Landscape Architecture Students to Explore Access and Mobility Challenges on University Park Campus

September 11, 2007

Getting around campus isn’t easy if you have a physical disability that affects your mobility. That’s why landscape architecture professor Stuart Echols is giving his students in Introduction to Design Implementation a challenging exercise—to travel across campus while in a wheelchair, while on crutches with one foot immobilized, or while wearing irremovable blacked-out sunglasses. During their class period from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13, the students, working in groups of three, will be required to find their way from the Stuckeman Family Building to three different campus locations in a timely manner to earn part of their grade for the exercise.

“The exercise is not intended to recreate the challenges persons with disabilities face each day, but rather give the students an opportunity to better understand how the built environment can impede or assist access and mobility,” explains Echols, adding the students will also be required to write about their experience.

For more information, contact Echols at spe10@psu.edu.

Editor’s Contact: Amy Milgrub Marshall, alm157@psu.edu or 814.863.2104