New group hopes for disability awareness, improved accessibility throughout campus

11/21/08 - Annually, more than 700 students enrolled at the University of Rhode Island register themselves as having a disability, which covers a wide range of both permanent and temporary issues, including physical, psychiatric or learning disabilities. However, these students only make up the minority of URI students with disabilities.

According to sophomore Krista Simeone, founder and president of the newly formed Students For a More Accessible Campus (SFAMAC), two-thirds of students with disabilities are not registered with URI's Disability Services for Students.

Thus, these students "are not getting the services and accommodations they need," Simeone said.

SFAMAC, which was officially recognized as a URI student organization at the last Student Senate meeting, strives to help give those students an effective way to get their needs met. The group's main goal is to "raise awareness and get people to notice inaccessibility" on campus, Simeone said.

Simeone, who has cerebral palsy, "noticed how hard it was to get around campus" her freshman year "when the bad weather hit."

After speaking with a wheelchair-bound alumnus at this fall's homecoming game, she was told about the Students For Accessibility (SFA), a former student organization at URI which was "a group of physically disabled people" trying to raise awareness about their cause, Simeone said.

However, the group did not last long, and has since disbanded.

When creating the SFAMAC, Simeone made it a point to "make sure [she] got a variety of people involved, [both] people with disabilities and without." The group now has 19 members and growing, and is offering open membership to all interested students.

SFAMAC plans to represent a wide range of disabilities, including the mental, physical and temporarily disabled.

"Accessibility means a lot of different things for different people" Simeone said. It could range from "bigger font on exam papers, [to] physically getting to class," while other students "need extended time on tests."

Often, students begin realizing accessibility issues once they deal with a temporary disability. Many people "never noticed [problems] until they were on crutches themselves" and begin to "sympathize with what people who deal with it every day go through," Simeone said. "Once you really make a point to pay attention to these things, you begin to notice."

Problems with accessibility, while being addressed by URI, still need altering, Simeone said.

Simeone, who has a physical handicap, deals with these issues frequently. She has noticed in many buildings, the "handicap buttons don't work." In many instances curbs lack dips for wheelchair access, or stairs are being installed without ramps, she said.

During the winter, Simeone said entrances and exits to buildings are not shoveled properly, and at night the lighting in certain areas is dangerous.

Laura Cummings, a junior who is in a wheelchair, has had similar problems with accessibility. "There have been times when in buildings the elevators haven't been working," Cummings said. "I've [also] had a lot of issues when the RAM van drops me off," with vehicles blocking the curb.

"It's a lack of awareness going unnoticed," Simeone said. However, Cummings said raising awareness really helps.

To reach out to both disabled and non-disabled students, the SFAMAC is planning on a variety of events to help raise awareness on campus.

The group is discussing a disability awareness event on the Quadrangle featuring "hands on activities to show you what having a disability is like," Simeone said.

The group is also looking to bring wheelchairs onto the Quad, allowing students to maneuver around on the chairs to see what physically disabled students go through on a daily basis.

In this wheelchair event, SFAMAC is hoping to incorporate strong faculty involvement regarding sponsorship. Students could vote for their favorite professor by donating to the group.

The professor who collects the most money would then voluntarily spend the day in a wheelchair-both while teaching classes and getting around campus. During the day, the professor could use their unique opportunity to share their experiences and struggles with their students.

Foremost, however, the group's focus is to reach out to the unregistered disabled students. The SFAMAC wants to provide a "comfortable environment for them to be themselves and make change," Simeone said. "We want to let them know that they're not alone and it's not their fault."

The SFAMAC meets Thursdays in the room 308 of the Memorial Union, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.