Published: January 26, 2026
Campus accessibility is a big issue for USM’s community. Students with disabilities have been asking for changes to be made for several years, without many results to show. In fact, accessibility has only gotten worse for some. Maintenance either takes too long or doesn’t happen at all, concerns are downplayed, and programs continue to run without consideration for students with disabilities. These students have taken the lead on advocating for changes, but feel like the university should step up to fix existing problems. Better yet, they want the university to proactively address potential issues in the future.
Olivia Fanjoy has struggled with accessibility on campus due to her visual impairment, caused by Ocular Albinism. With this limited visibility, the campus becomes dangerous for her to navigate in winter conditions. Poor lighting, slow sidewalk clearing, and a lack of maintenance affect Olivia’s mobility and safety. She explained how, when she lived in Woodward Hall, a major ice storm left both exits iced over. Both exits are downward slopes and had not been salted or sanded at all at the time. After calling Facilities for three days, trying to explain that she could not safely leave the dorm or get food, a fellow student took it upon themselves to salt the paths in the middle of the night. Before that, she lived in Upton-Hastings, where poor lighting and an out-of-service elevator forced her to climb four flights of stairs with a stress fracture in order to move herself in after Winter Break.
Olivia has advocated for better accessibility in other places. She asked for high-visibility tape on the Performance Hall steps, just for brown tape that does not meet accessibility standards, to be installed a month later. The Arts Lab had a missing railing for a month, and after requesting it be replaced, Olivia was told by the director of the School of Music to “drop the issue” because she had supposedly annoyed people with her requests.
Unfortunately, this dismissiveness is something other students have also experienced. Acacia Woodley, another student with a disability, has spent the past three years advocating for changes to accessibility on campus. While some (like Vice President of Student Affairs Andrew Pollom) have expressed support for these issues, “substantial follow-through” has yet to happen. Acacia has instead seen a pattern where students with disabilities have to constantly push for small changes, facing the same barriers to change every time. As Olivia experienced, some staff have also downplayed these concerns. Staff in the Disabilities Service Center (DSC) have asked her to provide extensive proof and documentation of these recurring issues. Discussing the frequently broken ADA doors on campus, Dean Rodney told her that “many students might not see the door as not working and ignore it,” which she believes shifts the blame away from the university and “dismisses the realities disabled students live with every day.”
Acacia put together a 5-page document with critical accessibility issues, and she shared an email with over 150 people last year, providing proof that she has been asking for changes for multiple years without success. These issues include broken buttons on ADA doors, many places that are missing ADA-compliant doors entirely, “nonfunctional or unsafe accessible routes between buildings,” steep and poorly maintained hills/ramps, and hazardous ground surfaces. Broken cobblestones and uneven asphalt are big issues for wheelchair users, too. “These cause wheels to catch and have repeatedly damaged wheelchair tires,” she explained. New buildings have also had major problems with accessibility. Portland Commons lacks push-button accessible doors on every floor. The new Crew Center’s wave-activated doors and interior sensors are both inaccessible for many, and they break frequently – occasionally for weeks at a time. Old buildings and Gorham’s many hills also face similar challenges: for example, Lower Brooks is totally inaccessible to some after 7 PM, when the only doors allowing for upper elevator access are locked. Luthor-Bonney was also mentioned by multiple students as providing unique challenges in accessing classrooms, especially on higher floors.
Aydan Rudolph is also an advocate for fellow students with disabilities and echoed similar concerns. Navigating both campuses in a wheelchair has been very difficult, especially the Robie Andrews dorm. Elevators are constantly out of service, and little to no communication is provided. Aydan described how, once, he was forced to enlist help from another student, dragging his wheelchair up the stairs after receiving no answers about an elevator outage. He also discussed his experience with TRIO his freshman year, getting the itinerary and expressing his concerns with accessibility early. Aydan’s concerns were downplayed and not listened to, leaving him unable to participate and spending most of Immersion Week on a bench in Gorham. He says that this experience represents the standard at USM, with concerns ignored and students with disabilities sidelined. After three years of providing feedback, both Aydan and Acacia have seen no changes made to the TRIO program for disabled students.
The inaccessibility issues on campus are truly too numerous to list here. Acacia said that “progress disappears the moment I stop actively pushing,” and that the burden on students with disabilities to advocate for themselves is unsustainable and exhausting. University President Jaqueline Edmonson responded when asked for comment that “[a]ccessibility issues are addressed on a regular basis as they’re brought to our attention, and we strive to respond in a timely manner,” and encourages students to apply for accommodations through the DSC. They also suggest students report barriers to accessibility as soon as possible to the DSC and Facilities Management, and that the DSC evaluate student experience through a feedback survey every spring. In response to questions about disability access in new buildings or improving infrastructure, the administration stated that it works with accessibility and compliance experts on building committees. Unfortunately, these issues have persisted for years, even with consistent student advocacy.
Other than Andrew Pollom’s walk-through of campus with Acacia, administrators have largely not shown support for these students. Aydan hopes that the renewed commitment to accessibility expressed by the President’s Committee on Community Access and Belonging may translate to real change. He did express concern that the representatives for disabled students on the committee are some of the same staff members who have minimized concerns in the past. Both Aydan and Acacia spoke about difficulty engaging Dr. Edmonson on these issues, as well. When asked for comment, Dr. Edmonson responded in an email that “the voices and concerns of students are important to me, and I take each one seriously. I encourage students to follow the formal processes with the DSC in my earlier email to you to make certain their concerns are heard, and to complete the DSC survey. This is the best way to ensure student concerns can be addressed.” Considering where the DSC has failed to follow through on some concerns, though, Aydan wished to issue a challenge to Dr. Edmonson: to navigate both campuses for one day in a wheelchair. Students cannot afford to wait weeks, months, or even years for these changes to happen, and they hope engaging more administrators and staff will help improve accessibility sooner.
