The great effort on behalf of disabled students began years ago. While much progress has been made and there is reason to celebrate, much work remains for the University to become a place where all students are free to move around the campus.
Serving the disabled is not a job that one man can do. The Office of Disability Services is overworked and understaffed. While many other universities have someone who’s primary responsibility is ADA compliance, we hand that over to an office who also must provide services for students and faculty who suffer from a myriad of disabilities including learning, physiological, hearing and physical limitations.
It has reached the point where some disabled students feel the Disability Services Office is unapproachable requiring them to resort to other venues for their grievances such as Student Government and The Daily Reveille. This should not be the case. Disabled students should not be forced to search campus for a voice, the disability services office must serve as the liaison for these students.
If LSU is serious about providing mobility and programming access for disabled students, it must provide the resources needed to accomplish the task. As can easily be seen, disability access is a huge issue that demands attention. We can’t expect Disability Services to meet these needs along with all these other groups that are lumped together, but often share little in common.
Also, the University administration must keep the commitments they have already made and lead the effort to create a completely accessible campus.
“The attention level to this is very high and needs to be very high,” Chancellor Sean O’Keefe said of ADA compliance.
We agree. The “administrative oversights” that prevented the University from living up to its commitment of matching student fees set aside for mobility access simply should not happen. There is no excuse that suffices those oversights. The University must live up to their commitments without the prodding of Student Government or The Daily Reveille.
If the University administration truly desires to be ranked among our peer institutions, they must act and lead. Although we appreciate the historic value of the campus and its buildings, we can’t continue to live as we did in the 1950’s.
As the Flagship Agenda requires extensive planning, discussion and resources, so does the quest for an accessible campus.
 
 
The Daily Reveille Editorial Board is: Scott L. Sternberg, Editor-in-Chief; Mark F. Bonner, Managing Editor; Ryan Merryman, Opinion Editor; Dorothy E. Paul, Online Editor; Jason Dore’, Columnist.
 
The Editorial Board produces weekly editorials written by the Opinion Editor which express the views of the Editorial Board. However, the opinions of the board do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of The Daily Reveille’s staff.
 
This editorial was written by the editorial board of The Daily Reveille. The views expressed are those of the board and do not reflect the views of the entire staff.