Bryce Gitzen travels through the aboveground, enclosed, heated passageway, nicknamed “The Spine,” to get to the bookstore, sports center, library and other buildings on the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA), campus. The structure has elevators, with Braille floor indicators, wheelchair-accessible door openers, ramps and Wi-Fi service.
Gitzen, who was born with the eye disorders bilateral aniridia and glaucoma, is one of the 750-plus students with disabilities in the population of more than 21,000 students on campus. He said The Spine helps him “minimize contact with traffic and the Alaskan weather.”
Despite Gitzen’s severe visual impairment, “it is relatively easy for me to navigate the campus,” said the 21-year-old, who works as a legal assistant/tech guru at a local law office and as a UAA Disability Support Services tech assistant.
“Prior to attending the first session of a class, I prefer to locate the specific classroom and add it to my mental map,” he added.
Providing The Spine is one way the Anchorage school complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Colleges and universities, like other facilities and public accommodations, have been required to adhere to the ADA for the past 23 years. The United States Department of Justice first released regulations in 1991 to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities. The ADA regulations covered a range of issues from having sign-language interpreters to software that changes type to Braille.
The rules include the ADA Standards for Accessible Design that apply to structural, physical changes such as lowering signs and installing wheelchair-accessible door openers. Both the ADA regulations and standards for design came out in 1991 and were refined in 2010 with more specific details on compliance. They each address state and local government services (title II), and apply to public accommodations and commercial facilities (title III). On March 15, 2012, the Justice Department announced that the 2010 design standards would go into effect immediately.
Addressing New Issues
