All colleges advertise themselves as disability-friendly. They throw pamphlets at you and yell “You’re wanted no matter who you are.” So, you take the bait. You apply, get accepted, and start at whatever school feels the best for you. Prior to starting your first year, you immediately hear from the disability office. These back-and-forth conversations are filled with reassurances that you’ll be in good hands and that the university will do anything to help you succeed. You feel safe, so you move in and you start your college journey. As time passes, those calls from the disability office become less and less. Now, you’re lucky if they respond to your emails. You came into school feeling wanted, and now, you just feel alone. This is the reality of disability services at universities, specifically Susquehanna. Here is a list of my grievances with Susquehanna’s disability services.
- Students Get Lost in the System
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One of the main reasons I chose Susquehanna is because of the small school environment. They advertised that there was constantly personalized attention to each student, and for the most part, there is. However, when it comes to disability services, I feel I have been lost in the masses. As a first-year student, the disability office made it a point to be in constant contact with me, but now, as a sophomore, I can barely get a response through email. It seems as if now that I am no longer a new student, they no longer feel that they need to win me over. So, they leave me behind to go look for new fresh students to convince.
- Lack of contact between the disability office and the health center
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Due to the nature of my chronic illness, the flare-ups I experience are oftentimes sporadic and unpredictable. Therefore, I have had various instances where I unexpectedly needed some form of medical attention. Earlier this semester, I felt extremely faint and dehydrated, so I went to the health center. When I got there, I explained that normally the easy solution to this problem is IV fluids. The nurses then told me that IVs were not a service that they provided so I would have to go somewhere else. They never asked me if I needed to see a doctor. They never even checked to see if I had the means of transportation to get to the ER or an urgent care. They basically just told me to leave. After that fiasco, I contacted the disability office in search of guidance. The response I got was “We are not affiliated with the health center.” This is a huge problem. Why are the disability office and the health center not in close contact? How can I be taken care of medically if I need to jump through hoops to get responses from either party?
- The campus is not disability friendly
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Now that I have been on SU’s campus for over a year, I know the ins and outs of how the campus is physically set up. Therefore, I can say with certainty that Susquehanna was not built with disabled bodies in mind. I have been to numerous classes where there is either no room for a wheelchair or in order to access the desks you need to climb steps. Throughout the academic buildings, there is almost always an elevator that is out of order. In each of the parking lots, there are barely any handicapped spaces. All of these issues make it near impossible for disabled individuals to navigate this campus.
Susquehanna boasts that it is an inclusive environment that welcomes everyone. But how are disabled students supposed to feel welcomed when they can’t even find a viable parking spot? How do you expect us to succeed if we have to play elevator roulette every day? I am tired of begging for menial accommodations that at this point mean nothing. Without clear change, the accommodations are useless. Susquehanna needs to step forward and actually prove that everyone is welcome because, right now, disabled individuals are not.