I was made to sit in back room as I graduated (for my studies on disability)
Dismay at university consigning wheelchair user to area backstage
A UNIVERSITY has apologised for placing a student using a wheelchair in a ‘broom cupboard’ during her graduation ceremony from a disability awareness course.
Dr Margaret Kennedy was told she could not sit with her classmates while receiving her University of Limerick diploma on January 16.
Instead she peered out at the ceremony from behind the stage, sharing the space with brooms, broken chairs and the sound engineer, because the university does not have wheelchair access from the front.
Dr Kennedy, 63, has a degenerative neurological condition which has gradually taken away her ability to walk. Her twin sister Ann also has the condition.
In spite of this she travelled for one year from her home in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, to Limerick to study mobility and wheelchair use.
As the sole wheelchair user in a class of seven students, her tutors were aware of her situation. But before her graduation she also formally contacted the ceremonies office by phone and email, making it clear she is a wheelchair user.
The university wrote, in an email seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday, that she would be directed to a backstage space, saying this was always used by wheelchair users, and students on crutches. Conferring at UL is held in the University Concert Hall, built in the 1990s. When Dr Kennedy tried to find out more from her course tutor, the tutor emailed back to say: ‘Yes, access is always a problem.’
The distressed graduate, who had to enter through a back door, said: ‘I was led onto the stage, and then into a broom cupboard. It was an equipment room, there were broken chairs and brooms were all over the place. The backstage equipment was there, and the sound-man was behind me.
‘That was where I sat for the whole two hours. That is not the right place for people with disabilities to be.’
Dr Kennedy added: ‘My course was on how to assess people for wheelchair aids. The course implied disabled people should have more appropriate wheelchair provision, it was a rights-based approach to disability.
‘Where were these rights to equality for graduating as a wheelchair-using disabled student? I don’t know what they were thinking, it’s not suitable in 2016.’
On the day, her sister Ann was told that if she wanted to sit in the audience and take photographs, she would have to leave her wheelchair in the same room as Dr Kennedy. She was then able to slowly walk with her sticks across the stage to her seat.
‘I could see the side-view of the lecturers on the stage. But I’m also partially deaf, so I couldn’t hear because I couldn’t lip-read from that view,’ said Dr Kennedy.
‘My companions were sound engineers, the handyman and mops,’ Dr Kennedy said.
She contacted the university and received an email reply from the office of UL President Professor Don Barry simply thanking her for her letter and saying the issue would be raised at a meeting.
After further correspondence between Dr Kennedy and the university, the college registrar wrote to her. Professor Paul McCutcheon wrote: ‘I deeply regret that your experience did not match the expectations that we set ourselves. And I formally apologise to you and your family for any hurt we may have caused.’
He went on to ask Dr Kennedy for practical tips on fixing the problem.
Dr Kennedy told the MoS this week: ‘This is a rights issue. I just don’t understand it. Our lives are constantly about “accepting” which is why “backstage” access has prevailed to now and why many disabled people were excluded from voting venues at the last election because of steps.
‘So the real issue is not access – it’s what you think of disabled people, why this was seen as “good enough” as a solution.’
She added: ‘The staff on the day were very nice, but it’s as if there is a blank when it comes to people with disabilities. It’s a lack of understanding that should not be there at a university.’
Dr Kennedy praised the college for setting up the mobility course. ‘I feel it’s a very valuable contribution to improving the assessment and provision of wheelchairs.’
A UL spokeswoman said Dr Kennedy’s concerns would be discussed at a meeting on March 15.
She said there are four places for wheelchair users in the main hall, but that these places do not give access to the stage.
The MoS contacted a number of universities all of which said they ensure graduates who use wheelchairs are seated with their classmates for conferral ceremonies.
‘I don’t know what they were thinking’