Built in 1978, the Hannon Apartments do not have elevators.
Fernanda Vega | Loyolan
In April 2022, Liza Wiseman, a fourth-year economics, English, and psychology triple major, was in her Levy 6 apartment when the power went out and she was trapped inside. Her experience during the outage was different from other students on campus: Wiseman was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at 13 months old and had been using a power wheelchair since she was 17 months old.
When a power outage plunged the campus into darkness for 12 hours, Wiseman said she was lucky to have a caregiver with her that day. “It was just a coincidence that my caregiver was with me. What would have happened if she hadn’t been there? I would have been in trouble.” Speaking with The Loyolan last year, Wiseman said no one from Disability Support Services (DSS) had come to ask how she was. Now, more than a year and a half later, Wiseman echoed those same sentiments and called for action. “Just one email would be nice. Just write in advance to only contact students who are enrolled. I think that would be great. I think that would be really good.”
When Wiseman decided to attend LMU four years ago, she knew it would be a challenge. “To be honest, I chose it. [knowing] “It was a tough choice,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman argued that the university does not have a good plan for students with disabilities to safely evacuate buildings, and expressed concern about her own safety in the event of an emergency evacuation. [the Department of Public Safety]”They’ll say there’s a fire evacuation plan for people with disabilities,” said Wiseman, who has met with DPS officials on the issue, “but a fire evacuation plan for people with disabilities is a ‘figure it out for yourself.'”
“Students enrolled in DSS can sign a consent form allowing DSS to share their contact information with Public Safety so emergency preparedness teams can contact them to develop individualized emergency response plans,” Sarah Kami, senior director of public and media relations, said on behalf of DSS Assistant Director Elmira Irvin.
Wiseman said she has been fortunate to never have to evacuate any buildings on campus. There was one time when she didn’t evacuate during an emergency drill, and another time when she needed help getting to an elevator. Wiseman said none of the plans DPS provided were enough to save her and her 450-pound power wheelchair. In a real evacuation, elevator doors close automatically, so Wiseman would be trapped if she wasn’t on the ground level. “If there’s no one around, you don’t have any other options,” she said.
Wiseman encourages universities to develop more specific plans for evacuation of people with disabilities in the event of an emergency. He also noted that a typical evacuation plan for elementary and middle school students with physical disabilities is to go to a designated area near a staircase and wait for assistance, and he encourages LMU to adopt a similar policy.
“It would be easy to have designated evacuation locations in each building,” Wiseman said. Her concern is that there is currently no specific plan for students with disabilities. “The ‘we have to figure it out ourselves’ plan seems foolish, frankly,” she said.
Beyond emergency preparedness, students with disabilities face everyday challenges on campus. “There are a ton of little issues when you’re sitting in a chair,” Wiseman said. “You can’t get into a classroom by yourself, you can’t get out of a classroom by yourself.” Elevators that break down or buttons that don’t work pose major obstacles for Wiseman and other students with disabilities. “We had 11 elevators down in one week, and it was really hard,” Wiseman said.
When an elevator or button breaks, Wiseman says it’s up to her and other students to report it to Facilities Management (FM) so it can be fixed. While she understands it’s a lot of work for the university to check all the elevators and buttons every day, Wiseman acknowledges that it’s not her job to send a request to FM every time something breaks. Speaking on behalf of Michael Wong, vice president of campus operations, Kami said, “FMs make monthly rounds of all the buildings to check for any items that need attention, like elevators or buttons.”
In addition to the small, everyday challenges, the Westchester campus can pose major obstacles for those with disabilities, most notably the lack of elevators in Hannon Apartments, Whelan Hall, Rosecrans Hall, Desmond Hall, and Pereira Hall.
Sasha Goldmoritz, a freshman sociology major, was walking with a friend at the intersection of 83rd Street and Lincoln Boulevard when she was hit by a car on Oct. 1, leaving her with deep bruises and a sprained ankle. Living in Whelan Hall, which has no elevator, Sasha opted to stay with family nearby for a while so she wouldn’t have to endure the pain of climbing stairs. “I lived on the third floor and I couldn’t get up to my room,” Goldmoritz said.
After knee surgery, sophomore animation major Skylar Andrews used crutches to climb the stairs to the third floor of the Communication Arts Building for a month while the elevator was out of order. Andrews said she was told the elevator parts were on backorder and would be “fixed in a week or a few days,” but the repairs took … almost a month.
Students with non-chronic health issues don’t get as much support from DSS or the university because temporary injuries aren’t protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). “Their injuries are considered short-term,” Irvin says. “We try to help them as much as we can, but we can’t always offer them the same services we offer to students with disabilities.”
For students with disabilities, the university “will provide accommodations such as housing on the ground floor or in buildings with elevators so that they are not assigned to the upper floors of Hannon, Whelan, Rosecrans or Desmond,” Kami said on Irvin’s behalf, “Hannon has two ADA-accessible apartments with ramps instead of stairs leading to the units.”
Wiseman’s biggest concern isn’t the housing, but Pereira Hall. The building, part of the Seaver College of Science and Engineering, was built in 1955, 35 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted, so elevators were not required.
Irvin learned from her experience working with students at LMU that buildings follow code but aren’t always accessible. For example, “a building of a certain size is required to have at least one accessible restroom,” Irvin said. “That restroom may be in an area that is inaccessible to students or individuals, but it may be in an accessible area.” [meet] Building Standards Act. The minimum provisions of the law do not always serve the individual.
Wiseman said when an elevator or push button breaks, she and other students have to report it to Facilities Management so it can be fixed.
Fernanda Vega | Loyolan
While Wiseman is frustrated by the lack of on-campus amenities for her and other people with disabilities, she is grateful to DSS, the Barnes Recreation Center, and the campus tour guide program for some of the amenities that were provided. She is grateful for the care that was taken to make her apartment completely accessible for her. “They did a really, really nice job. It’s not standard, like putting in a toilet that’s the same height as my chair, but the ADA doesn’t require them to do that.” She noted the amenities that were provided for her at Barnes, such as adding a raised mat table to the gym and installing a new lift at the pool. As a tour guide, Wiseman also helped redesign the tour route to make it more accessible for her as well as visitors.
Despite the accommodations made for Wiseman and other students with disabilities, it would be inaccurate to say her student experience is the same as that of students without disabilities. “It’s never going to be the same,” Wiseman says. “It’s just that… [world we live in]Wiseman says she purposely chose a campus that “doesn’t have a strong background in disability services,” but that it was worth it in the end.[Although] They have changed… they [still] There’s a lot of work to be done,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman is on track to graduate in the spring semester of 2024 and her time at Bluff is coming to an end, but she believes the campus has changed for the better since she enrolled at LMU. “I’m a fighter, I’m stubborn,” Wiseman said. Before enrolling on campus, Wiseman said, “I was a very stubborn person.[she was] It’s good to fight every week, every month, every day for the next four years to keep our campus functioning. [her]. “
Her advocacy work on campus has made a visible difference to Braff. “My main goal is… [was] I am trying to set [campus] So that someone else with a disability can go. [here] If they [wanted] “And I think I did that,” Wiseman recalled.