many of the issues raised here involve access to technology and
information.

Kelly


University Wire

November 29, 2001

Southern Illinois U. accused of civil rights violations

By Marleen Troutt, Daily Egyptian

Carbondale, Ill.

Ruqayyah Muhammad, a single mother who is partially blind and
wears a leg brace, does not appear to be very menacing. But the
sound of her name is enough to cause an instant case of "no
comment" from some Southern Illinois University officials.

Muhammad said goodbye to the University in August, but not before
filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office
of Civil Rights. She is also pursuing reimbursement from the
University for medical injuries sustained from allegedly falling
at her Southern Hills apartment last April.

The Education Department is currently investigating the
University and is awaiting data requested to substantiate
Muhammad's allegations that she was denied services and
accessible housing, violating the 1990 Americans with
Disabilities Act.

University officials said they could not comment on the case
because the investigation is open.

Muhammad says her stay at SIUC was nothing less than a nightmare,
where rather than meet her needs as an individual who is
disabled, she was treated like a child. She said what makes it
worse is that her story, wrought with one battle after another,
is not uncommon for SIUC students with visual impairments.

After incurring a debt with SIUC from a previous attendance in
1997, Muhammad re-enrolled so that current financial aid would
wipe out the previous debt. She said she had so many problems
with services and adaptation that she never wanted to return. But
she agreed to come back for one semester, summer 2001, so she
could move on to another university. Muhammad said she called
weekly to ensure there would be no problems this time.

Muhammad said she was informed that the apartment was ready in
March, so she took her daughter out of school so that she didn't
lose her housing to another applicant. She said she arrived on
March 5 to find that her housing wasn't available, because
asbestos needed to be removed. She said she was offered no
alternative place to lodge.

"I said, 'I don't know where I'm going to go. I've got a cab
outside with my kid and my boxes,'" Muhammad said. "The cab
driver offered to take me to the Women's Center where I lived as
a homeless person for the next 30 days."

Muhammad provided the Daily Egyptian with documentation of
services from the Women's Center during the time she alleges she
stayed there.

Elizabeth Scally, a spokesperson for University Housing, says
that Muhammad was not offered a housing contract until April 1,
allowing her to move in five days later.

"If I hadn't made the preliminary arrangements, I wouldn't have
got the housing. Nobody walks in there and gets an apartment in
five days," Muhammad said.

Muhammad said the University made good on its housing promise
April 1, but the lodging they offered her, apartment 136-8 at
Southern Hills, was not accessible. Braille markers for her
thermostat and laundry room were never added to the second-floor
apartment.

On April 6, 2001, she was moving furnishings into the apartment
while managing the stairs with the cane she uses to navigate. She
says she fell down the first set of stairs, and that she grabbed
for the railing, but there wasn't one. She asked her daughter
what had happened.

"Mom, the stairs are coming apart," her daughter told her. Her
daughter later peeled off a corner of one of the steps, and
handed it to her mother to explain the situation by touch.

The concrete is still chipped on all eight steps and there is no
railing where Muhammad allegedly fell.

Kathleen Plesko, director of disability support services, wrote a
response, dated July 16, stating that she had requested
documentation of Muhammad's injury in order to explore other
options but did not receive it.

"I do not know that your leg was 'severely injured in the fall,'"
Plesko wrote. "Student Health Programs has issued you Transit
Service tickets. Evidently one of the doctors there has decided
that you did, in fact, have some kind of mobility impairment and
is assisting you in this manner."

In Muhammad's written response, dated July 23, she confirms a
re-diagnosis that indicates her knee suffered torn ligaments and
cartilage. She eventually underwent surgery and is still in
physical therapy.

Now Muhammad is locked in litigation in an attempt to collect
payment from the University on the medical bills incurred as a
result of her tumble. Brandon Vaughn, of the Beard Law Firm, said
he is currently in negotiations with SIUC and expects the bills
to be paid through a settlement with the University's insurance
company.

The civil rights complaint made to the Department of Education
alleges that Muhammad was unnecessarily refused access to taped
textbooks, a student notetaker and rides through Handicapped Van
Services after her fall, in order to punish her for voicing prior
complaints.

Muhammad has an explanation of why she was denied basic services.

"This is what they do to blind students when we raise ruckus
about something," Muhammad said. "It's always like we're little
kids that they could say, 'Oh, you're on a time out.'"

Plesko addressed the van complaint in an interview with the Daily
Egyptian. She said the transit tickets were offered in lieu of
the van for Muhammad's comfort, noting that the transit service
offers better seating and increased flexibility in scheduling and
routes.

The letter from Plesko also addresses the accessibility
complaints Muhammad had made concerning her new lodging.

"The provision of tactile markers for thermostats, hot water
heaters and stoves for students with visual impairments is
routine at SIUC," Plesko wrote. "We were certainly ready to
provide these accommodations but were unsure as to where you
would be living."

When Plesko was asked why these accommodations weren't made
during the month Muhammad was homeless, Plesko responded: "That's
a very good question, but I cannot talk specifically about this
case."

Muhammad received the letter from Plesko shortly after requesting
that all communications be sent to her in writing to avoid what
she described as verbal abuse.

"I request that in writing and that brings anger," she said of
her foibles with Disability Support Services and Housing.
"Because if it's in writing then they can't say, 'I didn't know
you wanted that.' I got sick and tired of them saying, 'Uh, you
didn't tell us that.'"

Kathe Klare, special counsel to the University, is preparing the
documentation requested.

"We will correct whatever issues need to be corrected if there is
a problem. Since I've been here, there have been no findings by
[the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights] that we have
discriminated against disabled students," said Klare, who added
that in her five years here there have only been three such
complaints filed with the agency that she can recall.

