Many people with disabilities have a hard time navigating a world that isn’t designed with accessibility in mind, including school. Many factors can make school inaccessible for students with disabilities who use mobility aids. Park has made new additions this year in hopes of making the high school more accessible to everyone.
Senior Logan O’dea said when he had a knee injury, he was unable to walk up stairs, so he used the elevator. He said he found the elevator was typically far away from his classes, and having only one elevator caused him to be late to class.
“With having an ACL injury, a lot of times, you’re not very mobile. You have crutches, so it’s tough to get up stairs. There’s one elevator that roams around the school that’s hard to (use) a lot of times,” O’dea said.
Special education teacher Wendy Bauer said the new elevator prohibits people from using it without a pass, which they must obtain through the nurse, ensuring only those who need a lift are in the elevator. The pass system is new this year because people who didn’t need the elevator were using it, causing those who needed it to wait longer.
“We got a new elevator, and to prevent anybody from using it that does not need it, the students need to go see the nurse to get a pass. So if they break their leg, they get a pass because we were having too many students, (who) were too tired or too lazy to walk up stairs,” Bauer said.
According to sophomore Lucas Dean, the new elevator system, where you need a pass to use the elevator, greatly benefits him and others who need to use it.
“It’s awesome. No one else can be in it now unless you have a pass,” Dean said.
O’dea said something that helped him through his injury was teachers being understanding and letting him leave class early to give him enough time to make it to his next hour. According to him, the extensions he received on assignments were helpful when he was rehabbing from his injury.
“(Allowing students) to leave (class) early was a great feature that they gave me. (Also when teachers) give kids more time on assignments, understanding that they’re probably having to do something else at home, and if not, in class as well (that benefits students with injuries),” O’dea said.
Bauer said having only one elevator presents multiple problems, one of which is the constant up and down students endure due to having classes on multiple levels.
“It can be a lot of back and forth for students, especially if they have (something like gym class) and then they have to get up to a three, and then maybe they have to go back to (the B2 hallway). It’s a lot of going back and forth, and that one elevator makes that more difficult,” Bauer said.
According to O’dea, he questions his ability in a time of emergency to get to the elevator from certain areas of the school and safely exit the building.
“Accessibility wise, if I were to be on crutches (on the upstairs floor), I don’t know how quickly I would be able to get to the (school exit). Especially if I had to go to the elevator across the school,” O’dea said.
According to Bauer, when an unplanned emergency happens, Park has added shelters at every level of the building so that you never have to use the elevator. Bauer said Park is learning from an experience from last year, and now they have emergency rooms closer to the elevator, providing greater protection for people with accessibility issues.
“If there’s a fire drill that is unannounced, we have safe rooms on every level, in the hallway, and in the B hallway. Students are able to get to those safe hallways or safe rooms. If it’s severe weather, that’s a little bit more (difficult). Last year, we found out when we had the severe drill that we weren’t able to get to our safe area, so we found a separate space that students with wheelchairs can go (to) and access that is right off the elevator,” Bauer said.
According to Dean, Park can continue to be accessible to everyone by everyone taking care of the property, using it with integrity to maintain its purpose.
“It’s just other people treating the place with respect towards accessibility (is how Park can be a mobility-inclusive environment). So if people could keep it accessible, that’d be awesome,” Dean said.
