As one of the first institutions of higher education established in the United States, Brown University's storied campus dates back to 1764. This also creates accessibility problems, however, as many of the historical buildings on its campus have yet to be renovated or retrofitted with elevators and ramps, which "requires a long-term commitment and significant investments in capital projects,” reports The Daily Herald, Brown University's student newspaper.
A faculty member at Brown observed to a reporter that campus-wide inaccessibility sends a clear message about "who Brown wants coming to this University — because right now, it is not physically disabled people." Providence, Rhode Island, was also "recently ranked as one of the worst cities for people with disabilities," according to reporting in The Daily Herald.
In 2021, Brown University reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice for "denying readmission to certain students who had taken medical leaves of absence for mental health reasons from fall 2012 to spring 2017," which violated the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
In 2021, then PhD student, John Wrenn, conducted an informal count of surveillance cameras on campus, and found that "Brown University has deployed one surveillance camera for approximately every 18 community members, placing it just shy of London, but ahead of every Chinese city except Taiyuan and Wuxi."
Brown is currently ranked 13th among national universities by U.S. News, a slight drop from 9th place last year.
Since Meg Wilson — a PhD candidate in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences — was dismissed from her program in January, a group of students and members of the Graduate Labor Union have petitioned for her reinstatement.
Wilson alleges the University retaliated against her academic accommodations by placing her on academic warning, failing to provide accommodations in a timely manner and restricting her access to Brown resources, among other claims. Her allegations of disability discrimination are being investigated by the Department of Education, The Herald previously reported.
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A class action complaint filed Sept. 23 claims that some of the University’s websites, including the athletics website and the campus shop website, violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by not being fully compatible with computer screen-reading programs.
Plaintiff Milagros Senior — who is legally blind and requires screen-reading programs to access web content — claimed she faced multiple access barriers when trying to view information about Brown sports teams and purchase a product on the University’s websites, according to court documents.
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The complaint lists access barriers such as a lack of alternative text, invisible code under images that screen-reading software uses to vocally describe graphics; empty links that contain no text and redundant links going to the same URL address, which can have unclear functions or require additional navigation; and multiple pages with the same title elements, which may prevent visually impaired users from distinguishing pages.
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