I am a reporter with TV2, the on campus news station. I would love to discuss this more with you. If you are interested, please contact me at ccircost@kent.edu. I would love to get this word out to the university that something SHOULD be done.
I would prefer to wait to see what SAS (students with disabilities services) is doing first to resolve this then I can follow up with you. The reason why is the person I filed the complaint with is calling the fire director now and will let me know what is going on. This is not the first time either but I don't know if any other previous deaf students filed a complaint.
Sent you an email - let's see what SAS is doing first to resolve the matter.
Their track record isn't exactly stellar but this is serious and I will keep bugging the person I talked to until I get an answer and to see something installed or done at White Hall and other buildings as a result from this.
I saw the fire trucks and all the hoopla today (I have a class in the Art Building that ends at 12:15 - we got out a bit early today).
That's ridiculous. I thought that Kent was supposed to be good with students with disabilities ? (sidenote: I'm registered with Student Accessibility Services, and with one exception everything has been smooth - one semester I had to have surgery. I knew about it over a month in advance. The surgery date was the same date as an exam in Dr Barr's class. He tried to refuse to let me take the exam).
I know! I was very disappointed in that - so very much so that I went straight to SAS to file instead of sending them an impersonal eMail at home.
Some faculty are not very open to students with accessiblility needs. I've encountered a few before in regards to my interpreters. ("Too much of a distraction in class" + too much time on their hands on trying to modify some things.) It's ridiculous but hey, that's life. Some people aren't going to be peaches and roses when it comes down to it.
As for me - I'm going to be a squeaky wheel until something is being done about this. :) I'm getting tired of complaining for over four years on various things along with other students but not seeing something being done about it and this is serious.
I am a reporter with TV2 News, the on campus news station. Me and my partner plan on doing a story about this and we would like you to comment on it since you saw the fire trucks by White Hall that day. If you are interested, please contact me at ccircost@kent.edu. Thank you and have a great weekend!
I'm not sure if I'm replying too late. I don't think I have anything of great interest to say other than, "There were firetrucks and police officers. I was stuck in the traffic"
I'm glad that you're being a squeaky wheel about it. I'm relieved that this one was just a false alarm, but the fact that it was a false alarm shouldn't matter. With those old alarms that are on most of the floors in White Hall, there's no way of knowing what the emergency is, and that's dangerous for the hearing impaired and everyone else too.
Last spring, I was in a night class in White and the alarm went off. We all heard it, but no one knew what the alarm was for in our class either. There were no visual cues as to what the alarm meant. Being tornado season, we all thought it was a tornado alarm, so we stayed inside until we were kicked out of the building too.
If the building had actually been on fire today or last spring, lots of people wouldn't have gotten out because the alarms don't show what the actual emergency is, and that should be a concern of all of the students and employees in White Hall.
Wow I did not know that it was a big problem for everyone else. I thought maybe my interpreter was misunderstanding the alarm signal somehow but the fact that other people *have* misunderstood it shows that it is not an effective means for you or for me either.
Hopefully some types of visual alerts can be installed as soon as possible.
It's definitely a problem and it should be a concern for the college. When it happened in the spring, I was in a night class and there weren't too many classes that night, so we didn't see lots of people in the halls walking out, so we had no reason to believe it was anything other than a tornado alarm.
I've always wondered about accessibility issues in White too. The only way you can access the fifth floor is through one of the stairwells and one of the elevators. In the past, I've had coworkers in wheelchairs and they used to wonder what would happen if we did have to evacuate the building and we couldn't use the elevator. We'd probably just have to carry them out and down five flights of stairs.
I am a reporter with TV2 News, the on campus news station. Me and my partner plan on doing a story about this and we would like you to comment on the situation because you've experienced the same thing before. If you are interested, please contact me at ccircost@kent.edu. Thank you and have a great weekend!
that is very disturbing. thank you for telling us! if nothing is done ASAP, please contact me. I am away for the semester but I have many contacts who can help get this changed not only for white hall, but any other buildings.
I am a reporter for TV2 News, the on campus news station. My partner and I are doing a story about this and we would like you to comment and/or provide us with some contacts so we can learn more about this situation. If you are interested, please contact me at ccircost@kent.edu. We greatly appreciate it! Have a wonderful weekend.
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Thanks for the offer. :)
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Also, if I could have your name as well. I just need background information so I can get all the facts straight.
You can email everything to me :) Thank you very, very much! :)
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Their track record isn't exactly stellar but this is serious and I will keep bugging the person I talked to until I get an answer and to see something installed or done at White Hall and other buildings as a result from this.
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That's ridiculous. I thought that Kent was supposed to be good with students with disabilities ? (sidenote: I'm registered with Student Accessibility Services, and with one exception everything has been smooth - one semester I had to have surgery. I knew about it over a month in advance. The surgery date was the same date as an exam in Dr Barr's class. He tried to refuse to let me take the exam).
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Some faculty are not very open to students with accessiblility needs. I've encountered a few before in regards to my interpreters. ("Too much of a distraction in class" + too much time on their hands on trying to modify some things.) It's ridiculous but hey, that's life. Some people aren't going to be peaches and roses when it comes down to it.
As for me - I'm going to be a squeaky wheel until something is being done about this. :) I'm getting tired of complaining for over four years on various things along with other students but not seeing something being done about it and this is serious.
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Last spring, I was in a night class in White and the alarm went off. We all heard it, but no one knew what the alarm was for in our class either. There were no visual cues as to what the alarm meant. Being tornado season, we all thought it was a tornado alarm, so we stayed inside until we were kicked out of the building too.
If the building had actually been on fire today or last spring, lots of people wouldn't have gotten out because the alarms don't show what the actual emergency is, and that should be a concern of all of the students and employees in White Hall.
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Hopefully some types of visual alerts can be installed as soon as possible.
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I've always wondered about accessibility issues in White too. The only way you can access the fifth floor is through one of the stairwells and one of the elevators. In the past, I've had coworkers in wheelchairs and they used to wonder what would happen if we did have to evacuate the building and we couldn't use the elevator. We'd probably just have to carry them out and down five flights of stairs.
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my email is d f l i n k at k e n t . e d u
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