Access Supported by Students

SAC WAC -- the Students’ Administrative Council Wheelchair Access Committee -- was established in 1990 to ensure that University of Toronto facilities were made accessible to members of the university community with physical disabilities across three campuses. It received its funding from a generous pool of students through a referendum question that students supported. In the spring of 1990, full-time undergraduate students agreed to contribute $30 per student towards a Wheelchair Accessibility Fund. The collection of the fee was for a period of three years, raising close to $3-million dollars.

Joint initiatives with the university and the province allowed for more funding spent on accessibility. SAC WAC entered into two partnerships with the Accommodations and Facilities Directorate (AFD) at the University of Toronto. The university applied to the federal and provincial government for funding through the Joint Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Works Projects (COIWP). In the 1994 arrangement, SAC WAC provided $325,000, and in 1997, $115,000. Both amounts were matched by a combination of provincial and university funding and used for mutually agreeable projects. Additionally, SAC WAC received many contributions from departments and faculties towards accessibility projects.

Funding helped students gain access to highly utilized facilities and high-traffic corridors, ensured access to University of Toronto resource centres and teaching facilities and allowed for the completion of projects that otherwise would not have received funding. Over 25 buildings were made accessible, retrofitted with ramps, washrooms, door operators, classroom modifications and elevators. The committee also provided curb cuts that allowed for continued access across the campus.

The Wheelchair Access Committee established an Endowment Fund in 1996 to ensure that funds would be available on an annual basis to complete small projects. It presently sits in excess of $350,000. The university has generously agreed to partnership and has increased our pool of resources by $90,000 over three years.

Our project listing to date includes Robarts Library, which received an at-grade entrance, transforming the building’s interior and exterior usage and paving the way for the information commons. Many student buildings such as the International Student’s Centre, the Students’ Administrative Council Building (SAC) and Sidney Smith Arts and Science Building received ramps and washrooms so that all students could access them. Elevators were constructed at both Erindale and Scarborough campuses, allowing for greater connectivity for students. The Faculties of Law, Medicine, Education and Engineering also saw improvements to their present facilities. Federated colleges were included in funding, allowing for improvements to St. Michael’s College, Trinity College and Victoria College as well.

While there is still work to be done to existing buildings on campus, in planning and designing present-day projects, the university takes accessibility into consideration. According to university architect Ihor Kotowycz, "Design standards for accessibility have been established, and the projects completed by the university incorporate these standards."

Today, the $3-million-plus fund has been spent and/or committed, and only our endowment fund remains. We extend our thanks to the students whose funding made it all possible, to the numerous committee members who served on SAC WAC over the past decade, and to the university and government, whose contributions saw to the completion of a number of critical projects.

We further thank the university’s President Birgeneau for his kind words: "I commend and congratulate the Students’ Administrative Council Wheelchair Access Committee for its outstanding work over the past ten years in assisting the University of Toronto to become more accessible to all of our students, staff and faculty," he says. "Our goal as a university must be to ensure that each of our campuses is free from physical barriers that could impede any member of our community from experiencing campus life to the fullest. The university is truly fortunate to have such an actively involved group as SAC WAC."

(Terri Nikolaevsky is the Research Analyst and Liaison Officer for the Students’ Administrative Council at the University of Toronto and the co-ordinator of the SAC WAC committee.)