Diverse Source: Roberto Pezina

Quotes collected by: Jonathan Check

Source: Roberto Pezina

Identifying information: freshman; 18 years old; from Matamoros, Mexico; student; nursing major

What do you think this campus would be like without all of the different ADA accommodations (i.e. ramps, elevators)? It would be hell for people in wheelchairs. There are a lot of stairs, a lot of hills, so I cannot picture somebody in a wheelchair trying to go across campus to get to class.

Do you ever use any of these accommodations yourself? I use the elevators just in the library, and sometimes I use the ramps on the stairs just to run.

Do you feel like the university complies well with making the entire campus accessible to people with disabilities? Yeah, I think so. I don’t know about Alkek...oh, we have ramps; nevermind.

How do you think Texas State would be different if they didn’t have to make all these accommodations? Discuss what you think the differences would be as far as how the campus looks and also how the student body might look. I think we wouldn’t have a lot of people with disabilities. I think they would not come to Texas State because it would be a pain to go across campus every single day and just between classes; that would be very hard for them.

I think [the Texas State campus] would be very similar. The things that distinguish us between other campuses are the stairs and the hills, so I think it would look very similar.

Compare the accommodations here in the US, mandated by the ADA, to the kind of accommodations you see in Mexico. Here, it is more common to see those accommodations in every single stair, in every single sidewalk, you have ramps and all this stuff. In Mexico, it is common to see them, but you can’t take for granted that you have those accommodations, so if you’re in a wheelchair, you’ve got to expect to struggle every day. They do have accommodations in private buildings and public buildings, but the regulations aren’t enforced as strictly.