Rodger Murphey, spokesperson for the Education Department, said
that none of the allegations have been substantiated, but he
explained what would happen if they were.

"We tell them in writing, and they are required to submit a
compliance agreement or they could lose every federal dollar,"
Murphey said.

Other Blind Students Speak Out

In August of this year, shortly before Muhammad's complaint had
been filed through the Education Department, current SIUC
students Jean Eliacin and Rob Hobson, who are visually impaired,
had received word that a similar complaint they filed a year
before had been resolved.

Their complaint alleged that the computer labs on campus were not
accessible and their classes were suffering because of it.

Eliacin, an undecided sophomore from Haiti, spiraled from a
lifelong B average to academic probation in his first semester at
SIUC in fall 2000. He said he finally decided on this University
because of a brochure sent to his high school counselor that
highlighted SIUC's computer accessibility for the blind and great
reputation for disabled services.

"Before coming to SIU, I told them what I need: a large print
book, my books on tape, special computers, having a person show
me around campus. I came and nothing was ready. I was very
frustrated because I could not read my books," Eliacin said.

Eliacin soon discovered that none of the computer labs on campus
were accessible. When they did have blind screen reading programs
such as JAWS, the program was outdated, rendering it incompatible
with the Windows version installed on the computers.

"I had to suffer for six weeks without doing my homework. I wrote
a letter complaining (to Seymour Bryson, associate chancellor for
diversity) saying 'I'm surely going to fail my semester. I've
never failed any classes in my life and I'm going to fail because
of lack of assistance they promised me.' They lied to me."

Eliacin said he was hoping Bryson would rectify the matter before
filing a complaint with the Education Department, but the problem
did not go away. He joined Hobson, who was having similar
problems, in filing the complaint in October 2000.

Bryson, also SIUC's American with Disabilities Act compliance
coordinator, said he understood students' frustration in wanting
problems solved immediately. But he added that it often takes
time to rectify a complaint.

"We went through a period of time where technology was not
immediately available, but once we identified the problem we
solved it," Bryson said. "We found we needed to be a little more
knowledgeable about students' technology and that's what we're
trying to do."

Two months after classes began, the computers were finally
adapted and textbooks were provided. But it was too late to save
Eliacin from failing English 101.

"It not only killed me academically, it killed me emotionally,"
Eliacin said. "I was so depressed my first year I even took
counseling."

The conditions of the resolution included providing the necessary
computer equipment and software and letting Eliacin retake the
English course. It also mandated that training be provided to
current and newly hired Information Technology staff at Morris
Library and Faner Hall. The University still must document to the
Department of Education that these mandates were implemented by
February 2002.

Mary Piccerello, a undeclared graduate student from Ohio who is
blind, said in the first few weeks of class this semester, before
her own computer arrived from home, she shared Hobson's and
Eliacin's experience a year after their complaint was made.

"Everything in the Library wasn't working and they had to get it
fixed," Piccerello said. "I came back a few days later and it was
still screwed up. I was so happy when my own computer came. The
library has always been the worst place for a blind person. When
you have to do research, you have to break somebody's arm
practically."

Muhammad also flunked a class, she said, because the outdated
Braille encyclopedias in Morris Library (1962-1968) were the only
reference materials at her disposal.

At this time she said she had been refused taped textbooks that
were promised to her by DSS. She said she pleaded with the
Achieve Program, which generally serves students with learning
disabilities.

In the aforementioned letter to Muhammad, Plesko says she
addressed this matter with Sally Dedeker, a project coordinator
for the Achieve Program.

"Dr. Dedeker and I have explored the option of trading adapted
format texts but have not finalized any arrangement to do so, and
she is certainly under no obligation to give you taped material,"
Plesko wrote.

"She did generously, in response to a 'desperate' phone call from
someone named 'Ricky' (Muhammad's nickname), facilitate the
copying and delivering of the taped music book to you."

Dave Benney, a radio-television freshman from Chicago who is
blind, spent his first two weeks at the University this fall
without the books on tape he requested three months before
classes began.

But that was not the biggest setback of his first strides through
higher education. He was assigned someone to help him get around
the University in the first few weeks as he became oriented.
After being stood up for the third time by his helper on his way
home from class, he wandered the campus lost.

"Their excuse was, 'well our guy overslept.' I went in there and
snapped on them and that got them in gear," Benney said. "That's
what you got to do."

Benney, Piccerello, Eliacin and Hobson may have been slighted,
but they stand by Plesko and Sandra Samples, coordinator of blind
and deaf services at DSS. These blind students say that DSS
always tried its best to help them, but for some reason their
hands seemed tied.

Eliacin and Hobson blame a lack of organization within the
University, and feel that because there are few blind students,
they are not a priority. Piccerello and Benney say despite rough
starts, they are on the road to success with disability services
helping them on that path.

But Muhammad says the actions of so many involved border on the
unexplainable.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Muhammad, who is
happily attending a university out of state.

Plesko is the first to admit that this is "a less-than-perfect
University." But she said her office's vigilance to help students
and rectify problems comes across to students.

"I want this to be the best campus in this country and I try to
make it that," Plesko said. "I can't tell you I haven't missed
some. But most students have a very strong sense that people are
working hard for them, not only that, but that we really do have
the ear of the administration. We don't have 500 students with
disabilities for nothing."

Though Muhammad left SIU behind, she said she is willing to face
the embarrassment of having the community know she lived in a
"homeless shelter" and the "retaliation" she believes might occur
from University members who are angered by negative publicity.

"I can move on," she said. "However, there are people that still
live there."


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