Penn State: A More Wheelchair-Accessible Campus

 

Introduction:

Navigation and traveling through the Penn State University park campus should be an accessible and feasible experience for everyone, including people with walking disabilities who have no choice but to rely on a wheelchair. This is crucial for the disabled students to have an effective, safe and enjoyable experience in college, and become contributing individuals to the country’s economy.However, despite Penn State’s efforts towards improving the accessibility of the campus, the campus still contains significant challenges for wheelchair users. Those challenges harm the ability of the wheelchair users to fully engage in academic, social, and extracurricular activities as students of the Penn State University and upcoming contributors of the Society of the US. This shows how it is crucial and urgent for Penn State university to have a more inclusive and accessible university campus for disabled individuals. 

Penn State must implement initiatives to enhance wheelchair accessibility on campus, which includes infrastructure improvements and transportation accommodations. In this issue brief, I will address the current problems wheelchair-using students experience in the university park campus of Penn State that prevents them from fully engaging in academic, extracurricular and social activities, why the current existing plan is insufficient and what potential improvements/changes could be made to make those disabled students have a more satisfying and safe experience. 

Problem: The Struggles of Wheelchair-Using Students

The infrastructure and design of the University park campus of Penn State university presents many difficulties and challenges for the wheelchair users in their day to day life for traveling to class (or for extracurricular activities and social activities). These problems are as follows:

Reaching Classes on Time:

It is evident that the main campus of Penn State, the university park, is a large campus. Many buildings are scattered around and students sometimes have to walk long distances to reach their next classes on time. However, the problem is that some wheelchair-using students have to take even longer routes compared to regular students. This is due to some routes consisting of non-wheelchair friendly infrastructure such as stairs. This makes them lose even more time and can possibly lead to them being late for their next class. It is also important to note that this issue may also create social issues for these students, as they may not be able to walk and hang out with their non – disabled friends around campus as comfortably from class to class or on regular occasions which can create social issues for them, impacting their morale and possibly academic performance. 

Navigating Buildings Without Clear Marking

Some disabled students can feel as if the wheelchair accessible entrances, elevators and exits in certain buildings, such as the paterno library and Sackett building, are not clearly marked and easy to find. This may cause issues such as losing time for wheelchair users, which can be harmful when in a hurry such as trying to reach a class. It is also safe to say that this would be dangerous for wheelchair users in emergencies such as a fire or gas leak that requires swiftly evacuating the building

Buildings that are Uncomfortable

Some buildings on the Penn State campus are also not well designed for wheelchair users. Spending time on these buildings can be unpleasant and uncomfortable for disabled individuals due to narrow spaces and tight corners. Some of these buildings also require assistance from non disabled individuals which can also make them unpleasant to be in. 

This infographic demonstrates which buildings are accessible and how many of them can be accessed by wheelchair users without assistance. It can be inferred from this image that there are numerous buildings that require assistance for wheelchair users to navigate through. The problem with requiring assistance is that the arrival of an assistant may not be immediate and cause the students to lose time. Requiring assistance can also negatively affect the morale of these students, making them want to avoid these buildings altogether. The uncomfortableness of the buildings are also reflected in certain classrooms where only the back of the class is available for wheelchairs, putting disabled individuals in a disadvantageous position academically. 

 

Existing plan: 

It is important to note that Penn State has been making notable efforts to make its campus more wheelchair-accessible. It is something that Penn State considers as important and necessary and disabled students are valued which is a great thing. However, the existing efforts of Penn State – despite being very beneficial – is not sufficient which I will explain why. 

Transportation Services

Penn state has transportation services that can help disabled individuals to navigate through the campus. A wheelchair-accommodating Catabus system that travels through campus is one of them. Thanks to this free service, wheelchair-using students are able to travel through the campus fast and without having to deal with steepness. However, despite being helpful, the timing and frequency of the Catabus may not be suitable for every schedule, which does not fully solve the “reaching class on time” issue for wheelchair users. 

ADA Compliance:

Penn State adheres to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards to ensure that facilities and services are accessible to individuals with disabilities which includes wheelchair users. This includes providing an elevator to every building so that disabled individuals that are unable to use the stairs can use them. In addition, ADA also mandates that an accessible entrance and exit for wheelchair users is present in every building, which Penn State also follows. Penn State has also taken steps to have accessible restrooms across campus buildings to facilitate mobility for wheelchair users. This way, disabled students can practically utilize and travel through every building. 

