Delta College Director of Disabilities Remembers Campus Accessibility as CMU Student

By Tony Wittkowski
Staff Report/Central Michigan University/Delta College
December 4, 2009

Some things were not accessible to everyone on campus in 1972.
Central Michigan University, like in the rest of the state at the time, had no clear mandate to make everything accessible. Michael Cooper was a transfer student then from Ferris State University, where he was involved in an accident.

Cooper was waterskiing July 4 when he fell in three feet of water, breaking his neck and leaving him paralyzed. He spent five months at the University of Michigan hospital and would be the first student at CMU in a wheelchair.

“Ramping was still new,” said Cooper, now the Delta College director of Disabilities. “But in the back, there were usually ramps for cargo.”

There were always stairways and steps around campus, where Cooper would have to ask for help or go around to the back of the building, where cargo was loaded and unloaded.
Rehabilitation Act

Buildings, restrooms and theaters were hard to get into for Cooper. Handicap policies at CMU were basically nonexistent.

There was no handicap parking until 1976, Cooper said. When he first arrived at CMU, he and the administration were scratching their heads on what they were going to do.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 made it so any organization had to comply with legislation over restrooms and an increased awareness along with better access, Cooper said.

“I benefited the most with physical barriers,” he said. “There needed to be a structural change to the environment.”

Now, CMU and all its academic buildings are accessible.

“Whenever we make upgrades, we are sure to make a path,” said Susie Rood, director of Student Disabilities Services.

A Helpful Friend
One person who helped Cooper get around campus easier was Charles Westie, a professor who used to teach psychology.

“Chuck taught me everything,” Cooper said. “He had lost his knee in World War II on the beach of Normandy, so he tried to change things.”

Westie’s car was ticketed and towed often at an attempt to change parking. Westie along with Cooper, issued grants to help better the university and make it more accessible.

One of the grants they made was worth $400,000 for an elevator that went up one floor.

“It seems like a million years ago,” Cooper said. “He took me under his wing and he showed me how to make grants in the first place.”

Cooper reached his undergraduate degree the same year he arrived. However, he stayed until 1976 as a counselor assistant and graduate assistant to Westie. From there, he left for Midland to work as a facilitator in the Big Brother program.

In rehab, Cooper came to the realization that there was a gap. He was 24 when he broke his neck and was good at navigating around campus.

Yet, with the disability, he became aware of the gap in which many people were still getting used to the idea of someone in a wheelchair.

“I came out of my shell that year,” Cooper said. “And I’ve never stopped learning.”

http://www.cm-life.com/2009/12/04/delta-college-director-of-disabilities-remembers-campus-accessibility-as-cmu-student/

© 2009 Central Michigan Life