Campus gets more accessible

Due for completion by the time students begin heading home for winter break, the ramp will drastically cut down on the time it takes for wheelchair-bound students to get from the parking structure elevator into the library without aid.

This addition to campus is one in a series of renovations that will make Boston College more accessible to students with physical disabilities. Last year, for example, a curb cut was introduced to allow access to 66 from Commonwealth Avenue so that students in wheelchairs would not have to go all the way around St. Ignatius Church simply to get to the residence hall's front door.

Further renovations include a series of lifts in Fitzpatrick/Gonzaga as well as CLFX (Clavier, Loyola, Fenwick, and Xavier) on Upper Campus, a ramp to Shaw House, and the ramp constructed this semester in 90 St. Thomas More, the latter of which will allow more efficient access to Corcoran Commons to those students with disabilities who live on Lower. The final touches were put on the 90 ramp yesterday.

"As buildings are renovated, they are updated to be as ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant as they can be," said Henry Humphreys, director in the Office of Residential Life at BC.

This includes self-opening door access, proper levels for door handles, as well as strobe lights on fire alarms for the hearing impaired. Such considerations and more go into the planning and design of new buildings in the Master Plan.

"With facilities, when they're working with any architectural firm, on any design of any new buildings for the Master Plan, ADA compliance always has to be part of the plan," said Humphreys.

Yet, even though progress has been made in handicapped accessibility here at BC, the school still has a long way to go.

Upper Campus, for example, while accessible once students get there, is quite difficult to reach for those in wheelchairs. They must take Hammond Street all the way up and around the back side of Cheverus Hall. Plans for remedying this issue, however, have been slow in the making.

As for other renovations around campus, other administrators, like Suzy Conway, dean of disabilities in the Office of the Dean for Student Development (ODSD), will be working to make BC more accessible. The campus will find itself under renovation for quite some time in an effort to make the hilly campus more navigable for students with physical disabilities.

The goal is to allow students with physical disabilities to become a more integral part of the BC community.

No student with a physical disability is made to remain in one residence hall for all four years but is allowed to move halls with his or her class. The renovations are an attempt to make that process easier.

"We just try to make sure that we meet their needs so that they can go about leading a normal life," said Humphreys.