On my way to class I saw this sign posted on the college gate. I thought it was really interesting because when you walk into college green you aren’t walking into a building. When I think of handicap signs, I think of parking spaces and buildings. However, thinking about it more, it is really nice that they have a sign indicating that it is handicap friendly to be on college green. Especially with Athens having so many hills, you might not know if there would be outdoor stairs or not. However, if you are walking on college green, the bricks are super uneven and there is a significant incline, so, I would wonder how handicap accessible it really is. Then, I wonder if they put that sign on other outdoor areas and if it is just an Ohio University thing, or if many public places will do the same. Susan Wendell’s reading, “The Social Construction of Disability,” talks about some of these ideas. Although the main focus of the reading is about social issues like malnutrition that can lead to disabilities, she also writes, there are “subtle cultural factors that determine standards of normality and exclude those who do not meet them from full participation in their societies.” So, we can look at this accessibility sign and wonder what it would be like to live in a world where we can just assume a place is accessible to those with physical disabilities. Wendell describes this as “the physical and social organization of societies on the basis of a young, non-disabled, ‘ideally shaped,’ healthy adult male paradigm of citizens.” To us, that is what we assume as the normal and I feel you do not align with that group, then we have to make exceptions for you to be able to access an area that us able-bodied people don’t even have to think about. Assuming I am speaking to all able-bodied individuals, I would wonder how hard it would be to navigate a place like Ohio University where there are hills and uneven pavement. Since the university is so old, I might even go as far to say that some buildings aren’t handicap accessible and that might make a huge difference to those who have to rely on that accessibility. Is it fair that we have buildings where those with physical disabilities can’t even get into? What if they are living in the dorms? Half, if not most, of the dorms don’t have elevators so they would have to live on the first floor. All of these circumstances are thing that I, as a citizen like Susan Wendell outlined, don’t have to worry or think about daily, if ever.
-Meghan H.
