Blind mom’s civil rights claim prompts change at Wichita State

When Emily Schlenker was in high school, a teacher told her he couldn’t teach a blind person physics.

“I said when’s the last time you saw an electron?” she said, adding that she ended up dropping the class because of the teacher’s attitude.

She continued to encounter accessibility hurdles when she went on to Wichita State University, where she’s now a pre-med major. Sometimes her Braille textbooks didn’t arrive until halfway through the semester and she was given online homework and tests that weren’t designed to function with reading equipment for the blind, she said.

But now, Schlenker’s experience is bringing a big change in the way WSU deals with visually impaired students.

On Thursday, the university and the National Federation of the Blind announced an agreement to settle a federal civil rights complaint that Schlenker filed against the school last spring.

WSU agreed to take a number of steps to make learning easier for blind students, including:

▪ Hiring or designating an accessibility coordinator to oversee access issues and report on the university’s compliance with the agreement.

▪ Conducting a technology audit and developing plans to supply equipment and course materials to blind students at the same time the sighted students get them.

▪ Making the university’s library and web sites more accessible to the visually impaired.

▪ Training students with disabilities on their rights to accommodation, and training instructors and administrators on their responsibilities to provide it.

▪ Developing a grievance process that blind students can use when they think their rights are being violated, and providing information on how to file complaints with Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“WSU certainly deserves credit for acting quickly and entering into such a comprehensive agreement,” said federation spokesman Chris Danielsen, noting the complaint was filed in March.

The agreement averted what could have been a lengthy lawsuit, and the federation will work with the university on meeting the goals and monitoring progress, he said.

Shortcomings acknowledged

Tony Vizzini, WSU’s provost and senior vice president, acknowledged that WSU fell short in providing Schlenker with the college experience she deserves.

He said he’s looking forward to working with the federation to correct the problems and he’s glad Schlenker pushed the issue.

“They (federation officials) showed us some things we were doing that we weren’t really aware of,” Vizzini said. “We realized we weren’t doing the sort of job we should be doing for our blind students.”

WSU has fewer than 10 blind students now. Vizzini said he hopes the new accommodations will make the school more attractive to such students.

He said it will take a lot of work over about the next four years to shift from accommodating a few students to developing a culture where accessibility is a standard feature. With the federation’s help, “We know what that path is and are moving down that path,” he said.

A victory, not a celebration

Schlenker has been blind since birth. Her only vision is that she can perceive light and darkness.

She said she recognizes the agreement is a victory for her and other blind students, but she doesn’t feel like celebrating too much because she’s still trying to catch up.

She’s a licensed therapeutic masseuse, but her business suffered because she had to spend so much extra time on her studies working through the accessibility issues, she said.

“I’ve been attending WSU on and off since 2002,” said Schlenker, 34, who has an 11-year-old daughter.

Her academic record was up and down. She did well in classes where she had accommodations for her disability and earned a bachelor’s degree in global studies in 2011.

But she got B’s and C’s or had to take incompletes in classes where accessibility was an issue, especially the hard-science classes she needs to ace to get into medical school.

‘I’m not a bad organic chemist’

She said she has had some help along the way. A teaching assistant helped her visualize molecular structures using “a bunch of Styrofoam balls and knitting needles.” She learned to solve organic chemistry problems through the simple expedient of a magnetic board.

“I’m not a bad organic chemist, but I never would have known that if I hadn’t persisted with getting my materials and learning,” she said. “I knew it wasn’t just the learning that was a problem, but the lack of access was what was holding me back.”

The university has agreed to provide her with some tuition-free coursework that will allow her to retake and improve her grades in classes where she struggled with access issues.

Although a lot of students would be happy with B’s and C’s in the classes she’s taking, “that’s not what you want to see on a medical school transcript,” she said.

A big part of the problem, she said, is that the educational system discourages people like her who are interested in science and math fields.

“Everyone from high school on through looks at what blind people are good at, like music or listening, and steers students toward softer subjects,” she said. “It’s not that there’s anything wrong with those things, but those shouldn’t be the only options.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Blind mom’s civil rights claim prompts change at Wichita State."