Accessible for all? A recently constructed building with no elevator raises questions about how Camosun College is doing with accessibility issues

Features February 21, 2018

Camosun’s Centre for Trades Education and Innovation is a beautiful building, filled with modern equipment and hope for the future of our province. I recently took a bus out to see the building, which officially opened in 2016 and is located on the Interurban campus. I was amazed as I walked through the doors into the Farmer Family Student Commons, the building’s atrium. It’s absolutely massive, with a large ceiling and furniture sparsely placed throughout. The space is divided in two, with a mezzanine above. Most people would walk in and get caught up in the grandeur of the wooden structure overhead, or the wall covered in the names of the building’s sponsors. But there are also those who would enter only to notice that they can’t join the people on the mezzanine, because there is no elevator.

I never would have guessed that a staircase would have the ability to provoke so much conversation. But after Nexus received a concerned email about the lack of elevator in the building and I started researching and doing interviews for this story, I found myself face to face with a whole lot of questions that needed answering.

Stairway to mezzanine, elevator to nowhere

First and foremost, if we’re talking new construction, the college has to meet the requirements of the BC Building Code, which addresses accessibility issues. That’s under the jurisdiction of Camosun director of facilities Ian Tol.

The Centre for Trades Education and Innovation was a $30-million project; Tol says that the college exceeded the standards of the BC Building Code in the construction of the 80,000-square-foot building. All of the shops, labs, and classrooms are on one level; students can take either stairs or a ramp to get into the building.

“We fully met all of the Building Code requirements in terms of accessibility,” says Tol, “but there is the question of the mezzanine.”

There is a mezzanine in Camosun’s newest building that doesn’t have an elevator or lift leading up to it (photo by Fred Cameron/Nexus).

The mezzanine, which prompted the email that got this story started, sits on the top of a staircase and can fit 60 students. As long as they can get up there. (There are no classrooms upstairs, so accessibility to classrooms is not an issue.)

“There is no elevator in the building,” says Tol. “What that, unfortunately, came down to is budget. We had to make some choices as to what we could or couldn’t afford. We did consider adding a lift or elevator of some kind.”

Tol says the college is looking at what can be done to mitigate the problem. (On the student side of things, the Camosun College Student Society [CCSS] advocates for student issues at the college; CCSS student wellness and access representative Melanie Winter declined to be interviewed for this story.)

“I’ve been asked to look into options,” says Tol, “in order to make the mezzanine accessible to those who can’t climb stairs.”

Camosun director of learning services Sybil Harrison says that the college’s goal is to have accessibility in planning from the early stages, rather than responding to and fixing problems. There is still work to do, Harrison says, adding that she is confident that there is a renewed belief in these values here at Camosun.

“With older buildings,” says Harrison, “it’s always going to be a retrofit, but as we build new we can think differently. Sometimes we are not aware of the problems. Once they are brought to our attention we can look into them. Sometimes, that’s something as simple as positioning chairs, but sometimes it’s adding an elevator to the mezzanine in the trades building. That is our challenge. We want to move to a place where we aren’t being reactive. Let’s be proactive and think differently about that.”

College concerns

Camosun Community, Family and Child Studies chair Robin Fast is a Camosun graduate and has been teaching full-time at the college for 12 years. He graduated from Camosun in 1986 from what is now the Community Support Education Assistant certificate program, which trains people in working with and supporting people with developmental disabilities.

The Centre for Health and Wellness is currently under construction at Interurban; Fast says that with the college in a time of growth and development, it’s important to think about what is necessary and how the college can make things better.

“I’ve spoken with college leadership and let my opinion be known, and they’ve recognized that they missed this piece at the trades building,” says Fast. “Camosun is redeveloping its policies. They are trying to bring in a broad group of people to form [a] diversity and inclusion policy working committee in order to influence their policies and make sure the policies are aligning with their values and educational principles.”

Camosun vice president of student experience Joan Yates and vice president of education John Boraas are co-leads of the committee. Yates says the goal of the committee is to have a college where everyone feels safe and accepted.

“We need to have recognition of ways we need to act to be respectful, ways to communicate, ways we need to teach and learn, and even the way the classrooms are laid out,” says Yates. “We will follow a process of equity. When developing policy that works for everybody, you need to understand everybody, and that requires a lot of input. We need to give people a voice right from the beginning. At this point, we are in the discussion stage.”

According to Yates, elements of the diversity and inclusion policy that the college is working on currently exist in a number of college policies.

“We want to roll it all into one major policy,” she says. “It would give clarity to people and make sure that everything is consistent.”

Fast says that it’s very important that the college addresses issues surrounding accessibility, diversity, and equity.

“It is so important for us as educators to keep in mind the larger messages that students are receiving, regardless of their background,” says Fast. “What message do they gather from what they see and hear when they walk onto campus?”

Fast says that there are elements of accessibility in designing landscape and buildings that most people wouldn’t even notice.

