Feature photo by DeAsia Powell
Story by Kameron Scott and DeAsia Powell
MTSU offers many campus resources; however, many are far from perfect. Faculty, staff and student leaders aim to refine these services, with a focus on disability accessibility.
MTSU is known for its large campus, diverse student body and an array of services provided to students. The Americans with Disabilities Act, implemented in 1990, prohibits discrimination based on disabilities. MTSU has their own ADA Office to comply with any of the guidelines set out in the act; some noticeable campus compliances include ramps and elevators.
“Thankfully, we are a campus that can honestly say is dedicated to inclusion,” said Lance Alexis, the director of ADA Compliance for the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance.
Alexis talked about the various amenities the campus provides for those with disabilities. Some of these amenities include an adaptive technology center in the library, wheelchair-accessible campus buses and the campus movie theater, which provides captioning and video descriptions for visually or hard-of-hearing people.
Alexis also said the university partners with Aira, a company that provides live human-to-human assistance for those who are visually impaired.
“They just have to download the app, bring up Aira, make a call, and then anything their camera points to can have audio description,” said Alexis. “It can be something as simple as a vending machine, making sure you don’t get a Mountain Dew when you wanted a Pepsi, or as something as in-depth as a play or an athletic event.”
Even with the number of features available for students with disabilities, Alexis admitted there have been some complaints from students.
“Nothing’s ever perfect,” said Alexis. “I’m not going to ever say it is. Common complaints the ADA Office receives are related to maintenance: cracks in sidewalks and ramp weathering. We try to put in more suitable ramps, but there are still some spaces that could be done better.”
Students also often express concerns for safety and transportation during stormy weather and flooding in areas like the front of the Bragg building, saying that it is inconvenient and restricts them from getting to class.
“Either I have to go around the puddles or find another way to class because if I drive through the puddles, the water will damage my motors, and I won’t be able to get around at all,” said Sunshynne Good, a wheelchair user.
Harmonee Helms, a freshman majoring in Exercise Science, proposed utilizing the live recorded videos feature on D2L and professors providing alternatives such as Zoom or Google Meet, while Good suggested building more drainage systems around campus to limit flooding.
Alexis talked about several other complaints students levied concerning accessibility on campus, such as the automatic door buttons breaking and the headaches that students with disabilities face during football game days.
“So many parking lots are closed or reserved for special parking, and then you run into people parking in different places and maybe tailgaters not recognizing that they might be blocking a sidewalk and things like that,” said Alexis. “But at the same time, I think we have a great team campus-wide, and when you reach out and say, ‘Hey, there was this complaint, let’s try to do this better,’ people really do jump on board.”
Other accessibility issues expressed by students regarded the Disability Access Center and Testing Services in the KUC.
“The biggest thing I think our DAC fails at is educating the student body as a whole as to why they as a program exist,” Benjamin Payson, a junior, said. “Hidden disabilities do exist, and it’s important for their fellow students that sit to the left and right on a daily basis to know that not everything is visible.”
Some students suggested improvements such as fixing the elevators and better communication between the testing services and course instructors about testing services, as well as better instruction on testing locations in the testing center.
Contrary to complaints, students mainly enjoy the array of testing and academic services provided by the DAC.
“From my experience with the DAC, the DAC has provided me with every single need that I’ve had to succeed in the classroom,” said Payson. “From extended time on quizzes to alternate testing locations, our DAC does an excellent job whether our students have a disability that is visible or one that is hidden and only known by the student.”
Another student–Cordelia Fox, a sophomore majoring in Apparel Design–touched on the efficiency of provided resources the testing center provided for her classes.
“They’ve helped me with my accommodations really well,” said Fox. “They asked me what I needed and they gave me ways I can get that through thorough instructions.”
Sunshynne Good thinks the university is very good at making the campus accessible to those with any physical and mental disability and encourages students to take advantage of these resources.
“If there’s anything you might need help with, the DAC is a great resource to take advantage of,” said Good. “If it’s available to you, don’t be ashamed of it.”
Kameron Scott and DeAsia Powell are contributing writers for MTSU Sidelines.
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