High snow banks, roads that haven’t been cleared and icy walkways all pose challenges to students and staff at Syracuse University who have to use crutches to get around.

Tony Kershaw, the assistant director at the RvD IDEA Office at Syracuse University, has been getting around campus a little differently. After having a second knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus and some bone damage caused by his past activities, Kershaw will need to use crutches to walk around Syracuse’s hilly campus until he heals.

His injury has alerted him to certain parts of campus Kershaw said he otherwise overlooked.

“There’s a ramp for the building I work in, but the elevator to the second floor is on the opposite end of the building as the door with the ramp,” he said.

Kershaw’s learned an important lesson of dealing with crutches: route management. According to the Detroit Free Press, Syracuse has received 81 inches of snow as of Feb. 10 and is currently the fourth snowiest big city in America, which means walking from one building to the next during a work or school day takes careful planning, and plenty of travel time.

According to the Disability Statistics Center at the University of Calif., San Francisco, 556,000 Americans use crutches. Known in many disability advocacy circles as the “Harvard of disability rights,” SU provides guidance and transportation in an effort to help crutch users.

However, those who need crutches sometimes find everyday activities overly difficult, especially when they’re confronted with snow-filled streets. Kathleen Van Vechten of Health Services said the office makes sure students who use crutches learn how to use them properly.

Charlie Reiff, a junior television, radio and film major, is the captain of Syracuse’s Ultimate Frisbee Club Team, Scooby Doom. He said he found himself struggling to adjust to crutches after a severe ankle sprain last winter.

Reiff ended up leaning on the help of his friends as well as his crutches. He said his friends carried his tray in the dining halls and brought parties to him, instead of forcing him out in the snow. The slushy streets only made getting around campus more difficult.

Because of the university’s hilly landscape, combined with sidewalks that are slowly cleared, sophomore Resident Advisor Tiffany Mateo said she always enlists a friend to help her back to her room in DellPlain Hall.

She said her friend carries the folders and papers that don’t fit in her backpack, while Mateo carefully avoids the dangers of ice and steep hills.

When she doesn’t try to maneuver the campus herself, she said she uses SU’s Medical Transportation Services whenever she can. The service provides transportation for those whose mobility is temporarily impaired or people who have permanently mobility impairments and find their schedule temporarily interrupted, according to SU’s Health Services website.

Though Mateo said she can’t rely on Medical Transport Services, it’s one service provided by SU that can lighten the load for many students.

Published on February 17, 2014 at 1:32 am