Physical Accessibility Issues on Campus

Report Physical Accessibility Issues On Campus

Automatic Doors

Some of the automatic doors at the last school intermittently fail, while other essential rooms do not have automatic doors at all.

We are including a list of such doors here so that students (especially 1Ls who are new to campus) can plan their navigation felt the school until the situation is fixed.

We know that having limited access to the law school is unfair, upsetting, and adds extra time and mental energy to navigating law school. We are not saying that the burden should be on us as law students to memorize inaccessible physical spaces.

We very much want this issue fixed, and have met with the law school administration about fixing the doors so that campus will be more accessible, and especially so that students stop getting trapped.

That being said, multiple students have already been trapped this semester in various rooms, and in between various sets of double doors.

Please consider trying to only use doors that have been known to trap people during high traffic hours, or alongside someone who can physically open the doors in case you are trapped.

Especially because St. Louis weather can bring both very hot and very cold days, please take care with the double sets of doors to exit/enter the building, to avoid being trapped in the heat or cold for an extended period of time!

We are not providing this list or advice as an alternative to asking the administration to make campus more physically accessible, but to make it to easier for students to navigate the school as we continue to push for those changes.

We would appreciate it if you could reach out to the DLC about any doors that you notice not working, so that we can keep our members updated. That being said, the department that is trying to fix the doors is the law school facility department, so please inform the DLC in addition to, not instead of, the law school facility department.

Please also continue to report any broken doors that you encounter to the facility department, even if you think it must have been reported before, so that facilities can keep track not just of which doors are broken in general, but which doors are broken at any given time.

Important Rooms That Lack Automatic Doors

On the Second floor:
  • The Office of Student Life
On the Third floor:
  • The Career Services Office
  • The Admissions Office
  • The Moot Court Room
  • The Quiet Study Room
  • The Multipurpose Rooms

Automatic Doors That Have Been Out of Order This Semester

On the first floor:
  • The door to the student section in the clinic space.
  • The innermost of the doors to exit/enter the building
On the Third floor:
  • Both the southeast and southwest sets of doors to exit/enter the building. Sometimes neither door works; more dangerously, both sets of doors have had frequent issues where one door works and the second fails to work, and/or the buttons in the door space fail to open either door. Multiple students have already been trapped in the third floor entrances this semester.
On the fourth floor:
  • Classroom 401
Elsewhere On campus:
  • The exterior door to Siegel Hall that is closest to the law school has frequently failed; if you walk around the building, there is an entrance facing towards the lawn, midway between the lost 40 facing side of the building and the football field facing side of the building. As far as the DLC is aware, the automatic door at that entrance is usually functional.
  • The Center for Disability and Inclusion suite in the DUC

Automatic Doors That Have Been Out of Order in Past Semesters

All of the following doors have malfunctioned multiple times over the past three semesters. All of these have been functioning during the fall 2022 semester as far as we are aware; however, please note that this is only as far as we are aware, so we suggest being careful just in case!

On the Second floor of ABH:
  • The library entrance/exit
On the Third floor of ABH:
  • Classrooms 305 and 306
Elsewhere on campus:
  • Habif: The automatic door to Habif has failed to let people in and out of the health center in past semesters. In addition to neither nor working, there have been instances of only one of the set of doors working, which has resulted in students getting trapped between the automatic doors; please note trapped students have had mixed success getting attention from all the staff at the front desk, so again we recommend going during high traffic hours and or with someone else so that you’re not trapped in this entrance!

Flickering Lights

We have received complaints in the past about flickering lights in the law school, and been told that such lights have caused headaches, migraines, eyestrain, and seizures. We are not aware of any rooms or specific light fixtures that currently have this issue: if you notice any such lights, please notify the law school facilities department so that they can address it, and please let the DLC know using our Campus Physical Accessibility form so that we can keep our members updated!