A picture of an open door as Ball State's symbol for disabled students is better than the internationally recognized symbol of a person in a wheelchair, the director of the Disabled Student Development Office said.
Ball State is a model for other universities in the state as far as its open philosophies and approaches toward students with disabilities, Richard Harris, director, said in a lecture Tuesday.
Many universities did not have policies for disabled students until the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, which required them to have provisions for disabled students. Until then, universities just ignored the students, Harris said.
"Not only did Ball State not ignore them," Harris said, "but we were in it before legislation required it.
"Ball State winds up with many students it wouldn't have otherwise because of our policies for disabled students."
The Disabled Student Development Office, which was formally started in 1973, devoted its early years to the physical access of buildings. The office has since grown to work with students with disabilities that are not apparent, such as blindness, deafness and learning disabilities, Harris said.
"We tend to think about physical access the most, even though only a small percentage of people with disabilities use wheelchairs," he said. "In reality, about 70 percent of the students who use our office have nonapparent disabilities."
The office, which about 525 students use, helps students with disabilities in areas such as academic support, housing and parking. Most disabled students are housed in the Noyer Complex, which was recently gutted and renovated to help with disabled student access, and Studebaker West. Disabled parking has been an issue for the office, as well, and it has even allowed wheelchair users to write tickets for vehicles illegally parked in disabled spaces.
"Parking on college campuses is always a hassle," Harris said, "and disability parking is the biggest hassle."
Ball State has also come a long way with technology for disabled students, Harris said. The office has made available tools such as personal readers that turn written textbooks into audio and refreshable braille so blind students can read computer screens.
The office has sponsored activities for students with disabilities as well as those without, such as basketball, bowling, wheelchair marathon, speakers on campus and disabled comedians at Late Nite. However, Harris said he believes the most important job of the office is to listen.
"Students with disabilities are the ones who know what needs to be done," he said.
The lecture, which was sponsored by the Center for Middletown Studies and Minnetrista Cultural Center, was the third in a series aimed at promoting local history, James Connolly, director for the Center for Middletown Studies, said.
The lecture commemorated Harris' retirement as director after 32 years, Connolly said.
The Disabled Student Development Office will have its annual awards banquet at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Forum Room of the L.A. Pittenger Student Center to recognize students, faculty and staff who have helped make Ball State more accessible.
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