Getting around

The current construction of a handicap ramp in front of 200 Church is the latest step in the University’s ongoing effort to renovate buildings to comply with the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, making public spaces more accessible.

After a 1995 study of handicap accessibility on campus, the University formed a committee to work on ADA issues, which is responsible for ensuring that all campus buildings are ADA-compliant.

“Wesleyan has a goal to provide handicap accessibility to all of our public spaces,” Joyce Topshe, associate vice president for Facilities, wrote in an e-mail to The Argus.

The University commissioned the 1995 independent study to determine the status of accessibility on campus and in a final March 1997 report it provided a summary of accessibility to all University facilities. Chris Palames ’70, who was wheelchair-bound following an accident, chaired the study team.

Since its formation, the committee established to implement ADA guidelines has included a host of administrators and members of the Department of Facilities. The committee meets annually to review progress on the 1997 report’s plan, incorporate new needs identified and prioritize projects for the coming year.

Roseann Sillasen, associate director and project manager of Physical Plant, said that the committee has made significant progress on providing accessibility at the locations specified in the ADA plan. Although there is currently only one wheelchair-bound student enrolled in the University, Sillasen stressed that the role of the ADA committee is to provide for students with a variety of disabilities.

Some locations, such as 200 Church, are only partially accessible at this time.

“There is a bedroom on the first floor [of 200 Church] with private bath that could some day be renovated to ADA [standards],” Sillasen said, explaining that no requests have been received to make this room accessible and no plans are currently in place to do so.

Despite the fact that the ramp only makes the first floor accessible, Mei Chei Zheng ’10, a Resident Advisor at 200 Church, feels that it is a step in the right direction.

“200 Church is a place for gatherings and lectures,” she said. “We want to make sure that as many people as possible can attend and hold events in our space.”

In addition to the current 200 Church ramp construction, earlier projects provided access to other key campus locations such as the Butterfield dormitories, High Rise, the ’92 Theater, Freeman Athletic Center and Science Library.

More recent ADA projects have included a policy prohibiting students from chaining bikes to hand rails, a new accessibility map on the University website and an ADA-compliant parking space on Wyllys Avenue.

The Usdan University Center and both Fauver residences, built in the last few years, fully comply to ADA standards, as well.

In total, projects in 35 different locations were completed between 1993 and 2002, according to a 2002 report by Mara Voukydis ’01.

Sillasen estimates that the amount of projects completed since she was hired in 2001 may even exceed that amount.

“I think the progress we’ve made is absolutely significant,” Sillasen said. “There are universities out there that have been cited by the Department of Justice and have had to scramble to meet ADA requirements. Wesleyan has never had that problem—we’ve always taken the initiative to stay on top of these issues.”

According to annual budget reports, the amount of money allocated to the ADA committee for projects has also grown within the past several years, from $217,500 in 2003, to $314,600 in 2007. The US Department of Justice has strict guidelines for the amount of money that goes towards ensuring accessibility in a renovation project, Sillasen explained.

“It varies depending on the specifics of the project, but when renovating a building, usually something like 20 percent of the construction costs must go to ensuring accessibility,” Sillasen said. “Of course, any new building we put up is going to be fully wheelchair accessible.”

Sillasen noted that almost all University pedestrian walkways are now wheelchair accessible, the culmination of many years of hard work. The only exception is the sidewalk on the corner of College Street and High Street—while there is a ramp at this location, it is too steep to be considered wheelchair accessible. There are long-term plans to address this area, but Sillasen said that it would involve coordination with the city of Middletown, major excavation of buried utilities and landscaping.

Sillasen noted that one major future contribution from the University’s ADA committee will be a project to make the Center for the Arts (CFA) accessible. For the 2009 fiscal year, the ADA committee has also allocated funds to renovate the entrance to High Rise, and to install automatic door openers at the east entrance to the Center for Film Studies.