“The subtle things—like uneven pavement and curbs that could trip someone up, or the placement of a crosswalk—these things become so much more important when you are faced with mobility issues,” says Fast. “I participated in some tours last year of different buildings as we started talking about the construction of the new building. There was one building where we walked in and the elevator was front and centre. I can’t imagine that many students would use the elevator because classes end at the same time and they would be waiting forever. It would be impossible. The only students who use the elevator are going to be students who need it. It had a totally different feel as you enter the building, however. ‘This is an accessible building’ is the first message that you receive.”

Fast says that first impressions can shape how a student imagines their education will be once they’re in the classroom. If students just see stairs when they go in a building, Fast says that a student in a wheelchair could get the message that “this building is not for me.” In order to access the building, the student would need to be accommodated somehow; Fast says that Camosun’s goal is for the buildings to be constructed with that in mind.

“What I enjoy about the college is that the leadership is very aware and concerned about accessibility and those unspoken messages,” says Fast. “There are multiple pressures on them in terms of budget and priorities. We need to look at the difference between equality and equity. The idea for some is that providing everyone with the same thing is equality, but in reality, providing what people need is what creates accessibility and makes it possible for everyone to participate.”

Learning to adjust

First-year Camosun Legal Office Assistant student Natalia Grass saw her world completely change two years ago.

Grass is from Golden, BC, and she lived quite happily there in the mountains. She grew up skiing at Kicking Horse Resort and, although she’s modest, Grass says she was a pretty good skier. One day up at the hill she found herself skiing alone and came to the edge of an unmarked cliff. There was nobody in the area and no cell service, so, out of ideas, Grass says she had to take her skis off and climb down. She tried to descend the 60-foot cliff backwards, but she slipped and fell.

Grass had to be airlifted out. She had an incomplete C6 and C7 injury, meaning she injured her sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae; she also got whiplash from the fall. Grass says that a piece of her C6 broke off and put pressure on her spinal cord. It caused enough damage that she doesn’t have full use of her hands or legs, and she is paralyzed up to her chest. It’s called “incomplete” because she still has some sensation.

“I can still feel pain,” says Grass. “I also have some minor hand movement as well.”

Grass was in the eleventh grade at the time of her injury; she spent the next six months in hospital. The community rallied around her and enough money was raised to cover expenses. Grass says she had to get an $8,000 wheelchair. She got out of the hospital the day before she returned for her final year of high school. Grass had to learn to adjust in a hurry, but she says she picked up new habits pretty quickly. She used a wheelchair to move from class to class. Her high school got a weight machine for her to use in place of participating in gym class. Grass learned to use an iPad for taking notes and writing exams.

“My school was super helpful,” says Grass, “and the people did a lot to help me, but it was a small town in the mountains. I had to get away from the weather. It’s really snowy there, and I can’t get through it. I tried everything. I even have little skis for my front wheels. It was just too much when there was a lot of snow. If I go over any potholes, my wheels just go right down. The weather was quite a pain for me.”

Grass moved to Victoria with her mother, Shelagh, on January 2 of this year. “I love the snow and always did,” says Grass, “but the rain works better for me. I don’t lose traction in my chair.”

Grass came to Victoria with her sister before classes started to visit Interurban. She met with her instructors, and they showed her how to get around the building and find the labs.

“My classes are all in the same building,” says Grass. “The hallways are very easy to manoeuvre in the CBA [Centre for Business and Access] building and it’s like I have my own elevator. I’ve never seen anybody else use it.”

Grass says that, for her, Camosun is really workable, but adds that she has received a lot of help from her instructors as well as from the college’s Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL). She says she meets with CAL chair Brent Wassermann often.

“They’ve helped me a lot with the Dragon speech-to-text program; I’ll be using it for my exams,” says Grass. “They informed my instructors that I’ll need more time for tests because typing takes me much longer. I can get more time for assignments, as well, which I haven’t used yet.”

Grass says that she might be biased because she came from an inaccessible town, but she finds Camosun very good about providing access for students. She says she understands that people have different needs, so it’s never going to be perfect.

“For now,” Grass says, “I just kind of deal with it.”

As for not being able to access the mezzanine in the trades building, Grass looks on the bright side.

“Camosun is really very workable,” she says. “I understand that there are issues with cost. I’m not going to be able to go everywhere.”

College assistance

Wassermann says that the CAL has a mandate to ensure academic accessibility for students with different types of disabilities.

“Students come to us to talk about what their academic goals are,” says Wassermann. “We discuss their diagnosis and the barriers they face. In response, we provide academic support. That can be in class, like sign language interpreting, transcribing, or note taking. It can be exam-related support, usually with regards to time allowed or distraction-reduced environments. Technology support.”

In terms of physical mobility, Wassermann says that students face a variety of challenges. For example, he says that often they get the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to come help students with visual impairments “to get a visual snapshot of the physical layout of the campus.” Sometimes the CAL assists in making sure that students know about buses or handyDart, or, for students who drive, making sure that they know where accessible parking spots are.

