On July 13, 2009, Rafael Ferrer and I went to SUNY Geneseo College so that I could check it out as a possible college that I would consider attending. I also went that day to help Rafael get a campus disability club approved through the student association. I was excited to go to this college because I heard that it had a great education department and that since it was a SUNY college, then it would be an accessible college. I had an interesting tour of the college and would like to share my findings with everyone.

The first thing that I noticed about the college was that there were stairs everywhere! I found one ramp that ended with 10 stairs to reach the door. I also saw that the walkways had big flowerpots at the bottoms and in the middle where two walkways would join, so people would have to go out and around to avoid walking into them. This involved me driving my chair onto the grass. I was wondering what would happen in the winter time or if the grass was wet. The walkways outside weren’t the only problem.

I was told that many of my classes would be in South Hall or Frazier Hall. I found that the ramp that connected these two halls ended in stairs prior to reaching my classrooms. I was told that I “only” had to go outside, back down the hill to another building, to use the elevator and crossover to use another elevator to get to the classroom that I needed to get to, which was only fifty feet from where I had originally started. The man who showed us this way around was nice, but he saw no problem with having to do all this ridiculous extra traveling!

I am interested in taking some acting classes and I checked out Wadsworth Auditorium and some of the classrooms I would use. The theater classrooms were accessible, but to get to the theater where some of the classes would be, most students only had to walk across the hallway and into the theater door. I had to go back down one elevator and outside, to another building and up another elevator to reach the stage area. Once there, I found that to get onto the stage was not possible, since only stairs lead to the stage. Wadsworth Auditorium was accessible for watching, but not for performing.

Although the college has at least three dining halls, only one was wheelchair accessible. Then I realized that this one was only open for lunches. I eat three meals a day. I also got to look at a few dorm rooms. However, the doorways were not wide enough for my wheelchair to enter the room. There are some wheelchair accessible bathrooms, but they were very far apart. Most bathroom doorways were too narrow for my wheelchair to get into and for those that I could get into, it was hard to swing my chair around into the stalls. They did have handrails in the stalls however.

My biggest concern was the inaccessibility of Blake Hall. This Hall was where I would go to get my photo ID and a job on campus. Some Psychology Labs which I would need to take were also located here.

After this interesting tour, I was asked to present my findings to the student association board. The reason I was asked to present my findings was to help the Ableism club get approval to become an official club on campus. The club got its funding and approval. One goal of this club is to help make the college more accessible to everyone. I wish them luck.

Tim Barbato
Intern