Are Queen’s University Facilities Truly Accessible?

By Anonymous

Last Friday, I arrived 15 minutes early for my 11am tutorial, in the picturesque location of University Square. With my phone battery drained (once again I forgot to charge it overnight), there was only one thing left to do to quench my boredom: embark on a quest to locate the nearest loo. I followed the signs, which were reminiscent of treasure hunt clues. As I climbed three flights of stairs, I realized it was not going to be easy. As I crossed various landings and precarious steps towards the female toilets on the third floor, a realization flew to the front of my mind in a flurry of shock and disgust; there’s no way someone in a wheelchair, or with mobility needs can access these facilities.

Now, while I am aware of disabled toilets in other University Square houses, is it really fair for a student (or staff) to have to trek between building just to use the loo? I think not. Even then, are these toilets always easy to get to? Are they fully functioning?

After returning from my unexpected journey and attending my tutorial, I found myself thinking more about the lack of accessibility than factors contributing to international law. I decided to investigate it.

 I found the Student Disability Policy of Queens [1], and it opens with ‘Queen’s University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and seeks to ensure that students with a disability or long-term condition have equitable access as far as reasonably possible to all aspects of university life’… key phrase: all aspects of student life. I take this to include access to all academic facilities. I argue this is a contradictory statement; if they seek to ensure students can access all aspects of academic life, surely, they’d ensure that female students could use the bathroom! Talk about the bare minimum.

This realization stayed with me through all my lectures and tutorials throughout the next few weeks. As I left the lecture hall in the physics Larmour lecture hall, I noticed some students walking down numerous steps to chat with the lecturer. For a student in a wheelchair or with mobility needs, this would be impossible, as you enter from the top, and the lecturer is at the bottom of over 30 rows of seats. I believe ‘all aspects of student life’ includes the ability to talk with your very instructors…

As I was studying in the afternoon in the McClay library, I found myself growing hungry, in need of a sweet treat. I made my way to the Junction Cafe in the Law building. The quickest way to this cafe from the library is through the car park, past the bike sheds and up the stairs. It became clear to me that a student in a wheelchair, or with mobility needs would have to go a much longer route. They would have to go all the way around the front of the Lanyon building, just to get their treat. I understand there is cafe directly beside the library, but that’s not the point (who can resist the jambons in the Junction?) What if they needed to get to a tutorial or lecture? I personally think subtly exclusionary.

I decided to research what wheelchair users themselves had to say. The website AccessAble, gives valuable accessibility information to those who need it [2]. On the webpage, it provides door width measurements, which were reported as insufficient for wheelchair users in 24 University Square. They also report the presence of steps throughout 22-24 University Square, which makes simple tasks like attending university classes unnecessarily complicated.

Does Queen’s really care as much as they say they do? They have endless amounts of support groups, helplines and accessibility learning aid, but they can’t even make a minor structural change to allow individuals with disabilities to access all of the university necessities? I understand that many of the Queen’s buildings are very old, from a totally different era, and that making structural changes would be difficult. But, in my opinion, if you’re not going to do something about these issues, then don’t act like you are.

Sources:

[1] Queen’s University Belfast. “Disability Services.” https://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/disability/. Accessed October 30th, 2024.

[2] AccessAble, n.d. Queen’s University Belfast Access Guides. [online] Available at: https://www.accessable.co.uk/queen-s-university-belfast#access-guides [Accessed 30 October 2024]