Disabled students at risk during emergency

From The Tempest at Solano Community College in California:

Disabled students are frustrated with having classes on the second floor of the 400 building because stairs are the one way to get down in case of a disaster, and they are useless for a person in a wheelchair.

Disability services used to be in a temporary building near the campus Police Department, so staff and students were glad to have space in the new 400 building. But the architect designed, and college approved, three upstairs classrooms to be used by the disabled, instead of staying with the one story campus that worked so well.

Already, at least one disabled student has had trouble with the elevator. Kenny Glover is completely limp outside of his wheelchair, so rescuing him will be difficult. Lori Knight is a human services major, who feeds Kenny his lunch. She used to work with him in the classroom, but recent cuts in the disability budget denied her that job.

“In case of an emergency, Kenny is my priority,” said Knight. “I know what classes he takes, and where they are. Thankfully he does not have any upstairs classes in the 400 building this semester. Last semester he got stuck in the elevator for 45 minutes. He can not push the button to go upstairs, and had to wait for someone else to open the door.”

Vera Aitemon, a foreign language major, who already knows seven languages, said the college needs more sensibility. She uses an electric wheelchair. She said she has to go up to the second floor for financial aid, but she is glad she does not have any classes up there this semester.

Xenia Tom, an early child development major, uses a manual wheelchair and is unhappy with the 400 building.

“They need to hurry up and figure out something right away” she said. “I fought last semester and didn’t get anywhere and now I am tired of fighting.”

Ron Nelson is a part-time teacher in the disabilities department. Candace Roe, the head counselor in disability, said Nelson has the greatest number of wheelchair-using students. Nelson said he also has a number of students who use walkers or canes or otherwise find it difficult to walk.

He said he was able to move his upstairs class to a downstairs location by talking to former math and science Dean David Redfield and Jill Compton, who were very helpful in getting him a classroom in the 1500 building. Redfield is leaving, however.

Nelson said, “It had been suggested to me to hold my class later in the day and then I would not have a problem getting a classroom. But this does not work because disabled people often have to take medications that make them sleepy. Or they have medical illnesses that cause fatigue.”

He added, “They also have transportation issues. Often various organizations give them a ride home and they have to go when there ride is operating, which is usually in the early afternoon, around 2 p.m. or earlier.“

The elevator has not worked for as long as two weeks at one time. That meant that the students could not get to their classes. One employee could not get to her job, and had to come in and find out it was still broken.

The elevator is only big enough for two or at most three wheelchairs, if one was small, or maybe two walkers. It could take several trips to get a whole class upstairs, if more than three were in wheelchairs. Two classes of 30 students are held upstairs, but exact numbers on how many are in wheelchairs were not available from Roe.

Roe said the school should have evacuation chairs to carry disabled students downstairs safely.

Counseling Dean Erin Vines said, “Ideally the proper equipment to get disabled down from the second floor should have been bought when the building opened one and one-half years ago.” But there was no money then.

Police Chief Steve Dawson, head of the safety committee, will order LifeSlider evacuation chairs in the next couple of weeks. He found out there is not a legal requirement to have these chairs, but he thinks it is only right to have them in place.

It is not easy to move disabled classes downstairs. “Scheduling classes is an art not a science,” Vines said. “It can get pretty complicated.”

Of the two downstairs classrooms in the 400 building, he said, “The high-tech classroom is too small because the popularity of the class has grown, and the learning disabilities classroom was built for smaller groups.”

“It is important to remember the things that are good about our disabled department,” said Vines. “Roe spends lots of overtime hours there because she cares so much for the students. There are about 17 special classes for the disabled in the catalog, which is many more than most colleges have.”

Nelson said his boss is doing his best.

“Vines is an advocate for the disabled with the administration.”