Following the January 26, 2015 incident where blind student Anthony Janolino fell down a set of concrete steps and sustained a concussion, SFU has begun accessibility improvements on campus.
Janolino has since been in touch with SFU Facilities Services. They are currently doing work to improve accessibility at the site of his fall, installing handrails on the staircase near the West Gym and Shell house in order to prevent hazards for the visually impaired.
“It is to prevent anyone from stepping off that edge,” said Frank De Vita, Buildings and Grounds superintendent. The estimated time for completion is not set, but De Vita expects the work to be done in three or four weeks.
“There is an accessibility office on campus that primarily focuses on accessibility issues, and there is an Accessibility Committee where the members sit on and review the accessibility needs with certain amount of funding to make those modifications,” explained De Vita.
According to him, these processes take time and some areas are “not easily modified because of the way [. . . the] university was built over the years.”
Facilities Services is trying to look at more creative ways to solve accessibility problems, says De Vita. Otherwise, it is likely to become costly for the university.
“All this takes some time, but it is up to the Accessibility Committee to prioritize issues. But when issues do come up, the accessibility office does contact us to let us know where the issues are,” said De Vita.
One of the challenges Facilities Services faces when making modifications to the campus is trying to preserve historical value of the buildings and aesthetics of the university.
De Vita explained that the issue of accessibility was not a high priority issue when the university was built in the ‘60s, but they are now striving to resolve accessibility problems.
“Facilities Services is always here to address problems, and the students should feel free to contact us when issues arise,” he stressed.
Sitting on the Simon Fraser Student Society’s (SFSS) Accessibility Fund Advisory Committee and representing Students United for Disability Support (SUDS) on the SFSS council, Janolino is involved in numerous accessibility efforts at SFU.
He added that although this particular concern is being addressed, there are certain accessibility measures that need to be maintained on a regular basis, pointing to how shrubberies on campus require continual trimming to allow adequate clearance around campus walkways.
Janolino also mentioned that while the work being done right now will benefit the visually impaired, there are many other needs to consider when approaching accessibility on SFU’s campuses.
