Teresa Nguyen, a 21-year old senior integrative physiology major, poses for a portrait before her human anatomy lab on Wednesday. Behind her is a lift, recently added to the lab to allow her to participate in the class. (CU Independent/Stephanie Davis)
For 21-year-old senior integrative physiology major Teresa Nguyen, class participation was a big concern.
When Nguyen faced challenges operating on the cadavers in her anatomy lab because of her wheelchair, she was determined to find a solution.
Nguyen has osteogenesis imperfecta, which creates brittle bones and requires her to get around in a wheelchair. When she attended her human anatomy lab she wasn’t able to reach the table and participate in the course.
Nguyen said she insisted on participating in the lab and worked with the lab personnel, faculty and facilities management to find the right solution.
Her instructors said she was very clear about what she wanted.
“She came to me at the end of January and said ‘I’m going to have a hard time seeing the cadavers and I want to have the same experience,’” said Adam Hayes, an instructor with the Department of Integrative Physiology and lab coordinator for the human anatomy lab.
This is when Disability Services came in and worked with Nguyen and the Integrative Physiology Department to find a solution.
“Lab staff and facilities people all met together with Teresa and collaborated to make a solution really quickly,” said Karen Rosenschein, the assistant director of Disability Services at CU.
Her instructors considered different options.
“The first idea was to take the limbs off the body,” Hayes said. “But she would miss seeing the torso and facial sections.”
Some of the solutions suggested were using cameras so Nguyen could see the cadaver or pictures of the cadaver, but Nguyen said she wanted to participate and work on the cadaver like the other students.
“They came up with the idea of this lift that they use for graduation here at CU,” Nguyen said. “It’s a huge contraption that cranks up and raises me in my wheelchair a couple feet.”
“Sometimes you have to come up with some really creative solutions,” Rosenschein said. “This is a unique story about a student needing access in an unusual setting.”
More than 1,400 students are registered with Disability Services at CU, said Rosenschein, and work with the program to create services that help with their disabilities. Disability Services aids students with any condition that impacts them at CU, including invisible disabilities such as learning disabilities.
“There are accommodations, which are services, that students need to have equal access to their curriculum such as electronic textbooks for the blind or an interpreter,” Rosenschein said.
Rosenschein said that there are many challenges for students with mobility disabilities at CU because of the architecture of the older buildings on campus.
“The biggest obstacles have to do with getting around old buildings,” Rosenchein said. “Some only have one elevator, only have accessible bathrooms on one floor and our signage could be much better than it is.”
But Nguyen said she finds CU to be surprisingly accessible for students with mobility disabilities.
“I was actually surprised by the accessibility on campus,” Nguyen said. “The hardest part is not knowing which buildings are too old to access.”
Facilities management and students work together to relocate courses to accessible spaces if older buildings, such as Ramaley and Hellems, prove to be challenges.
“I actually had a class on the third floor of an older building and we had to move the class because I couldn’t get up to the classroom,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said this is not the first time she has received helpful aid from campus personnel. Disability Services was integral in creating a functional dorm room with a personalized desk, bed and bathroom for Nguyen.
Nguyen now lives outside of Boulder and commutes by bus to campus. She said that there are not many accessible rental properties available in Boulder, because it is a college town.
Snow in Colorado is the greatest challenge on campus for students with mobility disabilities, but Nguyen said that CU’s facilities management is very cooperative with its accommodations.
The funding for Disability Services at CU is a constant challenge.
Cindy Donahue, the director of Disability Services, said that necessary funding per year is difficult to predict because of legal mandates.
“We can’t have static funding because if it is an approved and appropriated accommodation then it is required, by law, to provide the service,” Donahue said. “We want to have a different model to anticipate these students, these accommodations and what the costs would be.”
Disability Services is working to create a program to predict incoming students that will have disabilities and the costs associated with providing for their needs.
Disability Services also works to educate and train professors on how to accommodate their curriculum in the classroom.
“We work with professors to teach a class in the best way to reach the most students possible,” Rosenschein said. “All of those scenarios should be worked out so students are as competitive and their degrees mean as much as everyone else’s”.
The lift for Nguyen’s chair is just one example of how Disability Services has helped ensure that a quality education is provided for her at CU, she said.
“I get to have an equal opportunity and that is really important to me,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said she is graduating in December and plans on attending pharmacy school after her undergraduate work is complete.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Lauren Knobbe at Lauren.knobbe@colorado.edu.
