On Monday, the Sociology of Disability class, taught by Christian Villenas, showcased their semester-long research projects in a poster presentation.
The class, comprised of twenty-five students, was told to research various aspects of the Hopkins community, assessing how accessible the campus was for those with physical, sensory and learning disabilities.
One group that assessed the newly renovated Gilman Hall pointed out a number of flaws in the buildings design. According to their assessment, hallways are often narrow, ramps are not nearly as frequent as they could be in the building and many classrooms are too narrow to navigate into with a wheelchair or scooter. “All this, after 73 million dollars in renovations,” junior Risa Rifkin, the speaker for the group, said.
Additionally, counters are high at cafes and in the bathrooms, with the bathroom soap dispensers nearly inaccessible for someone who is in a wheelchair.
“All these fixes are relatively inexpensive,” Rifkin noted. “They could make another counter space, or a lower soap dispenser.”
Another group member, senior Lauren Pollack, feels that changes could be made to the Hut. “[It] could be made more accessible by automating the main door,” she said.
She stressed that some of these small changes would go a long way toward improving the overall accessibility of the building.
“Clearly there is money, but most of these changes won’t even take millions of dollars,” she said.
Another group, who investigated accessibility at the medical campus, had similar findings. Cramped cafeterias with bench seating, high counters and a lack of Braille menus and directories were among the problems they discovered. They, too, had simple recommendations.
“Adding a groove in the floor on the right side of the hallway for tracking would help aid walking for those with full or partial blindness,” junior Erika Ho, one of the groups’ presenters, noted.
“They could also redesign maps with levels and Braille.”
However, their biggest critique was not in moving around the medical campus, but in getting to it. Most of the students at JHMI get there by way of the shuttles that run across the city, the most popular one being the route between Homewood and JHMI. “However, when we called to request a wheelchair accessible shuttle, the operator told us that they have two, but both are broken and they have no plans to fix them,” Ho explained.
Instead, the shuttle company hires private contractors to pick up riders who need wheelchair accessible vans. “The private contractors were 10 minutes late, and the van had a broken lift,” senior Matthew Li, the groups’ second presenter said. “Eventually, they were able to get the wheelchair in manually, but Dylan [the student in the wheelchair] wasn’t properly strapped in.” Dylan arrived safely at JHMI, but after a great deal of hassle.
Another group talked about web accessibility for the visually impaired at Hopkins. “Right now, web accessibility is suggested, but not required. And the Hopkins website is fancy, but not accessible,” junior Alexsa Grant, one of the presenters, said. Screen readers, tools that turn printed words and images on the screen into audio for visually impaired web patrons, get tripped up on the search function at the top of Johns Hopkins University’s main webpage.
They also dipped into other aspects of web accessibility. “There is a stand-up e-mail kiosk in Olin Hall with a sign taped to it that says, ‘Please do not pull up a chair,’” junior Samantha Berns, another presenter, noted. “Simply taking down this sign would be a big step towards accessibility!”
Another group talked about the Student Health and Wellness Center. The current center has some problems, namely narrow hallways, heavy doors with round knobs and cramped bathrooms.
Thankfully, as the group points out, the Health and Wellness Center is moving to the Homewood Apartments next year. “However, this is less centrally located,” juniors Toyin Ola and Stephanie Fong, the groups’ presenters, said. “The sidewalk on the way there is crooked and cracked, and needs new curb cut outs, as well as new crosswalks.”
After the presentations were over, Villenas commented on the importance of the class. “My class teaches students that in the relationship between society and institutions there can be barriers, and unfortunately [Hopkins] has a lot of them.” But he thinks his students can begin to break them down. “We’re providing an important service for free. We usually give these posters to the Office of Disability Services to advocate for more resources. The intention is to start a dialogue, though dialogue isn’t always positive, and organizations may feel as though the students are being hostile. It’s hard to hear that you’re ableist.”
However, Villenas’s class highlights the fact that, at some point, someone has to say it, and his students are willing to push for change.
“I’ve become passionate about this, and the next step after research is raising awareness,” senior Esther Kwak, one of the students said, though she doesn’t have any specific plans.
“It’d be cool if it turned into a grassroots thing.”
