Disability Support Services at Fredonia

     Firstly, I'd like to point out that this assignment and topic in general has not only shamed me for having no prior knowledge of my school's disability services (before just now researching it for this post), but has also forced me to check my privelage, it being the reason it has never been necessary for me to know about these services. When searching for colleges not too long ago, I had plenty of my own personal preferences to research, (queer friendly campus, liberal arts vs. sciences, size of campus). But, at that time and until now it hadn't even crossed my mind that there are a majority of other students who may not only have had to consider disability services when looking at schools, but  may have even had to base their choice of college almost entirely upon it's accomodations for those with disablilities.
     There are so many things on a college student's plate, and I can't imagine having to jump through hoops to make sure I could have access something that I now take for granted daily, just simply getting around campus with ease and being able to participate fully in classes. This leads me to my first point about Fredonia's services specifically. Although on the website it states that students will have access to classroom, housing, meal plan, and (supposedly) snow removal accomodations under the DSS (Disability Support Services), the students have a very large amount of their own responsibility in getting them. Under the "Accessing Accomodations" section of the DSS page, there is a clear explaination of the steps one takes to contact a coordinator and figure out their accomadation plan. It then says that the DSS will send an "accomodation memo" to each instructor with a clear outline of the student's expectations. It seems to me that this should be sufficient and the process should stop here. But, the website then states that students should contact their instructors themselves to discuss the accomodations. I have a bit of a problem with this because I feel like to a student with disabilities, it may be daunting or upsetting to know that they will have to contact even more people one-on-one about the subject, especially during the hectic time of year, 2 weeks prior to the start of class or even later. Also, the excessive repetition of the subject has the potential to accentuate the student's disability and become very stigmatizing. I'm glad that the DSS takes responsibility for sending the student's needs to their professors after they have gone over them with a coordinator, but I feel like the student's responsibility should stop there. I think this contributes significantly to the social construction of these individuals. I feel like this sends the message that the student's disability is their "problem" or their issue that they need to take responsibility for and address. Rather than just living in a world and specificaly on a campus that doesn't have a defined "normal body" and automatically offers such "accomodations," (which wouldn't even need to be referred to that way) to all, students labeled disabled  have to go out of their way to get it taken care of and make sure they are catered to, that in turn marginalizes them that much more.
     In terms of my personal observation, I have many complaints about the physical "accomodations" that our campus has for disabled students. Not all buildings with more than one floor (including dorm buildings) have elevators. Ramps for entrances to buildings are located far off in the back of many buildings that I've noticed, which I'm sure makes it take longer for those students to get around to the back to get to class. I have noticed that lecture halls aren't very accomodating either, because it's extremely difficult to find the ramps and/or bottom entrances. I once wheeled a friend with a broken leg into a lecture hall in Jewett, We left on time and ended up being 15 minutes late because we folowed handicapp signs which took us down an ancient elevator and through many narrow twists and turns into the less than comforting basement area of the building, and eventually lead to none other than a locked door. I wheeled her all the way back up to where we began and left her wheelchair at the top of the lecture hall, where she could barely hear or see what was written on the board. That experience gave me much perspective. Lastly, I understand that Fredonia is in the snowbelt and sometimes the snow falls so fast that it's hard to keep up. But I have actually seen students in wheelchairs on campus struggling to travel through the snow and ice all over the sidewalks in the winter, and that is unacceptable. There are days I can barely walk around in it and I am able-bodied. I wish I was innovative enough to help come up with a solution to this, but there must be someone who can and it needs to be done.
     I can't imagine being disabled in general, especially on this campus and especially in winter. I applaud all of those who do it daily, and I'd be interested in being involved in any movement to better Fredonia's disability services to "normalize" all types of bodies.