Calvin College Opens for Everyone

As Calvin College opens for the Fall semester next week, many students as well as teachers with various disabilities will take advantage of the school’s remarkably wide range of services geared to help everyone live up to their potential.

The college in Grand Rapids, Mich., is not alone in the attention that it pays to providing ways to help make accommodations for students and teachers needing assistance.

But Calvin does stand out as a school that takes very seriously its Christian commitment to inclusion. It quickly implemented important aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the law that requires employers to make accommodations for those with disabilities, once the law took effect in 1990. Before that, though, Calvin was making accommodations.

"The hallmark of our college is to assist students in the academic area to be as successful as possible," says Henry DeVries, vice president for administration, finance and information services at Calvin. "We want to be seen as a place that is committed to being inclusive and supportive to all persons."

Mark Stephenson, director of Christian Reformed Disability Concerns, commented, "I’m delighted that our denominational college devotes this level of effort and resources to include people with disabilities. Calvin has done remarkable work in this area. As a result, community life as well as the educational experience for all students at Calvin is enriched."

The whole issue of accessibility took on sharper focus when Synod 2009, at the request of Disability Concerns, encouraged churches, classes, and educational institutions to sponsor events to celebrate Disability Week from October 12 through 18, 2009, using the theme, "Everybody Belongs. Everybody Serves."

Because of its focus on accessibility, Calvin will likely offer different events and presentations during this year’s first synodically designated Disability Week.

But DeVries makes it clear that the college has worked hard at being accessible for many years. Tutoring is offered to students who need it, door knobs are placed at lower levels so people in wheelchairs can use them, electronic door openers are given to those who can’t twist door knobs, the new Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex has a special area in which weights are available to persons unable to exercise on the normal machines, and housing accommodations are made featuring wider doorways and accessible shower stalls, among other things.

By being aware of those who have special mobility needs, Calvin makes sure in winter to have its maintenance people make it a high priority to clear sidewalks and other areas used by people who are in wheelchairs or find it hard to get around.

In addition, there are so-called smart classrooms that make it easier for students or teachers who are hard of hearing or visually impaired to follow what is going on.

For instance, students who are good at taking notes are designated to unobtrusively sit in classes and take notes for other students who may have a hard time doing so. Often, this is done in real time by linking the laptop of the note taker to the laptop of the person who needs the assistance.

For people with visually impairments there are technologies that blow up letters to make them easier to read. Calvin also provides a service that puts textbooks in larger type. Special e-mail stations are set up around the campus for those who cannot stand at a kiosk and retrieve or send e-mail.

As the college's Fine Arts Center is undergoing renovation, many disability concerns were taken into consideration, ranging from more accessible elevators and stairways to a technology that will allow people who are hard of hearing to better listen to lectures, concerts and other presentations in the new auditorium.

Dietary restrictions are taken into consideration, not just in the cafeteria but in dormitories as well.

"There are peanut-free floors and we have to keep attention focused on balloons and other items that come in and may come contact with those who have latex allergies," says Karen Broekstra, disabilities coordinator in the Student Academic Services office. "The Bible calls us to be a caring community as the covenant people of God."

Synod 2009 said: "We recognize that our Lord Jesus Christ requires the involvement of all his people in the ministry of his church. We have not always made it possible for people with disabilities to participate fully in the community and have often isolated them and their families."

Once students or faculty identify themselves as having a disability, the college’s office of academic affairs steps in.

Tess Hazenberg, a former Calvin student who uses a wheelchair, says that she came to Calvin because of the accommodations it had made and the attitude it presented.

"From the start, accommodations for me to get around were in place. I had a remote door opener, an accessible room, and I knew where to go or who to call if I had any problems," she says.

"In addition to the physical accommodations, though, were the other, more social, accommodations. The leadership on my floor freshman year, and following, reached out to me and made sure that activities planned were ones that I could participate in some way."