{"id":133879,"date":"2021-12-06T16:51:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T15:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=133879"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:02","slug":"student-kyra-the-campus-is-a-veritable-hell-for-people-in-wheelchairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/12\/06\/student-kyra-the-campus-is-a-veritable-hell-for-people-in-wheelchairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Kyra: ‘The campus is a veritable hell for people in wheelchairs’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyra usually gets around in a wheelchair. But campus Woudestein is so inaccessible that she sent a cry for help to the rector last month. She tells us about the problems she encounters on an afternoon of lectures. \u201cExcuse my language, but it really is shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Sills in front of buildings (for instance at Caf\u00e9 In de Smitse and the V building), doors that are too heavy (like in Polak and the quiet room at the university library), inaccessible disabled toilets (Mandeville), no suitable toilets (G building), too steep a slope (Institutenlaan), broken lifts (like in Theil), impractical routes (Sanders), buttons for the lifts that are too high (Tinbergen). Kyra Mulders has had enough of it, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n

Should we turn left or right? That question immediately comes to mind when we leave the EM offices between the Tinbergen and Theil buildings. If you\u2019re not in a wheelchair, you don\u2019t have to worry about it. For Kyra (23), a Health Sciences and Philosophy student, it\u2019s a different story. She wants to show us just how inaccessible the campus is for her. We turn right, towards Theil. We fetch Kyra\u2019s coat and her friend\u2019s Georgina Ar\u00e1nzazu Dijkstra (Psychology and Philosophy) from the university library. That way, they can show us a shortcut to get to Theil, because the lifts there were broken for a long time.<\/p>\n

Institutenlaan<\/h2>\n\t
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\n\t\t\u2018Excuse my language, but it really is shit\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFriend Georgina about the inaccessibility of the campus\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cThis is my fourth year here\u201d, Kyra tells us. \u201cAnd all that time I have been sending emails to the university. Doors that are too heavy, doorsills that I can\u2019t get over, I told them all about it. Sometimes they reply and say they\u2019ll do something about it, sometimes only that the modifications will cost 1.500 euros, for instance, and that they are not prepared to do it for such a small group of people. And if something improves, something else on the campus gets worse. Like a step gets relaid and then the ramp is too steep.\u201d Her friend, Georgina, adds: \u201cBefore I met Kyra, I had no idea how bad it was. I\u2019d just walk everywhere. Now I can see how ridiculously inaccessible it is here.\u201d Kyra only has one way to sum it up: \u201cThe campus is a veritable hell for people in wheelchairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kyra would not have made it onto the bridge without her friend Georgina. \n<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Just outside the university library, at the bottom of Institutenlaan, Kyra can move forward on her own. If it gets any steeper, she needs help from a friend. \u201cWhen I had just started studying here and didn\u2019t know many people yet, I used to drive my car between classes from the car park at Park Noord to a parking spot at Van de Goot. Otherwise I had no idea how to get to the buildings on the other side of the campus.\u201d Georgina\u2019s calves have to be put to work if she has to cross the bridge over the road. It\u2019s here temporarily because there\u2019s work going on, but it is an extra inconvenience. \u201cAnd it\u2019s slippery with this rainy weather,\u201d Georgina points out. \u201cIf I slip, Kyra will roll downwards.\u201d That makes the two of them laugh, not so much because they think it\u2019s funny, but because it\u2019s \u201ctoo bizarre for words\u201d. \u201cExcuse my language, but it really is shit\u201d, is how Georgina describes the situation.<\/p>\n

Sanders<\/h2>

When we enter the Sanders building, the steward greets Kyra and Georgina. \u201cHe sometimes helps us,\u201d Kyra explains. Then she points to the tall doors on the right-hand side. She can\u2019t open them. \u201cGreat that they\u2019re so high, but no good for me.\u201d The doors to the lecture halls are also difficult to open. \u201cI was late once and then I couldn\u2019t get in. I couldn\u2019t open the door.\u201d The door to the library in the building is also too heavy and the alternative route has a staircase.<\/p>\n

