A variety of campus partners are working together to make sure that no one at NC State, whether they are visiting or attending the university, faces any physical obstacles as they navigate through campus.
These campus partners, including the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity, Student Government and University Housing, are working together through the NC State Accessibility Excursion: a walk throughout the main campus to find any issues in accessibility that may be present.
Crystal Tenan, the IT Accessibility Coordinator at NC State, addressed how these walks have been done in the past but need to be done more than once, because the Facilities Division does not have time to regularly go through and check every part of campus.
“The whole point of this is to teach all participants about physical accessibility barriers and for them to have that in mind when they are going places, because their actions impact others,” Tenan said.
According to Tenan, participants will learn how to report problem spots on campus, which help individuals feel like they are making a difference.
“It is also to empower them,” Tenan said. “Because we do have an access request form we are going to teach participants about. That way if they see something on campus, they can let us know and get it fixed.”
Sam Chan, a third-year studying political science and communication and one of the leaders of the Student Government Diversity Outreach Department, said Student Government will be involved in the event.
“We were excited because accessibility is something we have wanted to work on for awhile, and the Diversity Outreach Department is looking into this year, so this is a great first step,” Chan said.
Chan also said that Student Government is hoping to work more this year with various organizations and departments to make sure that all of campus is accessible to its students.
“We met with the Disability Resource Office recently, and right now our first goal is to talk with students enrolled with the Disability Office to see what their needs are in terms of accessibility around campus,” Chan said.
According to Tenan, a future goal is to have a map that will not only have accessible doors, ramps and other items marked, but also accessible routes. For now, participants will be marking down where accessibility points are located, and making note of items that are broken or a hindrance, so that facilities knows where problem places are on campus.
“I think everyone has a misconception that Facilities goes around and checks all of these things,” Tenan said. “But we don’t actually have enough facilities to go around campus and do that all of the time.”
The walk is open to all and is set to take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 15. The excursion will begin at room 4101 in Talley.
Those interested in participating are encouraged to fill out a Google Form so they can be notified of any event changes. The form is not required for participation. The form and additional information can be found on the IT Accessibility webpage.