 However, despite complying with ADA standards, the problems mentioned above still persist. Although ADA makes every building accessible and wheelchair-friendly on paper, this is not always the case. Despite being accessible through a wheelchair, some buildings are still uncomfortable due to narrow corridors and tight corners and can require assistance (as stated above). A lot of buildings, especially older ones such as Sackett and Boucke building, only have one entrance that can be hard to reach during certain times (such as snow). 

 

New and Improved Plan

Although the efforts of Penn State are significantly beneficial, they are still not sufficient. There is room for improvement that would significantly benefit wheelchair users in Penn State

Giving Free Lyft Rides for Wheelchair Users Within Campus

As mentioned, it can be a struggle for wheelchair-using students to go from class to class and the schedule of catabuses may not always be convenient for them. To fix this, allowing them to call and use a lyft(or uber) to reach their classes on time would be a significant help for them. Lyft has wheelchair-accessible rides that could be used by these students. This way, their stress of not reaching their class on time due to not being able to utilize shortcuts or catching a bus would decrease. This would also be extremely beneficial during important periods such as exam weeks. However, completely paying for all the lyft rides even on campus would not be economically feasible. Therefore, only limiting them to reaching class during weekdays would be necessary (although the problems they face on other times would persist). 

Wheelchair-Accessible Renovation of Buildings

The buildings – especially older ones – being uncomfortable and difficult for wheelchair users is clearly a major problem that damages the experience of disabled students, despite them following ADA standards. To fix this, instead of only doing the bare minimum and simply following ADA, Penn State should directly work together with disabled students and renovate non-wheelchair-friendly buildings into more accessible ones. This way, it would be ensured that the buildings are wheelchair- friendly and comfortable. It would also make the buildings safer for them during emergencies as the exits would be easier to navigate to(thanks to the feedback of the wheelchair users). 

 

Although this would be expensive and possibly time consuming, it would be a massive help for disabled students and make their campus experience remarkably better. This is because their negative experiences with being non-wheelchair-friendly would no longer be a negative aspect of the college. It would also increase the reputation of Penn state as a more wheelchair-accessible college, attracting more disabled students to enroll. 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is crucial for Penn State to enhance wheelchair accessibility on campus to create a more inclusive environment.While Penn State has made significant progress with ADA compliance for wheelchair accessibility, there is always room for improvement. Renovating buildings in a more wheelchair-accessible way by working together with disabled students, and providing lyft services for disabled students so that they can reach their classes on time would be among the solutions to make Penn State a better university for wheelchair users. It is essential to ensure that Penn State remains a welcoming and accessible environment for all individuals, regardless of their disabilities.

 

Sources:

 

“Page Title.” Plone Site, 19 Dec. 2023, equity.psu.edu/offices/student-disability-resources. 

 

“Welcome.” Office of Equal Opportunity and Access, equalopportunity.psu.edu/. Accessed 26 Mar. 2024. 

“Facilities Accessibility at University Park.” Penn State University Libraries, 4 Dec. 2023, libraries.psu.edu/about/accessibility/facilities-accessibility-university-park. 

Cassie Kizis | The Daily Collegian, et al. “How Accessible Is Penn State’s Campus for Students with Disabilities?” The Daily Collegian, 22 Feb. 2018, www.psucollegian.com/news/campus/how-accessible-is-penn-state-s-campus-for-students-with-disabilities/article_35993c0e-1790-11e8-a534-3b9a64b338bb.html. 

“The Americans with Disabilities Act (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences), 22 Feb. 2018, agsci.psu.edu/diversity/civil-rights/faculty-staff/ada. 

 

“Page Title.” Plone Site, 28 July 2022, equity.psu.edu/offices/student-disability-resources/accommodations/accessible-transportation-and-parking. 

 

Jordan Corley | The Daily Collegian, et al. “How Accessible Is Penn State for Students with Disabilities?” The Daily Collegian, 14 Nov. 2019, www.psucollegian.com/news/campus/how-accessible-is-penn-state-for-students-with-disabilities/article_5a613208-068b-11ea-a6ed-dff65b5ebb9e.html. 

