As Mississippi State University’s campus continues to make major structural advancements in order to meet the demands of the twenty-first century, renovations must still be made to improve basic travel routes, building accessibility and social experiences for the university’s disabled students.        
Micah White, assistant director of Student Support Services, said MSU strives to accommodate varying types and degrees of disability for nearly 600 of its students.
“The main goal is to level the playing field for students with disabilities. Disabilities are different. You have the disabilities you can see like someone in a wheel chair,” he said. “Someone may be blind and have a cane, but then you have students with learning disabilities like dyslexia or a reading disability. We have students with ADHD and ADD.”
White said MSU’s past accomplishments and continued efforts have helped make the university widely recognized in the field of handicap accessibility.
 ”If you talk to schools around Mississippi or in the South, they say Mississippi State is one of the more accessible and accommodating campuses around. We’ve been doing it for a long time,” he said.
Houston Everett, junior communication major with cerebral palsy and exotropia said his time at MSU has been “through the roof positive with just a few obstacles.”
“We have the best Student Support Service staff in the country,” Everett said. “The way we do things here academically, we mesh things well with vocational rehabilitation. It’s just wonderful.”
However, White also said while MSU is undoubtedly “a very accessible campus,” total handicap accessibility continues to be an unreached and perhaps unreachable goal.
“There are buildings on campus that need some help,” he said. “All accommodations are not going to be perfect, but they will be reasonable. In a perfect world, things would be perfect, but it’s not perfect. It’s not perfect for people without disabilities.”
Zach Woolley, senior political science and philosophy double major and president of United Students, shared his experiences with accessibility at MSU as a student with cerebral palsy and issues with visual perception.
“It’s been a mostly positive experience, but some buildings, like Carpenter, Carpenter is hellacious,” he said. “Mississippi State is doing a good job, but like anything it can always be improved. A 95 is not a 100.”
Everett said his basic commute to some areas on campus is often made difficult or even impossible by the lack of curb cuts on university sidewalks.
“There’s a couple of instances on campus where there needs to be curb cuts. There should be curb cuts at every crosswalk so I can get across the street. That’s a huge issue,” he said. “If you’re going from the coliseum to the baseball stadium, you get to the end of the sidewalk, and there’s a crosswalk but no incline. I haven’t been to that site in about two years because I’ve had to figure out other ways around it, but there are situations all around campus like that.”
Woolley said his personal requests to Student Support Services include a movement to have some curbs at MSU painted blue, a prospect that would aid students who experience difficulty with visual perception.
“They didn’t (comply), but I understand,” Woolley said, “There’s no animosity for that. It’s a big request and expense, but when we’re spending millions of dollars renovating a stadium… But I understand. Sports is where the money is.”
Woolley also said Davis Wade Stadium, a symbol for school spirit and student camaraderie, requires handicap-conscious renovations in order to better accommodate MSU’s disabled students.
“There’s not really a place for us in the student section. So we’re pushed up against the wall, and students crowd around us which is not necessarily good thing because they’re standing and, of course, we’re sitting. So we can’t see,” he said. “I’d really like to see that fixed. I’m an avid sports fan. I love football.”
Everett said Humphrey Coliseum also requires serious renovation in the way of handicap accessibility, citing the exclusion of disabled students from the student section.
“I want to sit where the students sit. I want to be in the game. When Marshall Henderson goes three for 16, I want to know I was a part of making that happen,” he said.
Woolley cited several problematic areas on campus including but not limited to excessively steep inclines in Davis Wade Stadium, narrow doorways and limited first floor access in McComas, inconvenient placement of push pads for automatic doors in the Colvard Student Union, close proximity of stairs and ramps in Hand Laboratory and various architectural issues in Cobb and Carpenter.
Everett also said he hoped MSU would adapt more handicap-accessible classrooms, housing plans – including at least two rooms for both male and female students with disabilities per new dorm – and a computer-mediated system in which students may file complaints or issue feedback regarding the campus.
Everett said greater representation for disabled students is also necessary to reinforce MSU’s progress in handicap accessibility.
“We need someone, a public figure at Mississippi State like the Student Association president, to raise awareness for students with disabilities,” he said. “We have to go day by day, and if we see something, we have to address it.”
Likewise, Woolley said United Students and MSU’s joint mission to create a more handicap accessible campus will be invaluable in the coming years because it ensures the inclusion, acceptance and positive experience of students with disabilities.
“It’s in the name – united. If the campus is not accessible, students with disabilities are ostracized,” he said.
Everett said his experiences at MSU have helped define his character, and with the aid of MSU’s Student Support Services and organizations like United Students, he said he is confident MSU will continue to make progress in the way of handicap accessibility.
“My whole purpose is making sure Mississippi State is a better place for students with disabilities in the future,” he said.”I think we can really be the cutting edge university that I want us to be, and I’m not ashamed to say that. We can have the number one baseball team in the country and the number one campus in the country, everything,” he said. “We can strive to be the best in every aspect. I think you can come to MSU and be whatever you want.”