While her classmates wander off to the closest Tim Hortons when the lecturer announces his 15-minute break, Helen Henderson must start her journey to the washroom.

If she’s fortunate, she’ll be able to make the trip  there and back, and miss no more than five minutes of class.

While most washrooms are just a few steps’ distance, hers are usually all the way down the hall or — in some cases — a few floors away.

And the facilities inside are often unsuitable.

The second-year school of disability student suffers from multiple sclerosis (MS).  
     She travels on an electric scooter and has control over only her left arm.

Washrooms are the biggest concern for most physically disabled students at Ryerson, according to the latest Ryerson University Accessibility Plan for 2009-10.

Though Henderson adds that she wouldn’t want her entire class to wait for her, she hopes that Ryerson would dedicate more architectural resources into turning the campus into an accessibility-friendly environment.

“Yes, sometimes the washrooms will have the bars and lowered sinks, but they’d be in the wrong places — the height will be off, sometimes it’d be too far away — it’s almost like they designed it without consulting a disabled person,” Henderson says.

But in efforts to fully integrate disabled persons into society by 2025, consultation is a big part of the mandate in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

Last Wednesday, public sector organizations such as universities, colleges and hospitals, had to submit a compliance report to an AODA inspector. The annual report was an update on whether Ryerson is in full compliance with the accessibility standards for customer service that was due on Jan. 1.

The standards include reviewing of all policies, procedures and practices, permitting support persons and service animals, providing clear notice of disruptions and providing training to staff and volunteers.

“Ryerson is required to report to government that training has been provided, along with keeping a record of the numbers and dates, or risk the assessment of penalties and potentially an examination of our policies and practices,” university president Sheldon Levy wrote on the Ontario Public Service Employees Union website in February.

If the university fails to comply or doesn’t submit a report, the AODA inspector would issue an order that requires the school to provide more information, or issue a fine if a school doesn’t provide a written explanation about why it should be exempted.

Though Ryerson meets most of the report’s standards, it still has a lot of room to grow. Currently, the campus permits service animals, like guide dogs, and offers support services, like professional note-takers. Along with occasional workshops organized by No Barriers @ Ryerson, a committee that aims to eliminate barriers on campus, the university introduced the 2010 AODA Customer Service Standard eLearning in January, the first mandatory accessibility online tutorial for faculty and work study students. But its effectiveness is debatable.

If read thoroughly, the four-part tutorial could take up to two hours to finish, but since it doesn’t have a final exam or time limit, trainees can click through all the components and receive their certificates in approximately half an hour.

Gilary Massa, equity and campaigns organizer and spokesperson for RyeAccess, said she knows of this shortcut, but adds that the tutorial was never meant as an examination, but rather as an avenue to raise awareness on campus.

Donald Elder, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local at Ryerson, which has been fighting for the university to pay its full-time staff for time spent on the tutorial, said it’s a trivial effort.

“If Ryerson is going to do something like this, it should be taking it more seriously and concretely,” he said.

According to Henderson and the Ryerson University Accessibility Plan, awareness doesn’t seem a big priority compared to the lack of accessible washrooms on campus.

Currently, most Ryerson buildings, especially the older ones like Kerr Hall and the Podium, do not have accessible bathrooms on every floor.

Jorgenson Hall, for example, has barrier-free bathrooms on only two out of 12 floors.

And it wasn’t until last year that Eric Palin Hall had single-stalled washrooms for disabled persons. Moreover, the Ryerson campus planning website is outdated by three years, listing planned projects for 2007 that are still incomplete.

But Simon Di Vincenzo, project architect of Ryerson campus planning and facilities, said that it’s really inefficient and expensive to put barrier-free washrooms in every floor, especially in old buildings.

“Sometimes, you have to rip out four to five floors of plumbing, or if it’s an area that has heavy traffic, or if we did an estimate and the amount exceeds what the department can give us, then we’d have to come up with a new plan,” he said.

Other than for emergency and maintenance cases that require immediate attention — things such as malfunctioning elevators or broken handrails — each department must solicit its own funds for all construction projects it puts through campus planning, which only serves as a facilitator and liaison between construction companies and the departments.

So even if an accessibility-related project is planned, it doesn’t always mean it’s underway.

For example, a barrier-free washroom was planned for the 12th floor of Jorgenson Hall in 2007 but has remained unfinished.

“There’s definitely a lot of back and forth, a lot of communication. But this is necessary before we can actually do anything concrete, mainly because every project is unique, and so that all parties involved have their input so we can avoid any mistakes,” Di Vincenzo said.

Other than washrooms, Henderson said she can’t operate the classroom door handles, and her classmates must usually reorganize some tables to accommodate her.

“Architecturally, Ryerson has a lot to do,” Henderson said. “I understand there must be some trade-offs, but the university should still make a better effort to accommodate people like us. There’s always a solution.”