You Don’t Belong Here

JMU fosters a community of isolation by continuously denying disabled people access. Disabled students are excluded across both institutional and interpersonal planes. This post gives a brief overview into the many access concerns faced by disabled students at JMU on a daily basis.

Institutional: These problems require communal pressure and power to enact change

• Physical inaccessibility
  • Is that a ramp or a hill? It’s a ramp that leads to stairs
  • Elevators are often slow and don’t work well
  • The dukes dining elevator is locked when the stairs and doors are not locked
  • Not all buildings have elevators
  • Some automatic doors are extremely slow (1st floor d-hall)
    • E.g. the door to the 1st floor of d-hall, the door to ssc near dunkin
  • Door buttons are in inconsistent and unlikely/hidden/nonsensical places
  • Inconsistencies in how many doors each button opens
  • Accessible entrances are at the backs of buildings
• Visual inaccessibility
  • High contrast is rarely used
  • The JMU website does not scale properly
  • Signage is not in large font
  • Room numbers are not in logical order
  • Lack of visibility strips on many staircases
• Institutional services are not set up to support disabled students
  • The barrier access report doesn’t scale, doesn’t work on mobile, and non-disabled students don’t know it exists
  • The online map for accessibility is full of mistakes
  • You cannot medically withdraw from a single class
  • ODS prioritizing students is overshadowed by financial burdens and related staffing concerns as well as balancing professors’ disinclination for accommodations

Interpersonal: These are cultural problems that you can educate and improve on an individual level that will then create broader cultural change

• Professors are not educated in disability
  • A diabetes monitor may be mistaken for a cell phone
  • Classroom policies against technology means that using an accommodation to have access to technology will out you as disabled
  • Lack of widespread CAMMO training (creating accessible materials in microsoft office)
  • Judgment and resentment from professors over accommodations like extra time on assignments and copy of course materials like slides
  • The lack of formal accommodation is taken to mean a lack of disability when it may mean a lack of access to disability services
  • Professors attempting to negotiate with a disabled student about whether they will fulfill the student’s legally required accommodations
• Students don’t know the etiquette of being in community with and interacting with disabled people
  • If holding open a door for a mobility aid user, there should be enough space given for the mobility aid to fit through the door
  • Space should be given for a wheelchair user to turn around in the elevator to face the correct direction
  • You should not stare at visibly disabled people
  • You shouldn’t comment on whether or not someone ‘looks’ disabled
  • You should stay aware that accessible options (like for parking and bathroom stalls) are the only option for many disabled people, and you should use other options if at all possible.
  • Don’t leave scooters in the middle of sidewalks or ramps
  • Don’t park your car in front of a curb cut
  • Do not touch or move someone’s mobility aid (which is legally an extension of a person’s body) without permission – this is assault.
  • You should speak to the deaf person, not the interpreter.
  • You should think about disability in your classwork/presentations
    • E.g. Powerpoints should be high contrast, have a minimum of 24pt font, and any essential content should be both written and spoken aloud.