A group of students gathered in front of Noyes Laboratory and marched to the Henry Administration Building on Monday to demand the University address accessibility issues across campus.
Alyx Bibbs, senior in AHS, planned the event, known as The Walk & Roll March, after struggling with inaccessibility and ableism around campus.
“I’m a disabled individual, and there have been just too many things that I’m seeing on this campus, where it’s not just me experiencing it but other disabled individuals experiencing it, to the point where I don’t feel like it’s appropriate enough for me to say ‘OK, I’m going to graduate and this is all fine,’ because it’s absolutely not,” Bibbs said.
The march follows a petition that Bibbs created on Sept. 12; over 300 students, faculty and alumni signed to call for improvements to disability infrastructure.
Some of the biggest issues around campus that have affected Bibbs are a lack of accessible bathrooms, improper signage, overly steep ramps, construction interfering with accessible entrances and a general sense of “disability-friendly” infrastructure declining in quality.
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“I came to the school because it’s known to be the most accessible, and I just saw things starting to just break and break and break,” Bibbs said. “It just kind of all led up to the point where I just can’t take it. What if I get injured? I’m not finishing my degree if I get injured because I might be paralyzed.”
Bibbs struggled with crumbled sidewalks last year that weren’t compatible with their wheelchair, which caused multiple accidents and led to discriminatory encounters.
“I would have to ask individuals, ‘Hey, can you please move over to the side because I’m in a wheelchair, and I need to get on this side or I’m going to fall into the road … and I had an individual look at me with disgust and spit on the side and look at me and not move,” Bibbs said. “I’ve had individuals … try to push me into the road because they don’t care. That’s how intense it got.”
Students who have faced similar challenges, or who feel frustrated on behalf of disabled individuals, such as Tiffany Saxinger, junior in ACES, joined Bibbs in The Walk & Roll March.
They held signs that read “access 4 all,” and repeated chants like “access for all, not just for some,” and “A-C-C-E-S-S, let these issues be addressed.”
“It’s a fundamental right that we should all have access to education and services such as food, restroom use and things like that,” Saxinger said. “That shouldn’t be limited just because someone has different abilities that don’t allow them to do certain things, and the University claims to have this high access standard, but they don’t actually live up to those standards sometimes.”
Bibbs and a few other individuals left the march to demand a meeting with the ADA coordinator at the Office for Access and Equity.
They returned to announce that they had met with Kiara Drake, the new ADA coordinator as of Oct 9., who agreed to have ongoing discussions about accessibility concerns and potentially set up a student committee.
“I did not know that there was a new ADA coordinator and that was pretty shocking,” said Kevin Jaime-Villagomez, junior in LAS. “But, I was very happy to see that she was really open in addressing these issues that we were asking for, whether that means collaborating with us in solutions or the creation of a student council committee to address these issues.”
Bibbs said they do not want to stop fighting for disabled people’s rights at the University, even as their graduation date draws closer.
“I am doing this not just for now, but for the generations and classes to come,” Bibbs said via email. “We all should have a right to go to the bathroom, eat, sleep, go to classes, offices and be a part of the community and thrive.”
