The university falls short in providing accessibility to all buildings on campus.
Many students agree that the University of Tulsa could do better when it comes to accessibility and ADA compliance on campus. While the university is technically ADA compliant, many of its buildings and entrances should not be considered as such and seem to be built solely from the perspective of able-bodied people.
For instance, the only elevator in Chapman will periodically go out of order and shut down, forcing everybody to use the stairs and leaving those with physical disabilities wondering how they will make it to their classes on the days they cannot use the elevator.
McFarlin library, which is printed on many of the university’s brochures and is one of the few major symbols of the university, has many problems with accessibility as well. For instance, the ramp of McFarlin is not anywhere visible when looking at the building from the front. This forces those requiring an ADA accessible entrance to search for it and the ramp that is on the side of the building. When people are able to find the ramp, it is difficult for those who are wheelchair-mobile to even use it as the ramp is very narrow and filled with turns. Additionally, once they get up the ramp, if they are indeed able to do so, they may be unable to use the front entrance of the building as there is not an ADA push plate, or the button that appears next to doors so that they open automatically. Furthermore, the floor on the outside of McFarlin is jagged, potentially making it difficult or uncomfortable to roll a wheelchair outside of the building and to where the sitting area is.
The sitting area outside of McFarlin, too, has some issues with respect to accessibility. The chairs in front of the library are attached to the tables they are around, and the room between the chairs is so narrow that a wheelchair cannot fit between them. Thus, a person in a wheelchair cannot sit at those tables. Furthermore, because the umbrellas stretch enough to cover the tables and chairs only, if a wheelchair user were to want to sit at the McFarlin tables, they would not be protected from the sun, unlike those who are able-bodied enough to sit on the chairs. Yet still, this building is the one that appears as the face of the university.
Furthermore, while Fisher East is technically ADA compliant as it has an ADA entrance, there are other issues regarding it, primarily concerning the parking options for students who need to enter the building. One of the parking lots, the Lorton Lot, which is directly in front of the main entrance to Fisher East, costs $801 to purchase a parking pass. The other option for parking is for residents of Fisher Wests Suits who require a handicap accessible door to park in the West Suites lot, which then necessitates that they travel up a steep incline to the other side of the building in order to get to the accessible entrance. So, either those who require an ADA entrance incur a major expense or travel up and incline in their wheelchairs.
So, while the university is technically compliant as it has ADA push plates, ramps to enter the buildings, and elevators within them, as it currently stands with the narrowness of the ramps, the sitting area outside of McFarlin, the parking options available to students along with many other faults within the buildings, TU should do much more to ensure that students using wheelchairs or who have difficulty with mobility can actually access the provisions of the university.
