By Gwynne Dulaney, Co-Editor-in-Chief
On November 18, a brightly colored pamphlet quietly began to circulate around Bryn Mawr. The effect of this little pamphlet, however, was anything but quiet. This zine, titled Interrogated: Stories About Accessibility and Disability at Bryn Mawr, left in its wake an electric jolt that reverberated throughout campus. In this zine, students read the accounts of dozens of anonymous students within our community who have struggled with disability, accessibility and discrimination on Bryn Mawr’s campus for years, yet have had their voiced seemingly ignored by the college’s administration—until now.
The stories within the zine, told by dozens of students concerning their experiences with Bryn Mawr’s Access Disability office over the years, clearly voice the universal anger, confusion, and frustration that Bryn Mawr students have felt towards Access Services for a very long time. It is common knowledge on this campus that getting accessibility and disability accommodations is no small feat, if not impossible. Countless students have complained of a lack of compassion and understanding towards students within the Accessibilities office, as well as a lack of flexibility and willingness to accommodate those with special needs. Many newer students have voiced their hesitation to even seek out accommodations because they have heard too many horror stories since arriving on campus. As a result, Access Services seems to have become a space not of welcome or understanding for students who seek accommodations, but of rigidity and mistrust.
Bryn Mawr students have been struggling with this lack of accountability for years. And, in many ways, they have. Only two years ago, in 2017, the student body released That’s Some Shit, a pamphlet voicing the concerns of students on campus regarding more broadly positions and abuses of power on Bryn Mawr’s campus. This lack of acknowledgment towards these incredibly prominent issues for an extended period of time puts Bryn Mawr’s administration in anything but a favorable light concerning approaches to disability. If Bryn Mawr’s administration refuses to acknowledge the countless voices calling for change, how can we expect to feel seen as students on this campus?
“We wanted to give students a voice,” says Miriam Bernstein ‘21, one of the creators of Interrogated: Stories About Accessibility and Disability at Bryn Mawr, along with Justine Stiftel ‘20. “In my personal life, I was hearing of students struggling with disability at Bryn Mawr. We wanted to create a space for all those stories to speak as one, because I think there’s power in taking the story of disability away from the individual.” Justine and Miriam created this zine hoping that they could breach the divide between those with disabilities and those without. “I had some friends who had issues with disability on campus,” says Justine, “and I had some friends who didn’t, and I think there was a strong divide between the students who know about these issues and the students who don’t. It seemed really important to make it clear to the whole community that these problems are happening.”
Although Bryn Mawr’s administration is aware of the pamphlets, they have not yet addressed them publicly to the student body. “We hope that [Bryn Mawr’s administration] hears the stories of pain and the suffering that has happened,” Justine says. “I think that they do care about disability on campus, and they have been working to make changes, but there are still some problem areas, and I hope that they are able to recognize that.”
“What we want out of this is not more pain, but change for those students who are really struggling to be here,” Miriam adds.
One of the largest complaints that students have in this area is the amount of personal responsibility they feel to advocate for themselves. “Students we have spoken to tell us that they feel like it is their responsibility to advocate for their own needs constantly in ways that are exhausting and not sustainable,” Miriam says. “The zine helps take the responsibility away from the individual. It says that this is a group of people on campus that we want to value.” The college must educate students on how to advocate for themselves, especially students for whom this is their first time being required to do something like this. Students should not feel that it is their responsibility to fight for what they need in order to succeed. It is also important for the school to acknowledge discrimination within accommodations and disability via race and socioeconomic standing. “[We need to be] able to keep track of what socioeconomic statuses and what races get the most benefits from our access services department,” Justine says. “That alone I think is extremely important.”
However, there is hope for change in the near future. Recently, Bryn Mawr has announced the building of a new Wellness Center, which will include housing the new headquarters of the Pensby Center for Community Development and Inclusion. This is a huge step for Bryn Mawr, as the Pensby Center was formerly in a highly inaccessible part of campus, speaking volumes about Bryn Mawr’s previous views of diversity. Both Miriam and Justine feel hopeful about this change. “We’re at a transitional stage with the new Wellness Center and the hiring of the new Pensby director,” Miriam tells me. “I want to see Pensby actively thinking in their new space about how disability is an important form of diversity for Bryn Mawr.”
Other progress on campus has included continued discussions between students and administration to implement the accessibility changes requested in successful Plenary resolution from this semester, as well as the recent hiring of an Assistive Technology Specialist in LITS.
“We’re holding a public forum with SGA,” Justine tells me. “We encourage people to bring positive stories of ways that disability has been dealt with well on Bryn Mawr’s campus, because those stories inform our path forward,” This is the perfect opportunity for students to express their opinions and begin to implement change on our campus so that everyone feels able to function and participate in this community at their most comfortable. If you would like to get involved, be sure to keep an eye out for the meeting time of this forum, which is being planned to happen next semester.
Image credit: Bryn Mawr College
