Disabled Access

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I hope you will allow me to correct the errors in your editorial of Wednesday, May 14, 1986, concerning the College practices with regard to some of the special needs of disabled students. This statement is the one I must ask be corrected: "Most outrageous is that visually and hearing impaired students must pay for their own readers, exam proctors, and sign language interpreters."

Here is in fact what our practices are: For many years now, long before Public Law 504, the College has enlisted a number of volunteers from within and without the College to read for the visually impaired and in other ways help the disabled students. The volunteer service of the Harvard Neighbors has also been very helpful. For a number of reasons this volunteer service does not now meet all of our needs. We certainly do not wish to discontinue accepting the help of members of our community, but it has become increasingly necessary to have numbers of paid readers. Needs are especially acute in foreign languages, the natural sciences and during reading and exam periods when the student volunteers are involved with their own needs. We now have the well established practice of paying readers and both systems are being used. No visually impaired student need rely solely on the volunteer system when it is inadequate to meet their needs.

Ever since I have been coordinator of services to the handicapped we have been paying interpreters for the deaf.

The same goes for exam proctors and other special needs for disabled students during exams: scribes, special lighting etc. The scheduling office of the College Registrar has provided these services free of charge during the academic year for years and years. I think that office does a remarkable job not only helping with exams but in moving classes to accommodate the needs of the disabled students. It is too bad that their good work is not only not recognized, but even denied.

Having said all of this, now I wish to express the thanks of the community of disabled students and those of us who work to help them for the coverage you have given over the past years. Thomas E. Crooks   Coordinator of Services to the Handicapped

A Crimson staff editorial on May 14 incorrectly stated that Memorial Hall and Sanders Theater are inaccessible to disabled persons. They are accessible.