Caring about disabled students’ needs should not start and end with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance.
There should never be a time where there are no functioning elevators in one of the most populous buildings on campus, but for 40 minutes, seven LBCC students were stuck on the only functioning elevator out of three in the M building on Thursday.
Outside of the inconvenience of being stuck in a small, claustrophobic box with six other people, all the students were late for their classes.
This elevator was the only working elevator available for student use in a three story building that houses a majority of LAC’s communications, English and foreign language classes.
For that period of time, there were no elevators who could ferry students to their second and third floor classes, leaving students to use the M building stairs instead.
That two of the three elevators have not been functioning properly for two thirds of the semester is an example of LBCC’s lack of care over maintaining their facilities and in particular shows lack of concern over accessibility.
For able-bodied students, this would only be an inconvenience, but for disabled students, the lack of functioning elevators would leave their second and third floor classes completely inaccessible.
Per the ADA, there should be one elevator for every 50,000 square feet in a multistory building and one extra elevator should be added for every two floors.
At 97,000 square feet, with three floors and three elevators, two indoors and one outside, the M building more than meets the requirements to abide by the ADA.
It is apparent that there is not enough concern over the ramifications of poor or inadequate maintenance when two of those three elevators are regularly out of commission and the only available elevator malfunctions.
Elevator maintenance should not be considered a low priority, especially not in the building that houses the offices of disabled student programs and services.
If LBCC’s facilities management team does not have the manpower to facilitate the regular maintenance of elevators, a serious look at the allocation of funds is needed. There needs to be more emphasis on the importance of maintaining accessible features on campus.
Ensuring that accessibility features remain accessible is vital to making sure disabled students can attend their on campus classes with the same dignity as any able-bodied student.