Accessibility & Support for Students with Disabilities
I want to go to a Yale where everyone, including and especially students with disabilities, can safely navigate and fully participate in the Yale experience. A recent op-ed in the Yale Herald, written by a student with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, noted that students with disabilities are often told by staff that Yale’s policy is “only to do what is absolutely legally required.” This is insufficient, and not an acceptable way for the administration to respond to the needs of members of the Yale community. Every student deserves safe and easy access to Yale’s classes, dining halls, living spaces, and community events, and the YCC should be a vocal and forceful advocate to make sure that services and support provided to students with physical and learning disabilities are as comprehensive and easily accessible as possible.
Yale should:
Significantly improve waiting times and reliability for Special Services Vans that transport students with disabilities, and generally improve accessible transportation services.
Improve accessibility in all campus buildings, especially residential colleges, dining halls, cultural centers, academic buildings, and libraries. No student should be forced to miss a student organization meeting because the building it is held in is inaccessible.
Ensure that the two new residential colleges and the Schwarzman Center are made to be as accessible as possible for students with disabilities.
Streamline processes for requesting and receiving academic accommodations from Yale’s Resource Office on Disabilities.
Include well-publicized events during Bulldog Days and Camp Yale that describe accessibility services and academic support provided for students with disabilities and connect students with the resources they need.
What YCC can do:
Create an Accessibility task force that carries out a thorough review of Yale’s accessibility and support for students with disabilities, including:
A review of campus building accessibility, including cultural houses, residential college entryways, academic buildings, and libraries, with specific recommendations for high-priority accessibility renovations.
A review of the academic support services offered to students through Yale’s Resource Office on Disabilities, with recommendations for expanding these services and/or making existing services more easily available to students.
A review of transportation services for students with disabilities, with recommendations for expanding these services and/or making existing services more easily available to students.
A review of the extent to which accommodations are publicized and made accessible to students with disabilities, with recommendations to make services more accessible and better publicized.
An evaluation of accessibility plans for the new residential colleges.
Advocate for the report’s recommendations to key University officials.
Direct the Events Committee to choose accessible venues for all YCC events.
Set an example by ensuring that all YCC meetings are held in accessible rooms.