Wassermann says that the CAL also helps students navigate access to the Canada Student Grant for Students with Permanent Disabilities, which is set up to help students pay for education, as well as to any other supports or services they might be eligible for.

“A lot of what we do is problem-solving in the moment,” says Wassermann. “We don’t have jurisdiction over the physical barriers. What we can do is act as an advocate with [Camosun] Facility Services, for example, and most of the time things get solved.”

For Wassermann,the best part of his job is building connections with students. He says that everybody has their own journey and everybody is carrying something that they deal with; he adds that he sees disability as being on the spectrum of diversity.

“Looking at all of the places that I have worked, Camosun College is very inclusive,” he says, “and I’m proud to say that I work here.”

Planning ahead

As previously mentioned, there is another major project underway at Interurban: The Centre for Health and Wellness, which is currently under construction. Camosun Continuing Care chair Carly Hall has spent the past year representing the School of Health and Human Services with the building design team. Hall says that she is there to make sure that the needs of faculty, staff, and students are heard by the design team.

The new building will house all of the college’s Health and Human Service programs except for dental. Hall says that it’s a large, four-storey building with a $43.5-million budget.

“It will certainly be a busy place,” says Hall. “It includes classrooms, health-care labs, high-fidelity simulation spaces, and lots of common areas for students, both for studying and social spaces.”

Because the building is on a hill, Hall says that the main entrance will be on the first floor, with additional entrances on the second floor on the back side; she says that the landscape was designed with accessibility in mind. There will be pathways linking the building to the rest of campus from both the front and back. The interior of building will be serviced by elevators, and Hall says that all four floors will be fully accessible.

“In the classrooms,” Hall says, “we have planned for one accessible workstation in each classroom, which is adjustable so it can function as a standing desk or accommodate a wheelchair. We are trying to get away from moving a piece of furniture around with a student, and instead make any classroom accessible for that student.”

Taking it downtown

City of Victoria city councillor Jeremy Loveday helped start Victoria’s Accessibility Working Group, which is made up of people with experience with accessibility challenges. The goal is to make city facilities, infrastructure, and programming accessible to everybody.

“The biggest issue in terms of accessibility at the city is trying to create a cultural shift,” says Loveday. “Accessibility should be thought of every time we make a decision, instead of trying to fix mistakes. Every time a new project begins, there are many chances to create barriers. We need policies at the city level, and it needs to be addressed at the provincial and federal levels to make sure that we are not creating new barriers. We also need to continue to undo the barriers that already exist.”

Accessibility is covered in the Canadian Human Rights Act, and while the Building Code addresses some accessibility issues, there’s no legislation that mandates accessibility or rights for people living with disabilities or accessibility challenges. Loveday says he first heard about this directly from people with experience in the community; he says that it was brought forward and the city was asked to be involved.

“I worked with them to create a motion that passed here at Victoria City Council and then sent to the Union of BC Municipalities, where it passed almost unanimously,” he says. “Because there was a transition in government, I brought a new motion to council to have the mayor write to the province directly, because this government is more receptive to this type of issue. We are calling on the province to bring in a strong and effective persons with disabilities act.”

Loveday says that strong and effective disability legislation would help to make sure that issues like the lack of an elevator at Camosun’s trades building don’t arise in the first place.

“We could prevent issues from having to be solved one by one,” says Loveday, “either in courtrooms or in the realm of public opinion when enough pressure is brought to bear.”

Harrison says that Camosun is no exception to what the Human Rights Act calls a “duty to accommodate” and adds that the college is “required to meet the needs of people with a disability and allow them to participate in the educational community, like everybody else.”

“Beyond the college, in society in general,” says Harrison, “we are seeing a shift in thinking. The idea used to be that everyone should be treated the same. If we treat everyone the same, some people can’t succeed. A simple example is building accessibility. If you say everyone should use a staircase, the people who can’t are at a disadvantage.”

 

Camosun College is a growing public institution. As such, it faces challenges in meeting the needs of a very wide demographic. The challenges have come to the forefront as Camosun has tried to balance costs, due diligence, and legal requirements as expansion continues. The college has done an admirable job, but the fact that it is still coming up short in certain areas raises questions.

As I stood and looked at the staircase in the trades building, I couldn’t help but wonder: at what point do we as a society step in and force policy change that would eliminate the questions before there is even a need to ask them?

Then I left the building, thinking about someone at the college being concerned enough about this to email us in the first place, thinking about the mezzanine that isn’t accessible to all students, and thinking about a future where these questions don’t even need to be discussed. It’s been a long time coming, and hopefully it’s here sooner rather than later.

1 thought on “Accessible for all? A recently constructed building with no elevator raises questions about how Camosun College is doing with accessibility issues

  1. This is a really thoughtfully written & researched piece. Thanks very much for giving the topic of accessibility on our campuses this focused attention, and for framing the issue in the balanced way you did — critical but also encouraging.

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