—The Daily Collegian Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1992 Town At our first event of the new school year an Ice Cream Social IGHT in 301 HUB For more information about membership, look for our booth at the Student Involvement Fair September 2-3, in the HUB. Or write us at . . . Penn State Hillel 111-115 Eisenhower Chapel, University Park, PA 16802 Or call, 814-863-3816 Designers, disabled trying to make center accessible By SCOTT ANDRON Collegian Staff Writer Designers of the Academic/Ath letic Convocation and Events Cen ter are working to make the new arena accessible to disabled peo ple. The center's architects are struggling to deal with new regu lations associated with the Ameri cans with Disabilities Act, John Haas, an architect working on the center, said. The act was passed in 1990 and requires new structures to be accessible for disabled people. Disabled students and residents met with University officials on July 21 to discuss handicapped accessibility at the center. "I thought we got a lot of useful input," Haas said. Haas and his colleagues explained plans for disabled access at the center before opening up the floor to questions and comments. The administrators were very receptive, said Joan Lee, a mem ber of Citizens for Barrier-Free Living, an advocacy group for dis abled people. "It was a good exchange of Get a taste of from 7-9 pm s a great opportunity to meet fellow Jewish students and get involved! DUES ARE $lB IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN information," Lee said. "I was pleased." But learning to accommodate the needs of people with different kinds of disabilities is an on-going proc ess, Lee added. "They are addressing the access: needs of the visually and hearing and' mobility impaired," she said. "It's a learning experience." Another of the topics discussed at the meeting was wheelchair seat ing. Plans call for wheelchair-acces sible seating on the center's events floor and in four boxes on the center's concourse level during basketball games, Haas said. This is an improvement on ear lier plans, said Don Smitley, a retired architectural draftsman. Previous plans only called for wheelchair seating behind backboards during games, Smitley said. Smitley said he is guardedly optimistic that the University will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but he still has reservations. Center planners and representa tives for the disabled agreed to hold a follow-up meeting in September.
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