The process of designing and constructing an accessible residence hall for people with disabilities on a public university campus
Date
2008
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Abstract
One of the great challenges to older universities and colleges is that of fashioning campuses that once disregarded and discouraged people with disabilities into welcoming and inclusive environments. Handicap accessibility can impact a university's recruitment of students, faculty and staff, building costs and budgets, the raising of public and private funding, and the marketability of the campus for events beyond academic uses, such as conventions, conferences, meetings and entertainment. This qualitative case study examined the process by which physical barrier removal and compliance with accessibility codes, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, is accomplished on a public university campus and to identify the individuals who most influence these projects. The study was bounded by and limited to a newly constructed residence hall on the campus of Colorado State University. Methodology included three types of data gathering: interviews, site visit, and archival and documents search. The list of interview participants evolved in a chain or snowball sampling method. Data reduction was done by inductive analysis. What emerged is a story revealing the chronology of the funding, design and construction process of a residence hall. The apportionment and sequence of the responsibilities of each participant and their degree of influence on accessibility are discussed. Information gained from site visits and document findings was worked into this descriptive narrative. Themes that emerged were related to construction funding, bid proposals, accessibility issues and the experience and training of those interviewed. Also identified as themes were the construction of a full-scale model of a typical student room and the issue of why students with disabilities choose to live in an older dormitory. Findings are generalized into suggestions that administrators, architects, designers and facility planners can use to improve future university construction.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
accessibility
disabilities
disability
dormitory
facilities management
handicap accessibility
residence hall
university
special education
higher education