ABSTRACT
Each year, a focus group of disabled students gathers with the director and counselors of a university’s disability resource center to brainstorm solutions to any present accessibility problems. New construction continues to be a problem, but campus planners are making a better effort to solicit advice from disabled students on questions of accessibility. For example, in the past several years, the University of Arizona’s central mall area and the surrounding campus have been torn down in order to create more room for newer facilities. The numerous construction sites on campus prevented some disabled students from attending classes and reaching critical buildings. With the coordination of campus planning and the Disability Resource Center, an electronic map of safe accessible routes was created and e-mail messages were sent to students to keep them apprised of any changes. Because of the tremendous efforts of campus planning and the Disability Resource Center to incorporate the disabled student community into the planning process, problems of inaccessibility were minimized, and no injuries were reported. Without the proactive efforts of all involved, accessibility concerns for disabled students would have been neglected.
