CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — One year ago, Campus Y Co-president Laura Saavedra Forero was left stranded in Koury dormitory for 32 hours. On Friday, Saavedra Forero and Megan Murphy, the other co-president of the Campus Y, chained their arms to each other and sat in front of the main entrance to South Building.
“We decided to use a lot of symbolism in this action,” Saavedra Forero said. “The idea of being physically chained and locked in for 32 hours symbolizes what it was like to be stuck in my room with no way out for 32 hours.”
The protest was publicized via the Instagram account @cripsincollege under the hashtag #RespectMyHumanity and includes a list of demands for the administration.
The demands include measures that ensure yearly elevator and escalator inspections and the establishment of tailored evacuation plans in inaccessible areas. Protestors are also demanding a greater commitment to being ADA compliant in both classrooms and dorms.
Saavedra Forero said that the lack of accessibility on campus is a safety issue and that there is no time to wait.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about me,” she said. “It’s about my community, it’s about Carolina, it’s about disabled students in higher ed across the country. And so we’ve got to get moving regardless, because the longer we wait, the more classes we’re missing, the more time students are getting stuck, the less resources and accommodations are available for disabled students.”
Murphy said that participating in the protest was a way to give able-bodied people a glimpse into the discomfort that people who are disabled experience every day.
She said that the protest was designed to demonstrate that accessibility is no longer negotiable.
“You’d be surprised how much it angered administrators to not be able to walk through the normal door that they walk through in the morning,” she said.
She said she wanted to force people to consider what disabled students go through on campus and ensure people took the protest seriously.
“We’re going to draw attention to this issue, we’re going to make people uncomfortable,” she said. “We’re here to be disruptors to get people to snap out of it and realize that these are people’s lives on the line.”
Student Body President Taliajah “Teddy” Vann was also present at the protest, standing in support of protesters.
Vann said that the university has consistently fallen short of meeting the basic needs for students who are disabled.
“This action is out of desperation,” she said. “If we listen to them in this desperation and all of the work they’re doing through all of the stress and turmoil to communicate to us what they need, we’ll be able to see things be better.”
Though accessibility issues persist on campus, Saavedra Forero is hopeful that, one day, there will be a Carolina that is accessible for all.
“I know I probably won’t see a lot of those changes in my time here, but I refuse to see another Carolina Tar Heel have to go through what I went through,” she said. “And so I’m willing to do what it takes now in hopes that no one else will have to, and that one day Carolina can feel like home to disabled students.”