Amy Schafer | The Daily Collegian. “‘We Are Accessible’: Penn State Students, Faculty with Disabilities Share Experiences, Hopes for the Future of Campus.” The Daily Collegian, 23 Mar. 2023, www.psucollegian.com/news/we-are-accessible-penn-state-students-faculty-with-disabilities-share-experiences-hopes-for-the-future/article_dfcce784-c910-11ed-a7a7-0fca1cdcd4e0.html.

Evaluation of our delibaration.

 

I believe our deliberation went well overall. Although I was nervous, and we had no prior experience with deliberation, I believe that we did a good job.

What went well:

I believe that each of our approaches were well made and explained in the videos. Each approach was creative and unique that differentiated it from the other approaches. This made discussion more interesting and effective. The videos that we prepared were also short and concise that easily explained them to the audience which was another bonus in my opinion. The issue we deliberated was also relevant to penn state students which made discussion even  more engaging for the participants.

 

What could be improved upon:

I believe that we could improve our videos. For my video specifically, I only used 2 images which could be increased. Also, I could have gotten defensive for some approaches and possibly turned it into a debate rather than a deliberation which is a limitation. Moreover, for the discussion of each approach, the person who prepared the video spoke the most compared to the other group members which could be a disadvantage. In addition, during the beginning of the deliberation, the participation of the class members was a bit low which created a slow start. However, the participation of the class quickly increased as time went on. Also, the timing for the deliberation was poor. We spent extra time for the first part which gave us slightly less time to deliberate the 3 approaches.

 

In conclusion, I believe that the deliberation was overall a success. The approaches were well made and explained, the class members were engaged and interested, and every group member contributed. However, I believe that there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially when it comes to timing and communicating.

For my civic issue topic, I am certainly going the choose the topic of public transport. My belief that public transport is crucial for societies hasn’t changed at all. I believe that it will be an enjoyable experience to write about how different countries and areas tackle public transport and evaluate them. I also think that it will be interesting to look into how culture affects the public transportation systems on different countries. For every blog post, I will analyse the public transportation of a different country or area.  I am thinking of analysing the US, Japan, China and Turkey. I am especially interested in the public transportation of Japan as I was amazed by it when I went there.

 

For my passion blog post, I am thinking of writing about Istanbul as it is a city that I care deeply about. I think that there is much to write about Istanbul as it is a huge city both culturally and geographically. It is also a very historic city that has been a prominent part of different empires such as the Roman empire and Ottoman empire and has traces left by them.

In conclusion, my Passion blog will be about Istanbul while my Civic blog will be about public transportation.

 

 

 

This is my speech script:

 

 

If you told me 4 years ago that simply entering all of my tasks and duties on a digital calendar would be the key to improve my grades, reduce my anxiety and maintain a good work/life balance, I wouldn’t believe you. However, now I can confidently say that it has made a significant improvement in my life. In this speech, I will talk about why I believe scheduling has a transformative impact on our lives. 

 

In my second year of high school, I was aiming to enter the IB program which required a certain gpa as a prerequisite. However, as someone who was struggling with ADHD, I was simply unable to keep up with my classes. I was constantly missing assignments and entering exams without sufficient preparation. 

 

The turning point came when I learned that my grades were not enough to enter the IB program. It was a devastating moment, I felt as if  all my time and effort was for nothing and that I was a disappointment to my parents. That’s when I realized that a change in my methods was necessary. 

 

I started by entering all of my assignments, exams, and study sessions into a digital calendar. It was a simple action but the impact was significant. I was able to keep track of my assignments much better and allowed me to allocate time to studying, breaks and my other responsibilities. As a result, I found my academic performance beginning to gradually improve. I was much better prepared for my exams and stopped missing my assignments. Thanks to my new method of scheduling, I was finally able to enter the IB program. 

 

Furthermore, it turns out that scheduling has benefits that extend beyond academics. Scheduling helped me manage my time effectively in different aspects of my life. For example, it made it easier for me to exercise consistently. In addition, surprisingly, I found myself playing video games more when I was scheduling as a well organized calendar allowed me to allocate time for personal interests, social life and hobbies which included video games. 

 

Moreover, this practice also severely improved my mental health. Before doing this, I had a crushing anxiety problem caused by my chaotic and undisciplined life and my grades falling didn’t help either. However, by organizing my time I felt as if I had my life under control and in a stable condition which decreased my anxiety. 

 

In conclusion, I believe in the transformative impact of scheduling. This is because for me personally, scheduling has had a monumental beneficial impact on my academic life, personal life as well as my mental health. However, it should be noted that this was for me personally and may not be applicable to everyone.

