By MELISSA ROBERTSON
The construction at BYU has caused headaches for everyone, but students with disabilities may have a harder time than most getting around campus.
Although some students with disabilities say they have no more trouble getting around than any other BYU students, others say the construction has caused serious problems for them.
There are things disabled students need to help them get to class.
A clear path is important.
Kathy Taylor, a junior in advertising, from Petaluma, Calif., who is in a wheelchair, said when she wants to go from the Harris Fine Arts Center to the Jesse Knight Humanities Building, she must go all the way around the Museum of Art and the Abraham Smoot Administration Building because construction blocks the way. For most students there is a path through the MOA garden, but it is inaccessible to her.
Sometimes because of the construction, ramps are not clear so she cannot get through, Taylor said. She said she was going up the long ramp by the Wilkinson Center and was stopped by a large hose across the ramp. Fortunately, she said, a student helped lift her chair over the hose.
Jason Lusk, a junior from Rochester, N.Y., majoring in statistics, said because he is blind, he uses landmarks he can hear to determine where he is. For example, when he walks past the flagpole south of the Administration building, he knows where he is because he can hear the flag rope clanking against the pole. But when the construction is loud, he cannot hear it. When that happens, he said, 'it is hit and miss, and trial and error.'
Lusk said he also has trouble because as part of the construction process, barriers are erected or vehicles are parked on the walkways. On Aug. 7, Lusk said he was walking between the Jesse Knight Humanities Building and the Harold B. Lee Library and suddenly there was a big vehicle or device in his way and the sidewalk was torn up in front of him.
'I had no idea how to negotiate it,' he said.
Lusk said he did not know that area would be closed off that day. He said he would like be informed about construction before it happens so he could plan his route around it.
'They have traffic reports updating people on the I-15 construction. I'm not suggesting a helicopter, but there must be some way(that)people with disabilities could be informed where construction was happening so blockages could be avoided or time allotted to get around them,' he said.
Some suggestions for getting around the construction are: putting up signs at the construction sites, mailing flyers or sending e-mail messages, counseling, establishing a hotline, or perhaps a combination of these suggestions.
Taylor said she thought signs like the ones posted between the HFAC and the MOA that could tell how to get around the construction would be helpful.
Elizabeth Congram, a wheelchair-bound senior from Kinsport,Tenn., majoring in elementary education, said signs should tell how long the area will be under construction.
'They've tacked a sign between the HFAC and the museum that says it is temporarily blocked off,' she said. 'What do they mean by temporarily blocked off? A week? A year and a half?'
Some of the other suggestions are already in place.
Rochelle Rabe, a graduate student in school psychology, from Kirkland, Ohio, who is in a wheelchair, said the Services for Students With Disabilities Office also provides class and route counseling for students who come into that office.
'Mobile-impaired students ought to make appointments with our staff to take a look at their schedule, review it, and make sure it is reasonable,' she said.
Byrd said Services for Students with Disabilities tries to inform disabled students as quickly as possible by sending out fliers to disabled students in advance of construction, and calling students when they find out about it.
He said the new system with e-mail for all students will make it easier for them to let disabled students know about the construction.
'It very well could be that with large group address books we can send out mass e-mail very quickly to everybody at once,' he said.
He said the word does not always get out to all the students because Services for Students with Disabilities does not know about a disabled student unless they come to the office. Also, he said once the office sends out the messages, it is up to students to check their phone or read the fliers. When they call students and the students are not home and do not have an answering machine, they keep calling back to try to catch the students at home.
Lusk, Congram and Taylor have all had contact with Services for Students with Disabilities but none of them have heard construction updates recently.
'I've never been notified beforehand,' Taylor said. 'I've talked to some other people and they said they have never been notified either.'
Congram said she has received fliers and phone calls in the past, but not recently.
One option for making construction information available to all students is a construction hotline.
Byrd said Services for Students with Disabilities could not establish a hotline because it would require them to dedicate one of their two phone lines for that purpose. 'Perhaps university information could establish one,' he said.
'I would use it. Maybe not consistently, but it would be a nice thing to have,' Congram said.
But Mary Asmus, the secretary for the planning department of BYU Physical Facilities, said she had worked in the planning department for eight years and did not think a hotline would be feasible.
'There is so much going on, it would be really hard to keep updated. There is a lot of construction, a lot of crews, and a lot of people. There are so many contractors involved that it would be a monumental task,' she said.