Only in her first semester here at ETSU, graduate student and Access ETSU Bucmate Sydney Roach is already hoping to ignite change by starting an ongoing conversation about accessibility and inclusivity on campus.
“My life’s goal is to help create inclusive spaces and make people feel like there is a space for them everywhere,” Roach said.
Roach is a graduate student enrolled in the university’s speech language pathology program, but has had a passion for working with members of the disability community since she was 11 years old.
This passion was encouraged through her work as a peer tutor for those with disabilities, as well as her involvement in inclusivity programs and initiatives throughout high school and her time at the University of Tennessee.
One of the initiatives Roach succeeded in enacting while as a member of the senate at UTK was passing a bill that would lead to the eventual addition of inclusive seating to the student section of Neyland Stadium.
Roach sees these similar issues with William B. Greene Jr. Stadium at ETSU, pointing out that the amount of inclusive seating is limited and located separately from other student seating. She highlights the fact that, while the seating may meet the needs of some members of the disability community, it is actively segregating them from other members of the ETSU student body.
“I feel like whenever you’re just sitting behind your peers nobody’s talking to you,” Roach said. “So you’re not really getting that experience of being in college and being in a football game.”
At this time, Roach thinks that the situation at William B. Greene Jr. Stadium could be resolved with a solution similar to the one she proposed for Neyland Stadium, although she is aware that the smaller size of ETSU’s stadium and lack of adequate funding might inhibit any university action being taken.
Outside of the football stadium, Roach also notes that other features of the ETSU campus might be prohibiting equal access and inclusivity for all members of its student body. She said that her time spent as a Bucmate for the Access ETSU program has opened her eyes to the challenges that members of the disability community face every day, as she has been alongside some of them to witness the issues firsthand.
Despite Roach’s personal experience with the Access ETSU program and the challenges faced by disabled members, she feels that it is more important that her conversation of campus accessibility and inclusivity serve as a platform on which members of the disabled community can have their voices heard.
“I want [disabled people] to feel as if they have the right to give their opinions and they have the right to speak up,” Roach said. “As an able-bodied person, I don’t want to speak for anyone. . . their voices are much more important than mine.”
Roach hopes to take all the experiences she has had working with the disability community and apply them to her future outside of academia, as she hopes to always continue working with disabled people and spreading awareness of the importance of equal access and inclusivity.
She urges others to be better listeners to those who have a disability and face challenges in daily life in order to fully advocate for these members of the community.
“Being an advocate is not a noun, it’s a verb,” Roach said. “You can always strive to do better, strive to receive feedback and accept it, and be better moving forward.”
Moving forward, Roach hopes that any renovations or updates to the ETSU campus or its facilities will be thoughtfully done in keeping with elements of universal design–a design plan that seeks to be accessible for everyone. She urges that consideration of universal design is important in addition to ADA compliance, as this regulation is not always accessible for everyone in the disability community.
To ensure the needs of every member of the community are met, Roach also proposes that university officials incorporate the use of surveys for those with a disability or those who use a mobility device.
In accordance with the growth mindset that Roach uplifts as a constructive tool, she believes that it is not important to criticize the actions or past decisions of the university in creating their accessibility features, but rather figure out how to amplify the voices of the disability community and make improvements as the campus evolves.
“I think that is the most important thing that Access really wants to promote is just that everybody has a space,” Roach said. “Your college experience might look different from the next person’s and that’s okay.”
For more information on the Access ETSU program, visit their website: https://www.etsu.edu/coe/access/