The lift to the first floor was out of order for a while, so Kyra had to take the stairs. She\u2019s got Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, an inherited disorder that affects your connective tissues. Not only does it affect her muscles, but all her organs as well. Heart problems, stomach ailments, Kyra has the whole bang shoot. Simply climbing the stairs is not so easy. It really takes its toll on her health.<\/p>\n

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Just open the door to the study room? Kyra can't do that in Sanders. The doors are too heavy.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Mandeville<\/h2>

On the way to the Mandeville building, Kyra reckons she got better grades when education was online. \u201cSuddenly it was possible for me to \u2018attend\u2019 all my lectures. Physical education is more exhausting, even without the challenges of getting everywhere.\u201d It\u2019s also a problem in the Mandeville building. The pavement rises in front of the entrance, and directly behind it is a revolving door. She has to pick up speed to enter on her own, but often there is a queue in front of the entrance and so it\u2019s not possible. Once again Georgina calf muscles are challenged.<\/p>\n

We take the lift to the third floor. To T3-9947, between the escalator and the lifts. \u201cThis is the worst place on the entire campus\u201d, Kyra tells us. She calls it \u201cthe inaccessible toilet for the disabled\u201d. First there\u2019s a doorsill, so Kyra can\u2019t roll in easily, and it is difficult to close the door. Meanwhile, the door is blocking the entrance to the ladies\u2019 toilet. The toilet roll holder is attached to the armrest in such a way that the roll falls off if the armrest is up. That\u2019s why the roll is somewhere else, so high that you can\u2019t reach it from a wheelchair. It\u2019s practically impossible to wash your hands, Kyra tells us. \u201cParticularly if you\u2019re someone with reduced hand functions. The tap is too impractical.\u201d<\/p>\n

V building and Polak<\/h2>
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The gully for draining rainwater (here just outside Polak) is also an obstacle.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

We head towards the V building past the bicycle shed at the Spar. \u201cThey should lay this pavement again\u201d, Kyra points out. \u201cI hobble along all over the place, that\u2019s how uneven it is.\u201d A bit later we\u2019re on the street between Van der Goot and the V building. Kyra can\u2019t get up onto the pavement on the side where the red temporary building is located. The slope is too steep, so she falls over backwards if she doesn\u2019t have help.<\/p>\n

Then she has to go around it on the way to the Polak building. Once there, Kyra often has to wait a long time for the lift. Sometimes twenty minutes. \u201cThere are only two lifts for the whole building and there are a lot of students\u201d, Kyra tells us. \u201cSo I join the queue at the lift, but with my wheelchair I take up more space than people without wheelchairs. So I don\u2019t always fit. Especially in the second lift, because it\u2019s smaller. And people aren\u2019t always very helpful. Students sometimes even tell me that they don\u2019t have the time to hold the door open for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there not a single building that Kyra can get into without problems? Yes, there is, Kyra tells us. The ground-level Food Plaza. \u201cThere are no doorsills there and it has the most accessible toilet on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than just her wheelchair<\/h2>
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Kyra at the door of the Sanders lecture hall.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSanne van der Most<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

That\u2019s where Kyra and Georgina wrote a long email to the rector magnificus on a Friday evening. \u201cIs the campus not meant for me because I am disabled?\u201d she wrote in the email. \u201cBecause that\u2019s the message I\u2019m getting loud and clear. No education, no lectures, no toilet, not being able to study in silence, or even take an exam in peace, not even being able to have a drink with fellow students. And that is just a short summary of my grievances.\u201d On Sunday evening, Kyra got a response from the rector. She was shocked by Kyra\u2019s message and she promised she would get back to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be more than the girl in the wheelchair\u201d, says Kyra as we wait in Sanders for her evening lecture to begin. She\u2019s not sure what the university could do for her. \u201cI\u2019ve never come across the perfect world. The university is a very bureaucratic environment. What I\u2019ve shown you now are only a few examples. So there\u2019s enough that can be done. I really do hope that things will change. Not only for me, but for all other students in wheelchairs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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