For communication freshman Amanda Bell, a weather-made flypaper lined the streets last week in the form of snow and slush. As she tried to push her wheelchair through the slick mess, it became easily stuck.
Bell said while the snow made it tough for everyone to get around campus, it presented a different set of problems for students with disabilities.
"Parts of the sidewalk have big clumps of snow on them," she said. "While pushing, I get stuck, and sometimes I have to have one to four people help me get out of the snow."
Melinda Haus, a social work senior and president of the Council for Students With Disabilities, said unplowed snow prevented her from performing her daily routine.
"It's virtually impossible for me to get to class when the sidewalks are a mess," she said. "I've had to call or e-mail my professors and explain that my chair got stuck on the way."
Haus said she has called the MSU grounds maintenance department to report problems, and her group is working with the department and the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities to help maintenance staff develop a plan to plow the worst areas on campus.
Gary Parrott, manager of MSU's grounds maintenance staff, said he and his crew are doing all they can to combat the snow and make it easier for those with wheelchairs to get around on campus.
"We have received several calls from students with mobility impairments," Parrott said. "We are trying to first take care of the areas they said are worst, like curb cuts and bus stops, and we are doing it as soon as we can.
"We want to do everything we can to support them."
The "curb cuts" are areas of particular concern. These are sections on the sidewalk that slope down into the street at the crosswalk.
Students with mobility impairments said curb cuts often are areas where plowed snow gets dumped, which hinders crossing the street. And sometimes the plowed snow on the cuts turns to ice, causing wheelchairs to slide.
Bell experienced this firsthand.
"I was going past Red Cedar Road when my wheels slid on some snow in a curb cut, and I ended up stranded halfway in the road," Bell said.
Students with disabilities also were having problems when trying to ride on Capital Area Transportation Authority buses. They said the areas in front of bus stops were not clear of snow and wheelchair lifts were broken.
"It seems like the areas in front of bus stops are the prime places to dump plowed snow," Haus said. "This makes it hard to wait for the bus. But even if a bus does pick you up, you'll see almost all of the wheelchair lifts are broken."
Debbie Alexander, CATA's assistant to the executive director, said if a bus stop is covered by snow, students should wait at a nearby "safe area" and wave to the bus driver. CATA is working with the MSU grounds crew to make sure bus stops are clear of snow, she said.
As for the wheelchair lifts, Alexander said cold weather affects the operation of the lifts.
"The cold will cause ice to freeze in switches or the metal to get so cold it doesn't work," she said. "But as soon as a driver reports that a lift is not working, we will send a new bus out."
She also said students with disabilities can utilize CATA's Spec-Tran service, which, with a 24-hour notice, will pick up students with disabilities anywhere on campus.
Although Bell had a rough time last week when the snow was at its worst, she hopes it will get better throughout the season.
"We must just realize that it's been a bad winter and we've been hit hard," Bell said. "Hopefully, in some time, we will all become adjusted to this weather."
Jaclyn Roeschke can be reached at roeschk1@msu.edu.
