Opinion: How Many Millions of Dollars Does it Take to Build an Accessible Sports Center?
By Julia Mascola
When Reed reopened the newly renovated Sports Center in the fall of 2024, Michael Lombardo told the Quest that the new building “utilizes a configuration to create an environment that can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.” As it stands, this is not true. The Sports Center is inaccessible for disabled students, specifically those coming from off campus. Students with handicapped parking access have one spot given to them by the Reed vans on Botsford Dr. This spot is misleading though, because the door it allegedly provides access to is locked.
For some context, if you are a disabled Reedie trying to access the sports center from off campus, the current setup would have you park in the handicapped parking at the PAB, take the elevator in the PAB up to the Quad, and enter the sports center at the front desk. I should not have to explain why this is not feasible for many disabled community members, myself included. This cannot be the “universal design” boasted in the article announcing the building’s reopening. The most egregious design flaw here is the handicapped parking spot next to the sports center itself. This spot leads to a locked door, where disabled community members are stuck between a hill (Botsford Drive) and a staircase, potentially forced to turn around if they don’t have someone to assist them in getting in. This is not an accessible design; Reed has actively created a barrier to access for its disabled community.
When I inquired about this issue to multiple Reed offices, including DAR and the sports center directors, the answer I received was incredibly disheartening. Reed has prioritized controlling sports center admittance at the front desk over the access of disabled individuals. I was told that the reason for the barrier was to protect the gym as a valuable resource, as well as to avoid legal liability if someone outside the community were to be injured on the premises. Administrators are concerned that the door would be held open, and that anyone could get in this way, but the idea that checking IDs at the front desk prevents students from letting in others is laughable. If they really wanted, a student could hold open any door after entering at the main entrance. There is no increased liability risk to setting up swipe access at this door so that this handicapped parking spot does not lead to nowhere. To sum up, Reed has created a barrier to access, placing legal liability concerns over the access needs of disabled community members.
While the old Sports Center was undoubtedly more difficult to access, Reed should strive to do better than its past mistakes. Multiple faculty and staff members have told me they are really committed to an accessible sports center, and that accessibility was one of the main goals targeted in the renovation, but their actions say otherwise. The proposed solutions from a meeting on the topic are for students to call the front desk to be let in at this door, after which they can then go through the process of setting up swipe access with DAR. Anyone who has worked with DAR knows that this is not an ideal solution, and that this process could take multiple weeks. I personally still do not have swipe access after initially reaching out about this over a month ago. Additionally, DAR only works with students generally, what about the access needs of disabled staff and faculty? This feels like a ridiculous proposition when all other buildings operate on swipe alone. Long term, the proposed solution involves a buzzer with a speaker/video camera so the front desk can monitor this entrance and let people in. Knowing Reed, this addition could be five years down the road, and until it is instituted, disabled people will have to jump through many hoops just to get inside a building that was allegedly designed with their needs in mind.
In the face of many significant issues facing the Reed community as authoritarianism takes hold in our institution, this may seem insignificant to some. That is definitely how I have felt while trying to get access for myself and others, like there were better things to spend my time working towards. I am very privileged to have the time and energy to call different offices, meet with admin, and write this article. I can’t imagine how many people have tried to get in from this handicapped parking spot and just given up, believing that Reed does not care enough to provide fair access. If Reed professes accessibility as one of its core aims in renovating the sports center, it is not insignificant when Reed leaves behind the very community members it claims to be supporting.
Finally, I will add that it is not a radical idea that disabled people should be able to access all buildings on Reed’s campus without additional difficulty, but apparently even $25 million dollars cannot buy this basic access.