By Lucero Ibarra
l_i18@txstate.edu
While many students were enjoying their long winter break in December of 2016, Texas State freshman Melanie Rusch underwent hip surgery. Surgeons would implant several long steel bolts into her hip joints. Her recovery would involve several months in a wheelchair. In the spring, she returned to a campus known for its many stairs and hills where she found herself struggling to get up ramps.
One day, she was making her way from the Undergraduate Academic Center (UAC) to use the ramps by the building's Starbucks.
"I got stuck on that first ramp, so, like, at the very bottom," said Rusch. "I had to put my brakes on and I'm literally just like huffing and puffing in the middle of this courtyard. People are walking past me. I had to call my friend out of class to help push me up the other ramps.”
Texas State’s student government will be starting a campaign to raise awareness about accessibility and the misuse of ramps on campus.
Video by Lucero Ibarra
ADA and Texas State
After years of protests and demands for equal rights, The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was signed into law by President George W. Bush, preventing discrimination based on disability. ADA effectively saw to it that nearly anything would be accessible to a person with a disability. This includes universities like Texas State. Along with having to comply with ADA, Texas State and all other institutions of higher learning that receive federal funding must comply with the 504 section of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This section requires these institutions make their programs and facilities accessible to those with disabilities. In 2017, the Office of Disability Services (ODS) registered 1,500 students whose disabilities ranged from blindness to mobility impairment. This number also includes learning disabilities such as dyslexia and ADHD.
Melanie Rusch poses in front of her Ravenclaw banner. Rusch is an exercise sports and sports science senior. She had a surgery in the winter of 2015 that left her with a temporary disability. Photo by Lucero Ibarra.
In high school, Rusch, an exercise and sports science senior, was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, a bone disorder that affected her hip sockets to the point where she needed surgery to remedy it. She was already attending Texas State in the fall of 2016 when she received her surgery that winter break. She contacted ODS before the break to set up accommodations.
When she returned in the spring, Rusch was in a wheelchair. While her disability was only temporary, Rusch quickly realized that getting around Texas State’s hilly campus wouldn’t be easy. Rusch said that even with her physical strength, she found it difficult to navigate the school’s steep ramps.
In the three months she was using a wheelchair, Rusch used Cats on the Go to get to her classes on time. The mode of transportation used by Cats on the Go consists of small golf carts that are able to navigate across campus with ease. Due to their shape, the carts that would pick up Rusch did not have a special compartment for her wheelchair. When she was picked up and seated, the person transporting her would fold her wheelchair and place it horizontally across the back seats of the cart. The carts have no doors. Rusch said she often worried that one sharp turn would send her wheelchair sliding out the cart.
There was also one other big issue: the service doesn’t run during inclement weather according their qualifications listed on their web page.
“They don't run when it rains, so I had to go to class myself and the wheels on the chair were a little slick,” said Rusch. “Sometimes, it would be it would rain at like 9 o'clock. I'd have an 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m. They don't run the whole rest of the day.”
Rusch said there was an instance in which she was stuck at a dining hall because of the rain. The wheelchair she was using was a rental, so she could not get it wet as it would ruin the leather seating.
“I was eating with a couple of friends so literally they all gave me their jackets, their umbrellas,” said Rusch. “We just covered my chair and they took turns pushing me back to Jackson. We were all soaked. I was kind of wet but everyone in my house was completely soaked. They're all huffing and puffing and I'm just like, 'I'm so sorry. Thank you for taking me back home.'”
The Switch to Crutches
Rusch was eventually able to switch to crutches. As a track athlete in both high school and college, she would attend rehab sessions at Bobcat Stadium. Despite being able to stand and move on her own, Rusch still struggled to get around.
“I started rehab at home in the wheelchair, but then once I started walking in the crutches that's when I started going to the stadium,” said Rusch. “That was really hard because I remember I'd get like halfway through the (stadium) parking lot and my legs would get so tired because I'm only balancing on one leg, so I just want to just sit down and relax.”
Rusch lived in Jackson Hall, the 11-story dorm near the LBJ Student Center, at the time of her recovery. She found it easier to navigate the halls of her dorm compared to the campus grounds. She still made adjustments to her surroundings to make them accessible. For example, she bought a shower stool. She left the stool in her floor’s community bathroom as she could not carry it to and from her room comfortably. One day, Rusch was waiting for her turn to take a shower when another female resident exited a stall. The resident saw Rusch with her crutches and confessed to using her stool.
“She comes out, just looks down like, 'Oh. I shaved my legs on your chair,’ said Rusch. “I have to sit on that. I don't want (her) nasty skin cells and hair. I felt so gross after that”
There was another problem. Cats on the Go is only a temporary service. They contacted Rusch to tell her that her ability to use the service would expire soon, but she was still relearning how to walk.
“I think it would be nice not to have to walk to class like I'm a baby deer,” said Rusch. “So, like getting (Cats on the Go) set up for a fact, like, this is the date that it starts. They'll meet you at this time and then maybe not a time limit, but maybe a flexible time limit.”
