2022 marked the 32nd Anniversary of the ADA. However, not many people know or understand what it is and its impact. A critical component of disability culture and equity is access.

Our commission believes that we are obligated to advocate for and draw the campus community’s attention to the importance of universal access/design. ADA Compliance and universal access ensure that every student should have access to every classroom, workspace, event, and orientation.

Our institution’s collective commitments must reflect society’s values of diversity, equity, and inclusion at large. CODE is committed to coordinating with campus faculty, staff, and local community members to protect and advocate together with and for students of all abilities. We want to prioritize monitoring our progress.

Launching in Fall 2022, we plan to organize a student-led coalition, made up of general members interested in advocating with AS Executive Officers, DSP, ACCA committee members, and the disability community at large. We hope to ensure that accessibility and universal design principles are implemented in every aspect of student life and all campus infrastructure. You can learn more about this coalition here.

We hope that we can strengthen our cross-disability solidarity efforts and that we will have a lasting impact on future generations and our institutional values at UC Santa Barbara. We plan to implement various subdivisions/focus groups that would use their collective power and lived experiences to inform the direction of a campus’s current and future accessibility and inclusion advocacy efforts.

Please fill out this interest form if you are interested in contributing to these efforts or have any personal comments or concerns regarding campus accessibility!

Here are some more resources on accessibility on campus and within the UC:

Campus Compliance Directory

https://www.compliance.ucsb.edu/compliance/campus-compliance-directory/

Advisory Committee on Campus Access

https://www.vcadmin.ucsb.edu/ada/advisory-committee-campus-access

UC Access Now Demandifesto

https://archive.org/details/disability-equity-and-justice-demands/page/2/mode/2up

“UC Access Now is a non-profit disability rights campaign demanding universal design, accessibility, and inclusion for all disabled people in the UC campus community (and visitors to campus). The Demandifesto was created by disabled UC students from several campuses, with input from more students as well as some faculty. It was released on the 30th Anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.” UC Access Now, published: July 28, 2020