On-campus housing accommodates students with wide variety of disabilities, medical conditions

For students who require handicap-accessible services, on-campus housing and transportation offer a variety of services.

Rick Bradley, associate director of the UNC Department of Housing & Residential Education, said the department has accommodated students with a wide variety of disabilities and medical conditions.

“We have had everything from a student with such a severe peanut allergy that we took a one bedroom apartment used for guest housing and provided that to him…so that he could have the safety of preparing his own meals in a kitchen that wasn’t contaminated by peanut oils,” he said.

“We have four or five students that are quadriplegics who have a full personal care attendant live with them, to a student in a wheelchair,” Bradley said.

Students needing special accommodations for housing fill out the regular housing application and also submit the chronic or severe medical conditions special accommodations request form found on the housing website.

As part of the request process, students specify the accommodations they require and proof of medical need.

Representatives from the Office of the Dean of Students and Campus Health Services review the applications.

Bradley said while all buildings meet the handicap accessibility standards mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act, only certain rooms offer special accommodations. These might include shower stalls that have roll-in access, toilets and sinks with different height levels or visual doorbells.

Meredith Kimple, a junior English and Drama major who uses a wheelchair, lived in Koury Residence Hall during her freshman year.

She said she was given special accommodations like a handicap button to open her door and a large bathroom for her power chair.

Kimple said she lives at home in Durham now.

“I’ve lived at home for the past 2 years because it’s a lot cheaper,” she said, “I haven’t really looked into apartments, but I’ve heard Ram Village might have an accessible room. But as far as on-campus housing, south campus is very accommodating.”

Randy Young, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety said students with disabilities are eligible to use P2P handicap services after registering with the Disability Service Office.

The P2P handicap service offers a fleet of five wheelchair-accessible handivans and four minivans that run on-demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week when dorms are open, Young said.

The service offers on-campus transportation for those affiliated with the University.

Freshman Logan Gin, who uses a wheelchair, said the service is helpful.

“When you call, depending on how busy it is, they will pick you up at one point or another in as much as 15 to 20 minutes. The service itself, you can’t really get too much better,” he said.

Young said the P2P offers 800 to 1500 disability transports in a given year.

“What we do is try to maintain access. If that’s something we can offer in transportation, that’s what we do,” he said.

Bradley said he encourages students who might need special accommodations to apply early for housing.

He said while a shortage of accessible rooms is rare, a student who identifies a disability late in the process is less likely to have a space if disability need is high.

“I think our university is becoming known certainly in the southeast as a university that does a very good job of addressing accessibility issues for housing and the campus in general, that we’re seeing more students with higher and higher levels of disabilities,” he said.

In order to accommodate more students, Bradley said the housing department has converted former resident adviser rooms into accessible space and is planning to include more accessible rooms in the new residence hall off Ridge Rd.

Tiffany Bailey, director of the Office of Accessibility Resources and Service, said she helps students with disabilities get the resources they need.

“The myth is that people feel like whatever disability or medical condition that they might have might not qualify them for services through our office and we look at disability and medical very broadly,” she said. “I would encourage folks to contact us.”

university@dailytarheel.com