My two ideas for the this I believe speech are public transport and importance of allergy information. I believe that public transport is a crucial aspect of transportation. It is a lot cheaper, does not require any training, and environment friendly. I used to rely on it heavily back in Istanbul and was extremely disappointed when I arrived at the US to see how lackluster it was here. I also remember vividly my trip to Japan and how practical the public transport system was there. For my second this I believe topic, I am considering the importance of allergy awareness. My sister has gluten allergy, and she struggles in many parts of the world to find gluten free meals in restaurants due to the lack of knowledge about this issue. I believe that this issue is even more dangerous for people who have severe allergies and therefore I believe that more knowledge about it would be extremely beneficial.

 

For my passion blog, I am thinking of writing about Istanbul, the city I grew up in. Istanbul holds a special place in my heart as I spent 14 years of my life there. I believe that writing about it would be a very enjoyable experience. I can mention the different parts and monuments of the city and possibly the controversies surrounding them. My second idea for my passion blog can be history. I can select a specific part of history that I am interested in and explore the different aspects of it for each blog post. I believe that this could be an interesting idea for my second passion blog.

For my civic issue blog, I am also thinking about public transportation. As I mentioned above, I believe that it is crucial due to it being cheap, eco-friendly and easy to use. I am thinking of exploring and evaluating different countries or regions for each blog post such as Japan, US and Turkey and evaluate them. My second idea for my civic issue blog would be healthcare. In my opinion, healthcare is extremely important that has massive effects on the lives of many which makes it necessary for countries to have efficient healthcare systems. Similar to my first idea, I can explore and evaluate how different countries manage healthcare such as Singapore, US, Turkey and China.

In conclusion, these are my ideas for my passion, blog, civic blog and This I believe speech.

It would be an understatement to say  my understanding of rhetoric and civic life has changed significantly over the semester.  Before I attended this class, I didn’t even properly know the definitions of the words “rhetoric”  and civic”. However, this class made me learn significant amounts of information regarding these two words and their impact.

Before taking this class, I never really believed in the importance of rhetoric activities such as protests. I always underestimated their effect and thought that it was a waste of time. I thought that the impact of these civic engagements were minimal and not significant. However, after seeing multiple examples of civic engagements such as speeches, I was forced to reevaluate my perspective. Thanks to this class, I learned the importance and effectiveness of living a civic and rhetoric life.

Moreover, this class not only taught me the importance of living a rhetoric and civic life, but also how to live a rhetoric and civic life. It taught me how to utilize certain techniques such as positioning and use of color to produce a civic artifact that can change the ways other think and behave. In addition, I taught me how to analyze different civic artifacts through lenses.

In conclusion, this class has caused a massive change in my understanding of rhetoric and civic life.

For our unit 2 project, our group decided that American football could be a good idea for controversy. This is a great idea as there are many ways in which we can explore this controversy. It’s health impacts is one way as it can cause serious health issues for the players.  It’s cultural impact on the American society and culture can also be explored in our project as it has a major impact.

Social media was another topic that we discussed. I think that this is another topic with very high potential. It has major impacts on a lot of things such as mental health and even politics. There are many things we can explore with social media as our topic.

Unit 2 Essay Outline

Turning point 1: Mental health in the early to mid 20th century was negatively impacted by the wars and handled poorly due to a lack of accurate knowledge about psychology. 

Claim 1: The wars severely damaged mental health. 

Artifact 1:

Claim 2: The lack of proper knowledge about psychology led to poor treatment of mentally ill. 

Artifact 2:

Claim 3: Theories about mental health were not fully accurate but were important attempts to understand it better. 

Artifact 3: 

Turning point 2:  In the mid to late 20th century, mental health started to be taken more seriously with the developments in psychology and the spread of awareness. The rise of pharmaceutical treatments could also be seen. 

Claim 1: Helping the mentally ill with proper medical methods was promoted. 

Artifact 1: 

Claim 2: A rise of pharmaceutical treatments could be seen. 

Artifact 2:

Turning point 3: In the 21st century the rise of social media allowed people to spread even more awareness about mental health and made certain people struggling with mental health issues to not feel alone. However, the spread of misinformation about mental health with people self diagnosing and more hate being spread on social media negatively impacted the perception of mental health. 

