Longwood's campus excels in accessibility compared to other campuses despite needing occasional repairs to uneven sidewalks and elevators, according to Sara Robertson, a sophomore social work major. Robertson, who is paralyzed from the waist down, stated the biggest issue for her disability is parking.
“The parking is just a little inconvenient. I park right outside the (Greenwood) Library but I live in Cox (Hall), so that’s not exactly the easiest,” said Robertson.
Robertson said the new bookstore location is not accessible in regard to parking.
“I do know at the (Longwood Barnes and Noble) bookstore, where they just recently moved it there is no handicap parking back there,” said Robertson.
According to an emailed statement from Director of The Office of Disability Resources (ODR) Lindsay Farrar, issues of accessibility can relate to any place of business and are related to indoor and outdoor entrances, curb cut, ramps among other issues.
"Every effort is made to address accessibility as soon as possible," Farrar stated.
Robertson stated while Longwood excels with accessibility, there are still issues.
“There are some things I have come across that haven’t necessarily been accessible, and even though they look accessible they aren’t,” said Robertson.
Robertson stated a fellow disabled classmate fell out of her wheelchair this academic year due to the uneven sidewalks. The student, who uses a power wheel chair to get around, was using a manual wheelchair and fell when her two front wheels caught on the sidewalk.
“She wasn’t injured like severely, but she was a little cut up and bruised from it, from the fall,” said Robertson.
Robertson stated she has had no issues with ODR when it comes to contacting them about an accessibility issue on campus.
“They (ODR) are usually pretty good in doing whatever they can, even if they have to do something momentarily or temporarily until before they can get it fixed for good,” said Robertson.
According to Robertson, she has only sent four requests to ODR in her two years at Longwood. She said they are fast in their response to the issue and always respond to her in regard to the progress of her concern and what she should do while it is being fixed.
Farrar stated fixing an accessibility concern involves a variety of campus partners, depending on the issue.
"It depends on the issue and where it is but often facilities is involved and any outside contractors as needed, if the issue warrants," Farrar stated.
Whenever there is an accessibility issue, students can send in a Campus Accessibility Form to ODR. The form asks for the location of the issue and a list for the student to check in regards to the problem with a other option to specify.
Despite this, Robertson said that sometimes students won’t send in requests because the accessibility issue doesn’t affect them. She shared how an elevator in Ruffner remained broken because no one told faculty it was broken until she came to use.
“No one cared to tell anyone the elevator wasn’t working, so it took someone that actually needed to use the elevator. Everyone went by, pressed the button, it didn’t work so they went up the stairs. So it took me going in there and realizing it’s broken,” said Robertson.
Robertson stated if a professor knows about the accessibility concern they will do what they can to accommodate.
Longwood provides automatic access to doors across campus to lessen the difficulty for permanently or temporarily handicapped users.
