#43219
Speaker(s)
- Susan Smythe, ADA Program Manager, Swarthmore College
- Lesley Davis, VP, North American Partnerships, AccessAbleUSA
Session Details
- Length of Session: 1-hr
- Format: Lecture
- Expertise Level: Intermediate
- Type of session: General Conference
Summary
We have all spent the last 35 years since the passage of the ADA trying to reach compliance. First came barrier removal projects, and then more recently, electronic and classroom material access. Now community members are asking institutions to push past compliance to inclusion- to amenities that either promote true independent experiences, or those that ensure groups can have equivalent experiences. Swarthmore’s recent work with AccessAble aims to do both.
Abstract
As part of a 20 year long effort to increase access at Swarthmore, we will outline the collaborative process of working with AccessAbleUSA to create highly detailed access guides for over 80 campus spaces. The guides summarize conditions for a wide variety of disabilities, including neurodivergence, mobility, vision, and hearing. The guides can be used by the campus community and visitors alike and allow all users to anticipate any accessibility challenges in their use of campus, allows groups to plan together to include all members, and creates a welcoming profile for prospective students.
As the number of students with disabilities attending colleges increases, this kind of information is not only greatly needed, but expected, and is part of the call by those with disabilities for true inclusion, rather than just compliance. In addition, this surveying tool will also serve as a holistic audit of your facilities, employing ADA as well as international best practice standards, allowing you to target needed barrier removal projects and improvements to create a more accessible and welcoming campus.
Swarthmore College and Princeton University are the first two U.S. higher education institutions to have created detailed access guides with AccessAbleUSA. AccessAbleUSA is the U.S. sister company to AccessAble, a U.K. company that has been operating for 25 years and has surveyed and created access guides for over 90% of U.K. universities. You will learn about the need for access to detailed public-facing accessibility information, as well as the process of surveying and guide creation.
The session will also include the opportunity for participants to share their own experiences of creating campus-wide access, as well as time for questions regarding the approach to creating an accessible campus – especially one full of older buildings, with significant topography.
Keypoints
- Attendees will gain clarity on what information is lacking when a campus claims to be accessible
- Attendees will see the "curb cut effect" of providing detailed accessibility information. All benefit
- Attendees will learn how to use accessibility data analysis to inform campus planning from dorms to events
Disability Areas
All Areas
Topic Areas
Campus & System-wide initiatives, Uncategorized
Speaker Bio(s)
Susan Smythe
Susan Smythe has served as the ADA coordinator/504 Coordinator at Swarthmore College since 2007. During that time, she successfully negotiated a settlement with the US Dept. of Justice around ADA compliance, and produced and managed a 6-year plan for barrier removal across campus. Since completing the plan, she has managed a multi-constituent team on campus working on a variety of disability-related issues including housing and dining accommodations, ESAs, accessibility of classroom materials, transportation, and consultation on all campus building projects. She has presented on ADA compliance at SCUP national conferences, NACUBO, and Accessing Higher Ground with AHEAD.
Lesley Davis
Lesley Davis is a certified ADA Coordinator and a member of the Great Lakes ADA Center’s Trainer Leadership Network. She serves as Chair of Bloomington, Indiana’s Council for Community Accessibility and is co-founder of the Mobility Aids Lending Library. In her role with AccessAbleUSA, Lesley is responsible for liaising with clients and partners, providing ADA compliance recommendations, and creating accessibility surveying templates tailored to U.S. institutions. She has presented on the history of the ADA and other accessibility-related legislation in the US and abroad, as well as on ADA Title II and Title III. Lesley is a member of the editorial board of the Hungarian Journal of Disability Studies. Prior to joining AccessAble, Lesley served for 20 years as the assistant dean for international programs at Indiana University Maurer School of Law.