The George Washington University (GW) becomes more disability-friendly every year thanks to the very active disability community on campus. The GW Hatchet, the student newspaper of GW, produces consistently good writing on disability, and campus groups are persistent and effective in getting the administration to listen to their concerns.
In 2024, The GW Hatchet reported, "Leaders of the GW Disabled Student Collective and Chronic Health Advocates said they have been forming a plan to repair and add door activation buttons in all GW buildings on the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses, increase faculty training to avoid academic ableism and push for increased funding in the Disability Support Services office." For several years now, the Disabled Students Collective (DSC) has been urging the administration to implement faculty training to improve understanding on how to work with students' accommodations and to make courses more accessible.
In a powerful op-ed last year, an MPH student wrote that in addition to students experiencing dismissive comments and ableist assumptions from faculty and staff, the lack of staffing in Disability Support Services (DSS) had contributed to staff burnout and turnover, which in turn left many students without formal accommodations, forcing students to self-advocate and go to faculty directly for support (which, ironically, is often considered a reason for faculty to report students to administration). Last year, in response to the reporting by The GW Hatchet and the sustained pressure placed by disabled students on the administration, DSS finally doubled the number of its staff.
The DSC has been an active group on campus for many years, demonstrating the strength and longstanding activism of the disability community at GW, which has continued to incrementally push the campus towards greater inclusion and accessibility. In 2019, the DSC initiated trainings for other student organizations to improve accessibility and cultural competency around disability. In 2022, the DSC began operating a free delivery service for disabled students at the campus' student-run food pantry, as reported in The GW Hatchet. Last year, The GW Hatchet reported that DSC and the Student Government Association successfully petitioned the Faculty Senate to integrate Blackboard Ally into GW's course management platform, which will improve accessibility of digital course content for disabled, Blind, and Deaf students.
Despite the progress, there is still a lot that can be improved. A student notes that the Mount Vernon Campus, where the GW Living Learning Communities are housed, is inaccessible. It'll be exciting to read about what the students accomplish in the years ahead.
George Washington University is ranked 63rd among national universities by U.S. News. This is a slight improvement from 67th place in 2024.
Chauncey has an overactive bladder, a condition she has had for most of her life, and received accommodations for her condition from GW last November, according to the lawsuit. The accommodation allowed her unlimited bathroom breaks without having to inform a supervisor, per the filing. Despite the accommodation, the lawsuit alleges that Chauncey was “humiliated” for her condition by her supervisor, Suzanne Hard, the associate dean for professional development and career strategy at the law school.
Hard monitored Chauncey’s bathroom breaks, kept a bathroom tracker for her and treated Chauncey with “cruelty” and “hostility” because of her disability, the lawsuit claims. GW hired Hard as associate dean in January 2024 and she became Chauncey’s direct report in July 2024, according to the lawsuit.
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A former medical student is suing the University, alleging officials forced her to withdraw from the School of Medicine & Health Sciences after determining she was unable to complete clinical clerkships, despite her therapist and psychiatrist confirming she was psychologically fit.
In the lawsuit filed in the D.C. Superior Court on Friday, Tara McCloskey — a medical student from 2018 and Master of Public Health dual degree candidate from 2020 until officials asked her to leave in spring 2023 — argued GW administrators violated federal and local discrimination laws by failing to provide her with physical disability accommodations, suspending her, subjecting her to an unlawful medical examination and discharging her from the medical school for reasons related to her disability. The lawsuit states that GW officials knew about her disability because she received treatment from the Medical Faculty Associates, which is composed of SMHS physicians who also served as her clerkship educators, but GW didn’t provide her the accommodations she requested for her physical conditions and later hired a psychiatrist in spring 2023 who declared her unfit for medical school.
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Since enrolling in GW’s public health program, multiple faculty members have openly discussed my accommodations and disabilities in front of their classes without my consent, violating my privacy. This breach undermines the supportive learning environment GW promises, leaving myself and other GW students feeling uncomfortable, frustrated and vulnerable.
I’ve often wondered whether other professors in the department knew about my disability and were discussing it without my knowledge or if other students in my classes doubted my academic performance after professors revealed my status. These experiences highlight the challenging realities where my privacy and my control over disclosing information about my disability are compromised. The toll of these experiences and resulting stress heightens feelings of anxiety and isolation and creates further barriers to academic success for students like me.
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A former student is suing the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and two administrators, alleging officials dismissed her from the University for disability-related symptoms after ignoring her complaints of discrimination and harassment.
In the 35-page lawsuit filed in the D.C. District Court on Friday, Sneha Iyer — a medical school student from fall 2018 to spring 2023 — argued the school, Steven Davis, the assistant dean for student affairs for the Doctor of Medicine Program, and Nancy Gaba, the Obstetrics & Gynecology department chair, violated national discrimination laws and University policies. The lawsuit states that GW granted Iyer a hearing in March 2021 in response to complaints Davis and Gaba filed regarding her professionalism but that faculty and University officials “refused” to investigate her complaints of harassment and discriminatory behavior or her evidence against their claims, dismissing her four weeks before her graduation.
Iyer was diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and ADHD, which were documented with GW Disability Support Services, according to the lawsuit.
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My DSS representative talked down to me throughout the meeting, suggesting that maybe I didn’t need what I thought I did. We spent the bulk of the meeting talking about accommodations for note taking, which I did not need and never asked for. By the end of the meeting, I had to tell her multiple times my notes were fine — I even had to show her examples of my notes to show that I did not need help taking notes.
After grueling back-and-forth discussions over what we each considered “private” and “semi-private” to mean, we settled on a room where there would be other students taking different exams, so I wouldn’t be anxious when other people finished before me. I explained to my representative it wasn’t the other students literally taking the test but the background sounds that caused me to notice other people leaving.
I had to prove myself to my representative, but I never should have had to jump through these hoops. None of my concerns were taken into consideration, and no one seemed to understand my sense of urgency. I needed these accommodations, but it seemed like I was always going to get whatever situation would be easier for the school as opposed to what would be best for me.
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The student body is once again calling on administrators to get their act together following yet another instance of a professor creating a hostile or discriminatory classroom environment for students. Late last month, Marie Matta, an assistant industry professor of decision sciences, publicly picked a verbal fight with a student who brought a service dog to class. The professor argued about it with the student in front of the entire class, despite the student informing the professor that Disability Support Services does not require paperwork for service animals.
This incident was evidence of something the GW community already knows: the University is failing students with disabilities. But it also points to the broader problem that the University does not provide faculty with the tools or instructions to make sure classrooms are safe learning environments.
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For a university located in one of the country’s biggest deaf cities, GW lacks basic respect and decency toward its deaf and hard of hearing students. I have found that professors tend to be fond of the term “hearing impaired” – a term steeped in negative connotations and widely rejected by the deaf and hard of hearing community. We find ourselves being forced to discuss our accommodations and conditions with professors in front of the whole class. A hard of hearing student told me that one professor announced to their class that the student was hard of hearing and asked the student to wave to identify themselves. Professors who ban technology in classrooms alienate deaf and hard of hearing students, and disabled students in general, by drawing attention to us. We are effectively outed as being disabled because we are the only ones using laptops or other technology, which is humiliating. Our deafness is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, but sharing that with other people must be done on our own terms and at our own discretion.
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