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UH Law Center student says new building has accessibility gaps including evacuation plan and doors
Summary
Sarah Douglas, a 3L at the University of Houston Law Center, described access problems in the law school's new building — including stiff doors, lack of sharps containers and no formal fire-evacuation plan for mobility-impaired students — and said campus groups are working with administrators to fix them.
Sarah Douglas, a third-year law student at the University of Houston Law Center, told the public television program Focus on Abilities that the law school's new building contains accessibility problems that have not yet been fully resolved.
“I was very surprised to find that one of the top universities in the nation for health law was inaccessible,” Douglas said on the program. She cited examples including restroom interiors without sharps disposal for students who use insulin, classroom doors that are “so stiff” they are difficult to open, and what she described as the absence of a formal fire-evacuation plan for students who cannot use stairs.
The program’s host, Lex Frieden, professor of informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and director of the ILRU program at TIRR Memorial Hermann, framed the issue in the context of federal law: “Law school and universities are responsible for meeting the requirements of the ADA,” Frieden said during the show’s closing segment.
Why it matters: The University of Houston Law Center is nationally recognized for its health-law program; accessibility shortcomings at a law school raise questions about compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in campus facilities and emergency planning. Douglas and student groups told the program they have pressed the law school for changes while continuing coursework.
Details reported on the program:
- Accessibility deficiencies described: Douglas said some doors were difficult to operate even where bathrooms appeared to meet size or placement requirements, and that the building initially lacked sharps containers in restrooms for insulin disposal. She also said the building’s elevator access creates a scenario where, if the elevator stops in an emergency, there is not a known, published evacuation plan for students who cannot use the stairs. “At the moment, there’s no evacuation plan. As far as I’m aware, they are working on it,” Douglas said on the show.
- Campus response and fixes: Douglas said campus groups — including the Disability Law Society — have been working with law-school administrators. She also told the host that during a return visit the library doors had been lightened and made automatic, which she described as an improvement: “The doors are now automatic in the libraries… and it’s much more accessible.”
- Student advocacy and background: Douglas described founding a College Diabetes Network chapter at Texas State University while an undergraduate. She said that chapter grew from four members in 2018 to 30 members by 2021. Douglas, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at about 2½ years old, said her experiences pursuing accommodations in K–12 and higher education motivated her to study health law and disability rights.
- Resources mentioned on air: Frieden and Douglas referred listeners to the Southwest ADA Center as a resource for information about disability rights and accommodations. The program read a phone contact for the Center; the transcript rendering of that phone number was unclear and the recording provided on air should be consulted for an exact number.
What was not decided: The broadcast recorded descriptions of problems and of ongoing work between students and the law school; it did not record any formal university action, policy adoption, or a binding timeline for repairs or plan adoption.
Looking ahead: Douglas said she plans to work in health-law compliance or related fields after graduation in May 2025, and that her experience as a student organizer and ILRU intern strengthened her interest in advocacy and legal work on disability rights. “You deserve those accommodations,” she told listeners referring to students who hesitate to request adjustments; “seek those accommodations,” she said, adding that many people with hidden disabilities decline to ask for help.
The reporting is based on an interview broadcast on Focus on Abilities, in which the host and guest exchanged first-person accounts and descriptions of campus conditions. The program named campus student groups and outside resources but did not record specific university statements or a published plan from the University of Houston in the episode’s audio.
