Our members deserve an inclusive, accessible space to work and study.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990. UMass has had 35 years to come into compliance with the law. However, many buildings on campus remain entirely inaccessible to folks with a variety of movement-impairing disabilities, causing many parts of campus to be inaccessible or downright unsafe for a significant portion of our friends and colleagues.

For example, Machmer Hall, which is home to several departments and active classrooms, has no elevators at all. This remains true about some of the residence halls as well. Further, students who work in buildings with elevators often find them out of order or in various states of disrepair. One example of this is Arnold House, which has seen several instances of an unreliable elevator in recent years, with at least one reported case of the elevator being stuck with people inside. Another example is Hasbrouck Laboratory, which, just last year, had its elevator go in and out of service at irregular intervals, often for weeks at a time. The university believes this is an issue the departments are responsible for fixing, but departments have been unable to keep up with the maintenance of some of their buildings due to budgeting concerns. 

What’s more, several of our workers have reported improper climate control in certain lab spaces on campus. This is not only a potentially serious health concern for some of our members but has even destroyed lab samples due to improper temperature in the storage area.

While students can bring their concerns to UMass Disability Services, they are seriously under-staffed and under-resourced for the work that is required of them. Further still, it is the students who are given the full burden of seeking accommodations, demonstrating need, and keeping the university accountable for providing the proper assistance. When accommodations are ignored, students are frequently hesitant to raise concerns due to the fear of retaliation.

UMass must comply with the ADA.

Our plan begins by demanding that UMass provide us with a plan to address accessibility concerns brought by our members. In our contract (Memorandum of Understanding #23), the accessibility of campus spaces is understood to be of significant importance, and the university has committed to meeting with us to discuss improvements. 

Solving such a pervasive issue will require building-by-building, department-by-department record-keeping to document any and all inaccessible spaces on campus. We will organize affected graduate workers to bring specific, collective, grievable problems to the administration. Grievances are far more powerful and effective when brought collectively. Through this process, we will pressure the university into adopting universal design-informed solutions, and we will pursue both organizing and legal avenues to enforce total ADA compliance.