School Campus “Accessibility”

Imagine a place with very few ramps which are all too steep, some buildings with no ramps at all, widely spread out buildings, and bumpy, uneven sidewalks. These are just a few of the negative and ableist features of the campus of the high school I went to.

As someone who has never had any mobility issues, the most annoying thing for me as an observer of this inaccessibility is that the school claimed to be a welcoming place for all, yet it’s not welcoming for those who have a disability. Since it was a private school, I know for a fact that they had the funds to make the campus easier to navigate, but instead the funds went to building a clock tower and replacing an already perfectly functional cafeteria. It was also a very small school so if anyone needed the campus to be more accessible, then it’s not like they’d be one out of thousands and have their complaints be drowned out

Each year we would have assemblies about inclusion and welcoming people, but the school wouldn’t take action and wouldn’t listen to students voicing their complaints. The biggest issue was a building at the top of a pretty steep hill, with ramps that can be too steep for some people or that can be difficult to ascend if it were raining due to the material they were made of. Yet nothing changed through the entire time I was there.

Although I know it will probably be a while until it happens, I hope the school gets its priorities straight and puts its funds towards making the campus accessible and disability friendly.