential sides.
This map shows walking options from MI to the Residential side.
For example, let’s say you were starting in MI and trying to get to the Commons for lunch. There’s only one side of MI’s main exit you can leave, as the other is a staircase, and from there, two unideal options exist. First, following the yellow path, go to the science center, the elevator, and down. The other option is to go through one side of MI to College Street and then towards the wall. Either way, this causes more walking than normal students for people with movement issues.
But Beloit does try to help their students with disabilities. The LEADS office works with students, ensuring that their physical needs are met once the office gets the accommodations. At this time of year, that means making sure students with movement issues have classes where they can get them, including moving the class from an inaccessible space to a new room or building. Our registrar, Yaffa Grossman, also has to get a mention here, as she is instrumental in ensuring classes are placed in rooms that all students can access.
We also have a campus that, as we renovate and upgrade, becomes more and more accessible. Recently, some examples are the ramp under construction into Pearsons or the newly renovated Library and Powerhouse with entrances on multiple levels available without stairs or blockages. All of these have entrances and elevators in the front or main side of the building, allowing all people to enter at the same place.
Besides the issues, does Beloit have a history of disability advocacy? Yes! The Marca Bristo Keep in the Powerhouse is named after our most famous disability advocate. Marca Bristo, an alum of 1974, was a disability advocate famous for her work drafting, editing, and passing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. This act, according to the US Department of Labor, “prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government’ programs and services.” Bristo passed away in 2019 at the age of 66 but was memorialized in multiple articles, from the “New York Times” to our own “Bristo Keep”. The Class of 1974 created a fund in her name and will donate it to the college to provide disability education to faculty and staff.
Following in her footsteps, Beloit students have continued to focus on the experience of disability on campus via art exhibits, forums, and organizations. One of the most visual of these is normally BC-DC or the Belot Cross-Disability Coalition. Which…unfortunately, isn’t operating this semester.
Another way students acknowledge this issue is through classes, which foster creative projects to show disability on campus. Two final projects in Sex, Race, and Power have focused on disabilities during the last three years. First was a forum in 2022 called “Defining Normal: From the Perspective of Individuals with Disabilities.” This panel discussed different types and challenges of disabilities, from invisible to physical to learning and auditory. As for physical accessibility, Jaggard’s final project in 2023 was to add green, yellow, and red stickers to buildings to show how accessible they were.
A third project was displayed in the Round Table. Alyssa Mazer reported that as part of Yvonne Wu’s ephemeral arts course, Anna Downing’22 and Kristin Larson’22 collaborated to install an exhibit “placing an eye-catching orange wheelchair in spaces that are inaccessible for individuals in wheelchairs.” Each of these locations had a special meaning, including:
The previously much bemoaned WAC, Mayer Hall (whose heavy doors required another student’s aid to open), The Recessed garden near the Greenhouse, Blaisdell dorms, as wheelchairs can’t access social events like parties,the Library, for the inability to fit into tables connected to chairs,and finally, the Wright Museum, whose drawing room was inaccessible.
At the end of the day, a lot could be improved on this campus, starting with more student knowledge of some of our classmates’ challenges, but we are moving in the right direction toward a campus where all people can easily go to any event, building, or social space they want, without being stuck on the outside looking in.
Sources
A Historical Analysis of Disability Accommodations at Beloit By Jesse Campa December 27, 2021
In Remembrance: Disability Rights Advocate Marca Bristo’74 • Beloit College Magazine
Marca Bristo, Influential Advocate for the Disabled, Dies at 66 – The New York Times
Art Installation Brings Awareness to Accessibility On Campus By Alyssa Mazer
published in the Round Table 11-01-2021
A Place for Us: A Project For Rising Disability Activists • Academics • Beloit College by Ana A. Kohout ’21
2-11-2019 Performance for all panel, roundtable article by Nicholas Keller
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/disability/ada
Marca Bristo lounge:
https://www.beloit.edu/live/profiles/4207-marca-bristo-keep-the-matilda-r-wilson-terrace
Interviewed:
Danae Jaggard ‘26
Grace Suttman ‘25
Hannah Flores Program Coordinator, World Affairs Center and Morse-Ingersoll
Victoria L. Perry, Director of Learning Enrichment & Disability Services (LEADS)
Conversed with / not formally interviewed
Joy de Leon Associate Dean of Students, Co-Director of Advanced Mentoring Program
Dr. Gloria Bradley, Assistant Dean of Student Success, Equity and Community and Co-Director of the Weissberg Program in Human Rights and Social Justice
Featured Image: Willie Funk
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