Claim 1: Social media posts in the format of “memes” would show people struggling with mental health that there were others like them. 

Artifact 1:

Claim 2: Social media also created lots of pressure on many people, especially young people, which negatively impacted their mental health. 

Artifact 2: 

Claim 3: Social media also lead to people being misinformed about certain mental illnesses and self diagnosing without the opinion of experts which is dangerous. 

Artifact 3: 

One of my favorite Ted talks is also the most popular one. The name of the Ted Talk is “Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | TED”. There are several reasons for why I think this Ted Talk is excellent which I will explore in this blog.

First of all, the topic of the Ted talk makes the information provided  extremely relatable as well as intriguing. Procrastination is a behavior that I think almost everyone suffers from which makes this topic much more relatable. Learning more about a behavior that has a major impact on our lives is something we are interested in which makes this Ted Talk much more compelling.

In addition, the usage of easy to understand and simple language makes this Ted Talk even better. This Ted talk is delivered in a way that even a 10 year old can understand it which makes it very simple. However, this is not a limitation but is instead a strength as it  requires very low effort to understand and prevents any point from being misunderstood.

Furthermore, another major strength of this Ted talk is it’s humor. The presenter makes sarcastic jokes and includes funny visuals to make the audience laugh. This increases the engagement of the Ted-Talk and makes it an entertaining experience to listen to.

 

In conclusion, there are several reasons for why “Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | TED” is one of my favorite Ted Talks. The main reasons are it’s relatable and intriguing information, easy to understand delivery and it’s use of humor via visuals.

When it comes to the Unit 2 Essay, I found it difficult to select a topic. This is because I need to write an extremely long essay that is at least 7 pages long. Finding 3 specific messages is not easy either. However, as a psychology student I decided to investigate the changing perception of mental health over the last 5 – 6 decades. I remember learning about how mental health wasn’t taken seriously in the past and how social media affects the perception of mental health nowadays.

My first turning point is the unsanitary treatment of mentally ill individuals in the early to mid 20th century. The mental health of people were disregarded and the treatment of mentally ill people were not taken seriously.

My first specific message is this:

This image is a photograph taken in the Pilgrim State Hospital Brentwood New York in the US. I chose this photo because it shows the poor conditions mentally ill people were back in 1940s

 

My second turning point is mental health getting taken seriously. The mental health of people started to become taken seriously to the extent that an entire day is dedicated for mental health awareness which is my second message. October 10th started to become celebrated as mental health day in 1992 which shows the positive shift in perception of mental health.

 

My third turning point is the influence of social media on mental health. With the introduction of social media, a lot of people started to share their own mental health issues with others which made it normalized and much less shameful. Moreover, with social media, a lot of people started to self diagnose mental illnesses without the confirmation of professional psychologists. As specific messages for this, I can select online “memes” about mental illnesses etc.

 

In conclusion, my topic is the changing perception of mental health and these are my main turning points.

My Artifacts:

 

 

These two advertisement/posters are what I will compare in my comparative essay from a visual lens. The pattern that I will use for this essay will be the point – by – point method. This is because I will focus on both similarities and differences of a certain technique in each section.   My three main sections I plan on including are:

Visual metaphor section:

Here I will compare both posters based on the visual metaphors they use.

In the first advertisement, the plastic are metaphorically depicted as food. This serves to show the audience that the seafood they consume contain unnatural and unhealthy plastics.

In the second advertisement, the plastics are metaphorically depicted as a monster. This serves to show the audience that the plastic trash that ends up in the ocean is dangerous.

Camera angle section:

In this section I will compare both civic artifacts based on the camera angle they utilized.

In the first advertisement, a close up shot is present. This makes the audience see that the thing depicted as a sushi is actually made out of plastic.

In the second advertisement, a low angle shot can be seen. This makes The monster seem even bigger and more threatening which emphasizes the danger of plastics.

 

Use of color section:

I will compare the colors used in both of these advertisement.

The first advertisement uses the colors white, light brown and light blue. The color blue symbolizes the ocean and the colors white and brown symbolize the plastic trash.

In the second advertisement, the colors of the monster are vibrant and diverse while the colors of the coast are natural and serene.

Sources:

 

EarthCapades. “Surfrider Foundation – What Goes in the Ocean Goes in You.” EarthCapades, 7 Feb. 2012, www.earthcapades.com/surfrider-foundation-what-goes-in-the-ocean-goes-in-you/.