Saint Louis University & Accessibility: What Students Are Doing to Pick up the Universities’ Accessibility Slack.
Saint Louis Universities’ Beyond Ability club expected to revamp this school year under its new president, Sarah Gosch.
Gosch, a senior at Saint Louis University studying occupational therapy, was newly elected president of SLUBA. SLUBA was a club on SLU’s campus dedicated to disability inclusion and advocacy. Although Gosch was not disabled, she had developed a passion for disability and accommodations inclusivity over her time in SLUBA for the past three years. Gosch had big plans for the club this year and was excited to try and implement accommodations SLU claimed: “they could not do.”
This interview had been edited for length and clarity.
When did you become aware of SLUBA, and why did you join the group?
So I first learned about SLUBA as a sophomore in my occupational science class. And then, I didn’t join the group until the end of sophomore year, when I applied for the executive board as volunteer coordinator. I was the volunteer coordinator all last year and am now the president.
In terms of your work at SLU, what do you view as the most significant issues when it comes to accessibility and accommodations in the classroom?
So this isn’t a specific classroom thing, but I feel it kind of applies to the classroom, but bathrooms are a huge issue that I’ve noticed a lot recently. For example, at our last meeting, we did an accessibility activity around the business school and the one bathroom that’s labeled as an accessible bathroom is just not accessible at all. The lock is way too high if someone was using a wheelchair, and there are no handlebars around the toilet. The way that the stall doors open makes it difficult for you to get a wheelchair in there and close the door. So I think that bathrooms are a huge issue and the fact that some buildings are just straight up, not accessible. With ADA, there are so many rules about when a building needs to be updated. I think if a building was built before a certain date, it doesn’t need to follow the ADA laws, which apply to a lot of the buildings on this campus. I know even the special education building, where the autism center is, is not accessible at all. This is hypocritical on the university’s part because they built a center for people with disabilities but then did not make it accessible.
What initiatives have you or SLUBA done for SLU to help alleviate these issues?
So since COVID in 2020, our club has kind of taken a really big decline in attendance and participation. So, we can up our participation and bring awareness to our club; we are trying to start up this Instagram called “Things I wish SLU knew.” And basically, it’s for SLU students to submit their stories about how SLU has handled their disabilities or certain accessibility accommodations that they’ve requested, or even just their general experience with accessibility on campus. We hope this will educate the general public because we talk about how disability is not a very widely discussed topic. After all, it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. So we’re trying to just use that Instagram account to educate so that people are aware this is a problem on campus, and it is something that needs to be addressed.
What could faculty, staff or other students do to help make the classroom or even just the buildings more accessible?
I think just being understanding and listening to what people have to say is the main thing just because there is so much to learn, and each person is so different. There could be two people in your class with the same disability, and they could have completely different experiences. They probably do have completely different experiences and completely different needs. So I think just personally speaking to each student and asking what they need and listening to them and doing your absolute best to try to meet those needs.
Do you think there are different tactics that staff or faculty use for people who have visible disabilities versus invisible disabilities?
I think something about disabilities is that you don’t have to tell people that you have it and that if you do have an invisible disability, it’s not something that may be apparent to your professor. I think that it goes both ways. I think just the willingness to communicate on both sides is a big thing.
As President of SLUBA, what are some of your goals for the upcoming year to continue to make SLU more accessible in the classroom?
I have a meeting with the Center for Accessibility and Disability Resources next week to talk about some general accessibility concerns on campus that we talked about in our last club meeting. Our main things are just to try to get signs in all the buildings that show where the elevators and accessible bathrooms are because, at our last meeting, we had a member who has a physical disability, and they had to take the stairs up to the second floor because they didn’t know where the elevator was. That’s just something that’s such an easy fix to our buildings that SLU is hesitant to implement. I mean, I could go around all the buildings and put up signs, but there’s no reason I should have to do it; they should already have it done.
Another thing that we mentioned was an electronic map. This would be accessed online to where students can go and look up where the accessible bathrooms and elevators are in each building so that they know ahead of time because that is such a big thing. The disability community needs to be prepared to know where they are going so that they know where everything is and they are not wandering around looking for bathrooms. I think that those are two things that are such an easy fix, and now there’s no excuse as to why they couldn’t do them.
We also discussed getting golf cart access for people with physical disabilities or just anyone on campus that needs just a little extra assistance, getting to class because our campus is on a slight incline and that can be a very difficult thing for some people. Also, the fact that athletes have access to golf carts, there’s no excuse as to why it shouldn’t be an option, and something that our club used to do before COVID.
I think I’m going to try to talk to the Center for Accessibility and Disability Resources and see if this could be something that people can do because there’s a golf cart training that you can do through SLUs’ website, so people would do that golf cart training, and then sign up for volunteer shifts to drive the golf cart just maybe an hour or two a day if someone needs it. They do not have to be just the SLUBA or the occupational therapy program. Anybody could volunteer to sign up for this. So that’s something I want to try to push hard because those three things, I guess, are my main point.
When I emailed CADR, I said here are my three things. They said there are several reasons why we don’t offer those things, but I would be willing to set up a meeting with you. I am excited to know those reasons. Especially just the signs for the elevator. Or the electronic maps, you just have to make a map. I’m just like, there’s no good excuse, right?
