The fight for accessibility is an uphill battle faced with closed doors, ignorance and a refusal to take responsibility. The administration prides itself on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, yet students with disabilities are placed on the back burner over and over again. This disheartening reality that so many students are confronted with on campus revolves around the lack of education and Whitman’s refusal to listen to voices.
Grace Hardy, president of the Disability and Difference Community (DISCO), has been left to fight on behalf of the students whose realities are rejected because of these faults within our system.
“The Memorial Hall correspondence in question is from the President’s Budget Advisory Committee (PBAC). The TLDR is budget cuts, and where the college plans to cut. One of those proposed cuts is a $50,000 reduction to the A.D.A. Physical Barriers Elimination Budget. The budget is currently $250,000, so sure, it sounds like a good amount of money; but for some perspective, it would cost over $400,000 to install permanent ramps in Prentiss Hall. In the world of access, $50,000 for a ramp is like $2 for a latte,” Hardy said.
“I’m a disabled student, which forces me to be an activist. If I don’t advocate for myself, it’s likely that nobody will. I have spent my entire time at Whitman begging for accessibility on campus. Hundreds of dollars to be told the benefits of a ramp do not outweigh the cost. But I’m a student, I have essays to write and distribution requirements to get. I don’t get paid to do this work, I pay to do it; if I don’t do it, or if I quit one of these positions, I risk them going away. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take,” said Hardy.
The deliberate ignorance from the college is something Grace and other disabled students experience routinely, and is something the school refuses to admit to. These tactics of suppression solidify the already predisposed notion of American hegemony by establishing the concept of normalcy designed to classify people with disabilities as deviant members of society.
“This January, a cabinet member asked me how he can help my ‘vision’ come to life. I tell him what I have been needing, and it’s the same response I’ve been given each time before. ‘Ask this committee.’ I’ve been told to do that before, I followed their instructions. Did the interview and filled out the application. I’m on that committee. I have willed myself to be in these spaces at this time; I have made it to the space they told me to make it to,” Hardy said.
Whitman College routinely redirects disability advocates to other committees and admin, refusing to take responsibility. By diverting the blame onto others, no real change is enacted, and students go to the sole group they know they can rely on: students. Why? It’s simple. Whitman doesn’t care about their students with disabilities. Even programs such as the DSS or the ARC are fundamentally flawed and inherently inaccessible due to the strenuous process of finding the appropriate documentation and having to prove you are “disabled enough” to receive accommodations. This is work that the admin expects students to do on their own, and students like Grace often wind up doing this work for the admin.
Students shouldn’t be forced to pick a battle out of numerous inequitable obstacles, especially without pay. Having to fight to simply have your existence validated should not be a reality.
“And these are committees that I have on top of other obligations. I’m a sorority president, I work at the CoWS, I’m the president of DISCO, and I love every single one of them. What’s the difference? This is work I do for students, with students. Not the work I do to accommodate Whitman’s negligence,” Hardy said.
“To put it simply, if I were an hourly employee for the college to do this work, I would be paid roughly $150.00 a week. But the work that I do to counteract the college’s miscalculations goes unpaid. I think Whitman forgets that my being here is something I pay for. Cutting the Physical Barriers Elimination Budget is a slap in the face to all students who have been fighting for access at Whitman since the first disabled student arrived on campus. To even propose a cut to the budget is a slap in the face. If $50,000 is going to be moved out of the Barriers Elimination budget – and the college wants to stick to its mission of inclusion – the least they can do is buy a damn ramp for the GAIC,” Hardy said.
Until Whitman recognizes the blatant discrimination, in regards to both accessibility and its refusal to pay student advocates like Grace Hardy, we will exist in an environment where fundamental rights are limited to the able-bodied. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is seen as a vital aspect to academia at Whitman, until it involves spending the money they most definitely already have in their pockets.
