Boston University students living with a mental or physical disability who seek assistance in physical and recreational aspects of their lives can find several facilities and programs made available to them on campus.
These facilities include the Ryan Center for Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, a joint organization between Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Clinical Centers and the Department of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Programs includes orthopedics and sports medicine, physical therapy, post-rehabilitation training and prevention, athletic enhancement centers, nutrition programs, counseling and outreach programs.
Other services are available through the university’s Fitness and Recreation Center, where Fitness Coordinator Rossella Avitabile-Muller said there are several facilities available to students with physical disabilities, particularly a weight room on the first floor with various types of equipment to fit their specific needs.
“Instruments include a Smith Machine, which allows for students in a wheel chair to focus on shoulder presses,” she said. “Other machines, like a Schwinn bike, have a removable seat that allows its users to work on their upper and lower body.”
However, Avitabile-Muller said the majority of the students who come to use these machines are usually students with an athletic injury.
“We definitely see more students who are involved in some sort of club sport injury,” she said. “I would say the limitation for many of the students we see here is not of the same severity.”
Disabilities Services Director Allan Macurdy said although many of the student cases he sees involve students who want academic aid, they also receive students looking for a point in the right direction in terms of recreational activities.
“It is not typical that students ask us for that sort of help, but we will accommodate them in anyway we can,” he said. “This includes putting them in contact with departments within BU, local Boston organizations or groups that specialize in their particular recreational interest.”
Macurdy said the Disabilities Services Office does not specialize in offering their students the actual physical or recreational help.
“In terms of a disability, we do not nor is it our responsibility to provide their personal [medical] care,” he said. “We support them in any aspect of their academic, social and recreation and athletic life, and will assist them if they need the right contacts.
“In the end, it’s really all about connecting the student with whatever their interests may be,” he continued. “Whether for organizations on or off campus, we are a resource that will try to accommodate in any way we can.”
Disabled students may also turn to Sargent’s clinical centers that have area specialization ranging from physical therapy and athletic enhancement to speech language and hearing. Sargent senior Jim Regan said he feels the school does all it can to provide students with the service they seek.
“It’s important that the person feel like they are not in a restricted environment,” he said. “It would be very paradoxical if the school didn’t adhere to helping students feel as comfortable as possible.”
Regan said he does, however, feel concern about whether the university provides all the resources it can in terms of physical accessibility. He said such locations, such as the wheelchair ramp in the College of Arts and Sciences building, does not necessarily provide an ideally mainstream atmosphere for a physically disabled student on campus.
“By having this wheel chair ramp in the back of the building, it’s not creating the best scenario for someone who just wants to engage in activities that everyone would engage in,” he said. “I even know of some floors in Sargent with no automatic doors.”
Some students said they feel the university does not inform enough of their students about the presence of these resources available.
“As far as I know, I think the programs set up by the university are adequate,” CAS sophomore Lauren Kimball said. “I work in the disabilities office, but before coming there I wasn’t aware of the various options students have.”
Regan, an occupations therapy major, said he was introduced early on in his coursework on various issues that should concern the university, such as making sure it abides by the Americans with Disabilities Act that states every institution that receives government funding must adhere to certain rules and standards to make sure all individuals with any disability is comfortable in their setting.
“Door sizes, certain height requirements for bathroom halls, handle sizes – it’s all important that this is all followed correctly,” he said.
Other issues include the individualized education plan, which Regan explained is a certain set of goals a student with a disability may set for them to accomplish within a certain time period.
“It’s all about making sure the student fulfills these goals, whether they be educational or therapeutic,” he said. “Considering they stress it so much in all my course syllabuses, I would think the university abides with helping students with disabilities here too.”
Some students said they feel these different areas of support can be an opportunity for students from all walks of life on campus to learn about this aspect of campus life.
“There’s so much to be learned from all these different services on campus, and the university should make a bigger effort to advertise them,” College of Fine Arts sophomore Olivia Webb said. “I think it’s important, disability or no disability, that students are aware of all the resources BU makes available.”