UIC's Subcommittee on Disabled Student Experiences (SDSE)—a part of the broader Chancellor's Committee on Persons with Disabilities—is currently conducting a physical access audit of UIC’s East, West, and South campus (including housing) through the month of April. For this audit, volunteers will go to assigned physical spaces to take measurements, review the physical layout, and take notes on what does and does not meet standards established by different laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We will also consider access beyond solely legal compliance. All volunteers will be given a guide for conducting their portion of the audit.
While accessibility includes much more than physical access, SDSE also recognizes that physical accessibility is vital to the participation and success of many disabled members of the UIC community. Focusing the scope of this audit to physical access allows SDSE to more effectively address one area of inaccessibility at UIC.
To successfully audit the full UIC campus, we need your help!
If you are able and willing to audit one (1) or more UIC building, please complete the following steps.
- Fill out the following link to let the SDSE co-chairs know which buildings you are most interested in surveying. Link: http://bit.ly/SDSEAudit
- Wait to receive your assigned buildings from the SDSE co-chairs.
- Use the link and audit guidelines provided to you in your follow-up e-mail to audit your assigned buildings.
- Spread the word! #UICAccess
Higher education has historically been inaccessible for students with disabilities. Together, there are tangible steps we can take to improve UIC’s campus for our disability community.
Please direct any questions or concerns to Zoie Sheets at zsheet2@uic.edu.
[Image Description: Flyer reads “Campus-wide Access Audit by the Subcommittee on Disabled Student Experiences” in large bold, black font along the top left. On the top right is a circle split into 4 sections. Each section contains an image. The top right contains a person using a guide dog, top left contains a wheelchair user actively rolling forward, the bottom left contains two hands using sign language, and the bottom right contains a person using a guide cane. Underneath, the text of the flyer reads: UIC's Subcommittee on Disabled Student Experiences (SDSE)— a part of the broader Chancellor's Committee on Persons with Disabilities— is currently conducting an access audit of UIC’s East, West, and South campus (including housing). SDSE recognizes that accessibility goes so much deeper than physical access alone. We also recognize, though, that physical accessibility is vital to the success of many disabled members of the UIC community. The scope of this specific audit is physical access only. To successfully audit the full UIC campus, we need your help! If you are able and willing to audit one (1) or more UIC building, please visit the following link: bit.ly/SDSEAudit Questions? Contact zsheet2@uic.edu.” On the bottom right hand corner of the flyer is a logo that contains both a black circle with “UIC” printed inside in white and the words “Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities.” All text and images are in black, while the flyer background is white.]