Three Years Later…
By May 2016, Rusch was fully recovered. Now a senior, Rusch lives with her two roommates, her cat, and a dog in a small off-campus apartment. One roommate, Carma Farley, a psychology major, was surprised to literally hear one of the effects of the surgery.
“I remember she went to get up and she went to turn, and I heard a ‘clunk’, like, it's about like ‘clap’,” said Farley. “Something like that but more like dense and I looked around like, 'What just fell?' or like, 'What happened?' and she's like, 'Oh yeah, that's just my hip.'”
Rusch said she still has issues doing certain tasks such as tying her shoes and there are instances where her leg requires her to use the ramps instead of the stairs.
“It's kind of ironic because like I take ramps when I'm walking, and I used to get so mad when people would walk on the ramps because I'm just like, 'I'm a big person, I'm in a big chair. Y'all need to move. This is my ramp,’” said Rusch. “Now, I'm like, 'Dang. Maybe they had underlying issues nobody really sees.'”
Although Rusch had a difficult time during her recovery process, Rusch said she was thankful for the services the school provided for her.
Olivia Baker poses for a portrait. Baker has dyslexia, but she no longer uses the accommodations provided by the Office of Disability Services. Photo by Lucero Ibarra.
Invisible Hurdles
Oliva Baker, a theatre junior, was tested for dyslexia at an early age. When the results came back positive, she worked with her elementary and high school to make sure she could receive a full education. This continued into her college years.
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects reading. Letters and numbers are often mixed up and can also affect spelling and math skills. According to the International Dyslexia Association, 20 percent of the total population shows some symptoms of having dyslexia such as slow reading and poor spelling. Everyone experiences their dyslexia differently. For Baker, she sometimes forgets how to spell certain words and mixes up similar looking letters.
“One of my most famous things that my dyslexia did to me was I remember I was writing and, for the life of me, I did not know how to spell ‘of,’” said Baker. “No matter what. I was like ‘U-V’, right? That’s how you spell ‘of’?”
During her senior year of high school, Baker worked with a teacher to make sure accommodations would be available to her upon arriving at her first year of college. With help from ODS, Baker would be able to receive extra time on exams and have print outs of a professor’s PowerPoint among other accommodations.
“For me, when I was a freshman, they gave me a piece of paper so that all my professors can sign it saying that I am a dyslexic student and I can have these accommodations like I can have a laptop in class to take notes because some professors don't allow people to take notes on your laptop,” said Baker.
Baker said the stigma against those with dyslexia has shifted. She said people no longer see it as attention seeking. Baker’s mother has dyslexia and it was how she was treated in school that led her to testing her children.
“She didn't like it and she felt like a dumb student and so when she found out she was dyslexic years after high school, she was like "Well," and she had kids,” said Baker. “She's like, "Well, I want to make sure that my kids don't feel like this."
Baker no longer uses the accommodations provided for her by ODS. She said she has learned to live with her dyslexia. Getting tested for dyslexia as a child made sure Baker got the resources needed to the same quality of education as her peers. She attended a dyslexia class throughout her primary school years where she learned how to live with her dyslexia. She said that it was those classes that prepared her to the point where the full range of accommodations were rarely needed.
“I've been in a dyslexic class since elementary school, so they taught me a lot of things like how to work around your dyslexia and like so that it helps,” said Baker. “(The class) actually benefits you instead of hindering you.”
Baker identifies as an able-bodied person. She said she acknowledges her learning disability, but she also knows that her ability to walk around freely is a privilege. She said it is because she is able-bodied that she feels that the school was more readily able to provide accommodations for her.
Baker said she hopes students will respect the ramps and reserve them for those who need to use them.
“I saw a student who's in a wheelchair using the ramps and like other students, able bodied students, were using the ramp too,” said Baker. “He actually had to like back up, so they could all come out. So, something like that. Making sure that the student body knows the ramps and all these other (accommodations) like the elevators and that things are there for students with disabilities and that's like their number one priority.”
A timelapse video of students using the accessible ramp near the LBJ Student Center. Video by Lucero Ibarra.
What the Future Holds
Texas State is expanding. As of the summer of 2018, many parts in and around the LBJ Student Center are closed for construction. This includes the entrance closest to the Alkek Library. Temporary ramps have been set up around the area to help students with disabilities get around. The ADA coordinator for Texas State sent out an email, updating students about further closures and asked able-bodied students to avoid using the ramps.
Student government will be starting a campaign to raise awareness about ADA and the misuse of accommodations with posters and the slogan, “Accessibility is your responsibility.”
“We're going to try the best we can to just campaign, educate people about really what (ADA) is because like I said people don't even know what ADA is,” Director of Marketing and Senator Monnette Villarreal said. “And we keep saying ADA and (the students are) like, 'I mean I don't know what that is.' So I think educating for now and just kind of seeing how far we can go with that.”
The ADA itself also faces changes. There have already been changes made to the original act. Cindy Conyers, the ADA coordinator for the city of San Marcos, said the future of ADA is looking to helping those who have mental illnesses.
“I think what is the accommodations that we're seeing now is more of the mental things and that is a whole new area,” said Conyers. “For employment as well as school setting and stuff. The different mental impairments people have from PTSD to you name it. That's a whole new area that we don't have guidelines.”