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Students Seek Insight into World of Handicapped
CHICAGO, IL (December 22, 2005) - A group of students at North Park
Theological Seminary have experienced first-hand some of the challenges
faced by many handicapped individuals. The students decided to attend
classes while confined to wheelchairs to help them better understand and
appreciate the world of those coping with physical limitations.
"It was quite an awakening," says Christina Tinglof. "Quite humbling.
Quite humiliating."
Tinglof and other members of the "Spiritual Formation: From Hostility to
Hospitality" class, working in groups, were assigned to research how the
church can be more welcoming to people who feel excluded. Tinglof had
observed that there is no direct wheelchair access to other areas of the
seminary building from the first floor - the older building does not
have an elevator.
However, a transport system is in place as part of the stairwell system
that allows handicapped students and faculty to transfer from a
wheelchair to a special chair affixed to a motorized track that
transports them up and down the different stairways. One challenge is
that some wheelchair-bound individuals are unable to lift themselves
from their chair to the rail system and back into the wheelchair without
assistance.
"You still have to have someone put you in the wheelchair, "says
Tinglof. "Someone had to carry my book bag. Someone had to carry my
chair." She says she found the process to be time-consuming and observed
that while people were assisting her, at times they were hindering
access by other individuals to the stairs and landings.
The same assisting actions had to be carried out each time she traveled
from one floor to the next, she noted. A trip up inevitably meant a trip
back down. "It gave me a sense of hopelessness, of having no control,"
Tinglof says.
Tinglof says her day was made even more difficult when she discovered
that the second-floor bathroom was not wheelchair accessible, and the
drinking fountains could not be used by someone who is wheelchair-bound.
The seminary building is an older structure. Installation of an elevator
has been considered, but retrofitting an elevator as part of an existing
older structure also represents a very large expense – more than $1
million by some estimates. In response to the inherent limitations of
the building, the seminary seeks to accommodate handicapped students by
arranging for their classes to be conducted on the first floor.
Tinglof says she hopes the experience will encourage future discussion
on what accommodations can be made. "This was very new for me," says
Tinglof. "I've never worked with handicapped before. It was very
eye-opening." Other students who participated in the project were
Deborah Penny, Adam Phillips, and Aaron Olson.
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