Students with Disabilities Advocate for Access

From difficult roommates to homesickness, adapting to college life can be challenging for all students. But students with disabilities say that adapting to life at the University of Texas demands self-advocacy and perseverance in the face of stigmas and barriers.

“Going from secondary school where both your parents and teachers are advocating for your rights and education, here you’re making sure you have accessibility and accommodations in all your classes,” said Cole Glosser, a sophomore with right side hemiplegia, a physical disability that limits his right side mobility.

Many students with disabilities register with Student Services for Disabilities in order to receive accommodations that assist their learning and ensure their knowledge is fairly assessed. SSD reports that 3,023 students with disabilities were registered to receive accommodations in the spring 2019 semester. Of those students, 1,037 had registered either that semester or the fall 2018 semester.

Glosser is the outreach director of the Disability Advocacy Student Coalition, a student organization that raises awareness about the concerns and experiences of students with disabilities at UT. The organization puts on a variety of events that Glosser said engage the student body and combat the stigma surrounding disabled students.

Coalition member Caroline Graves, who uses a wheelchair, said that she is impacted by the social stigma that comes with being visibly disabled.

“People aren’t really educated much on how social prejudice manifests against those with disabilities,” Graves, a government and public relations senior, said. “It’s not confrontational, but people are uncomfortable around you.”

Among the social barriers faced by disabled UT students, Glosser and Graves both said they experience accessibility issues pertaining to other student organizations. They said that some organizations do not make all of their events accessible and do not accommodate resulting absences.

“It can be off-putting to join those organizations because it’s not a full acceptance,” Glosser said.

While some students with disabilities face accessibility barriers to participating in campus organizations, Best Buddies vice president Cara Johnston says that her organization strives to make people with disabilities in the greater Austin community feel normal and included.

“The most important thing is to recognize that they’re just like everyone else,” Johnston, a biology senior, said of the disabled people she works with. “(Try to) see the person behind to disability instead of looking at the disability first.”

Graves echoed that sentiment and said she dislikes when new people immediately ask her what happened to cause her to use a wheelchair.

“It’s a weird question, but you feel like you have to put people at ease,” Graves said. “You have to defend your normality to people.”

In addition to social barriers in the extracurricular setting, some students with disabilities said they face physical obstacles while accessing their classrooms around campus.

Coalition member Caroline Puryear said that the organization compiles a database of accessibility issues, such as malfunctioning elevators, rooms lacking braille and scooters obstructing sidewalks, and presents them to the university.

“We’re kind of in the transition phase of improving accessibility,” Puryear, a government sophomore, said. “There are a lot more projects we hope to get underway soon.”

In order to improve access to the university for prospective students with disabilities, the Texas Center for Disability Studies launched E4 Texas. The program seeks to include more new students with disabilities in the university community.

Project coordinator Jigna Patel said the program is geared toward students who have trouble entering the university through the typical admissions process. Students who enroll in the year-long program are provided 24-hour support from teachers and program staff.

“Our students are different, but they should have equal access to all things that normal students have,” Patel said. “We should have high expectations for all students … They can do the things everyone else can do provided there are a few accommodations here and there.”

Patel says the E4 Texas curriculum is designed to teach disabled college students the skills to become successful advocates and reliable employees. Topics covered include how to understand healthy relationships and how to navigate systems such as transportation and health care.

“There are a lot of curriculums for certification that we want the students to take so they have hard certifications that show how qualified they are,” Patel said. “A lot of times because of perceived disability and stigma they might not get opportunities.”

At either the individual or organizational level, some students with disabilities say they recognize that advocacy is necessary to invoke positive change.

“Don’t ignore things just because they aren’t your problem,” Puryear said. “Usually it’s just a few student voices that make a change, whether you’re with an organization or not.”