Challenges of college life while handicapped

ajwilliamsBy Anthony Williams |ContributorCollege life has a lot of up and downs, you learn to adapt to your environment. There is one problem about the college life for me: I am a disabled college student and college is not set up for us to be successful.When it comes to the learning environment and different things that need to be done for us to be successful, we have to go above and beyond to reach our goals. College has some resources that help us. For example, the disability center gives us chances to take tests with accommodations and register for classes prior to everyone else, but other than that, it's hard being a disabled student on campus.One of the biggest problems that I have with Augusta University's campus is that there's no awnings at the shuttle stops for disabled people to park under when it’s raining. I have to sit in the rain and risk the possibility that my powerchair will malfunction while I'm trying to get to class. As a matter of fact, it was raining terribly hard on the first day of classes and I tried to make it to campus instead of missing the first day of class, but when I arrived, I had nowhere to park to get my wheelchair off without getting wet. My brother parked and started to bring my wheelchair off the ramp, but as soon as we went to turn it on, my chair wouldn't start because it was soaked by the rain. That’s my only transportation to get around campus and my powerchair is so expensive ($38,000). When something breaks or stops working, it costs a lot of money to repair it. My family and should not have to take out extra money just because this campus doesn't care about accommodating handicapped people.Another issue that I have is less about the campus itself, but more about a problem that they can and really need to fix. It’s so disrespectful that people are able to park in front of the wheelchair ramps and not get a ticket. People often doing this are professors who have to carry a lot of stuff to their car or the big trucks that are dropping supplies off to the campus. What am I supposed to do when you have a big truck blocking the whole wheelchair ramp and it’s raining outside? Then, I have to go further out in the rain to find another ramp just to get on the sidewalk to go to class. It’s not the campus’s fault that this happens, but I promise they can fix it just by handing out some hefty tickets. That will at least slow them down or stop them from parking on the ramps.When it comes to life or death situations on campus, I am left out to dry if I’m on any level of any building besides the first. We had a fire alarm pulled during class and I was on the second level of the building. You are not supposed to use elevators during fires, however, I had no choice but to use it since my only other option was to drive a 400-pound powerchair down a flight of stairs! Either way, I have to risk my own life to save my life and that shouldn't be something I have to worry about. These are major problems that need to be fixed as soon as possible to make college life easier for me and others like me. Contact Anthony at AWILL181@augusta.edu

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