Disabled students must be heard at this critical time. With the
major re-structuring of student services and programs to enhance the
student experience, the voices of all
the stakeholders are essential. Students For Barrier Free Access
(SFBA), the only cross-disability advocacy group on campus, has many
concerns about the lack of clarity of the free-flow of information
given to us and about how the needs of disabled students will be
addressed within the new framework. It is unacceptable that the latest
committee struck to look at these issues does not include any student
representation. Students with disabilities are not currently involved
in the process; they are informed after the fact, which needs to
change.
As it stands now, Accessibility Services is
grouped under the cluster of “Health Programs and Services”
within the new framework. It is grouped with services like psychiatric
services, health services, counselling and learning skills. This
concerns SFBA, as disabled students are perceived by the university as
students who are in need of services by medical professionals
exclusively, with the underlying assumption that we need to be fixed,
rehabilitated and cured. We at Students for Barrier Free Access
advocate a paradigm shift away from strictly placing disabled students
in the health/medical realm. We would like to see the university commit
to the development of a disabled community on campus, by addressing
issues in the social realm such as affordable accessible housing on
campus and resources for accessible extra- and co-curricular
activities.
We envision the development of a centralized
office addressing the holistic needs of the community and working on
community development ensuring that students with disabilities feel
welcome and included at the university. Some people may view this step
as taking the onus away from the university at large to address
accessibility issues for persons with disabilities. However, when
viewing the university as a microcosm of society as a whole, it is
essential to have strong advocacy for equity issues. The development of
such a centre for advocacy for community support does not alleviate the
university’s responsibility to address these issues on a daily
basis; this centre would ultimately act as a resource, and support the
process of integrating issues of diversity into the larger university
community, producing a setting where community members not only address
these issues but also understand them. We at Students for Barrier Free
Access feel that this is a critical juncture where the university must
commit to open-dialogue and show its dedication to disabled students by
offering us a place at the table.
