For Liat Ben-Moshe, entering a building, being able to use public bathrooms and writing on a chalkboard are anything but simple.

Ben-Moshe uses a wheelchair. The doctoral student and instructor in sociology and disabilities studies said she finds certain buildings like Carnegie Hall difficult to navigate and that it should be made completely wheelchair accessible.

The difficulties Ben-Moshe encounters reflect broader problems people with disabilities on campus face.

Some of Syracuse University’s buildings currently do not comply with the American Disabilities Act, according to the university’s Accessibility Map on the SU Web site.

The act states, ‘At least one accessible route… shall connect accessible building or facility entrances with all accessible spaces and elements within the building or facility.’

Ben-Moshe, who has been at SU for seven years, said Syracuse’s heavy snowfall contributes to the campus’ accessibility issues, as well. During her time here, she has served on multiple committees to help create a more responsive campus for people with disabilities. While she said SU has come far in the years she has been here, she said there is much more work to be done.

Multiple groups on campus are currently working to make this change.

The Chancellor’s Task Force on Disability, the Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee and the Office for Disabilities Services are working to make SU an inclusive environment for people with disabilities.

The Chancellor’s Task Force on Disability began in 2005.

The task force and BCCC are making recommendations for the buildings to comply with this act.

While there is an explanatory accessibility map available on SU’s Web site, it is not comprehensive and many buildings, including Haven Hall — which is accessible to people with physical disabilities — are not marked.

The goal of organizations like BCCC and the Chancellor’s Task Force is to improve the accessibility problem on campus.

One of BCCC’s recommendations is the creation of an undergraduate disabilities studies program.

Arlene Kanter, co-director of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Disability, said that the task force met with the chancellor’s cabinet last month to make a series of recommendations regarding disabilities at SU. But while the task force develops and advocates for their recommendations, it is still up to the chancellor’s cabinet to figure out how to implement them.

Kanter started the nation’s first joint program in law and disabilities studies, in 2003, and a Graduate Disabilities Studies program has existed since 2001. Now with the help of Steven Taylor, professor of cultural foundations of education and co-director of SU’s Center on Disability Studies, Law and Human Policy, this program is now close to becoming a minor.

Taylor said the foundation is working on an undergraduate minor in disability studies and is in the process of getting approval from various university bodies.

‘We hope to have the minor in place sometime during the 2009-10 academic year,’ Taylor said.

Taylor said the minor, consisting of 18 credits, will include classes on disability and pop-culture, the sociology of disability, and gender and disability. The minor will be offered to students in several SU colleges, and its organizers aim to not only teach students, but also raise awareness about disability issues on campus.

‘We hope that the university will make a commitment to go beyond compliance so we can create a community where people with disabilities can fully participate,’ Kanter said.

Every year BCCC gives The Beyond Compliance Award to any SU department, faculty, staff or student that tries to raise awareness about disabilities and, as Ben-Moshe said, ‘goes beyond compliance.’ She said this means they go beyond what is legally required when accommodating people with disabilities.

Ben-Moshe said the first person to win this award in 2001 was a staff member of FIXit, the maintenance and housekeeping unit for residence halls and dining centers, and last year’s winner was an SU staff member who helped with the planning of the Marshall Square Mall Fitness Center.

‘The people who designed the gym really went above and beyond to make the gym accessible,’ Ben-Moshe said. ‘For instance, they did things like color contrasts for people who are visually impaired. We’re hoping to get some very strong nominations like that this year as well.’

The nominations for this year’s award are currently being collected and are due March 6.

‘SU has a huge potential to be an extremely inclusive space,’ Ben-Moshe said. ‘We are now at the point where real change can actually happen.’

ampaye@syr.edu

Published on February 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm