The University of Wisconsin is not an easy campus to navigate for disabled students, but UW officials are working to make it more accessible.
University Housing Associate Director Mike Kinderman said the university is trying to make all university buildings on campus accessible to everyone.
“We’re doing this hall by hall,” he said. “Cole, Sullivan and Ogg are all we have left to remodel.”
Jeff Erlanger, who is chair of the Commission for People with Disabilities and a wheelchair-bound individual, said he decided to attend Edgewood College over UW-Madison because Edgewood was more accessible.
Although the McBurney Center is available for disabled students to request classroom changes if the rooms are not accessible, Erlanger said he did not want to go through the hassle of searching for all of his classrooms and contacting the center to attend school.
“I didn’t want to fight to get my classes moved to get my education,” Erlanger said. “It may not have been that hard, but I was a freshman and I didn’t want to put up with that.”
Erlanger said that on the Commission for People with Disabilities he never hears complaints about university accessibility and that his only major complaint is the lack of elevators in some campus buildings.
Erlanger also said that Bascom Hill can be a struggle to climb for those with manually-operated wheelchairs but that it is a challenge all students face.
“I never like to complain,” Erlanger said. “I’m torn, because I see this as a problem for everybody. If I wasn’t disabled, I’d still have to go up the slippery hill.”
Fourth year student Mike Mohr said some buildings are a hassle for him to navigate in his wheelchair. The Humanities building, where most required courses for his History major are located, has an unreliable elevator and narrow doors that his chair cannot slip through. Mohr cited Van Hise’s elevators as a problem, because all but two of the floors require a key to open, and although Mohr has a key, his hands lack the dexterity to unlock the elevator. Additionally, he said that dorm rooms are generally too cramped and too narrow for him to enter, and that his need for living assistants automatically ruled out any chance to live in the dorms.
“There weren’t many options in university housing, so I was basically forced to live in an apartment,” Mohr said. “It kind of serves as a discouragement for people to come to school here, and it takes a lot of research to figure out how it’s all going to work.”
Kinderman said the Kronshage Lakeshore dorms underwent major renovations in the last two years, adding new ramps, an elevator, automatic door openers and accessible bathrooms. Previous to the renovation, some Kronshage residence hall bathrooms were elevated above ground level, but they were lowered last year. UW officials also connected Swenson and Showerman halls with an indoor ramp.
“It was quite the costly project; the elevator alone was [of] substantial cost,” Kinderman said. He said he did not know the exact cost of the handicap accessibility renovations for the buildings, but the entire project cost several million to complete.
Campus-wide building renovations began in 1996 and planning began in 1993, he said.
