BRYN MAWR – For the second year in a row, Bryn Mawr College hosted its Accessibility Series, a series of events about accessibility and the disabled community. Last year’s events were focused on vision impaired people, whereas this year’s programming centered on the Deaf community. The programming spanned two days, including a beginner American Sign Language (ASL) workshop, a workshop about DeafSpace, and a keynote presentation from architect and DeafSpace pioneer Hansel Bauman and Swarthmore College Linguistics Professor Melanie Drolsbaugh, who focuses on ASL. The event was sponsored by the Accessibility offices at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore, as well as various other offices and academic departments.
DeafSpace, which was the primary focus of this year’s Accessibility Series, is an architectural design practice and philosophy that centers on creating built environments that are accessible and functional for deaf and hard of hearing people. According to Bauman in his keynote presentation, this can entail the illumination of a building, vertical space, acoustics, colors and finishes of materials, and many more architectural design aspects. Bauman served as the campus architect and co-director of the DeafSpace Project at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC from 2006 to 2019 and has been working with Deaf individuals for over 20 years. One of Bauman’s main focuses at Gallaudet and something he emphasized in his presentation was creating a set of design standards and guidelines for DeafSpace.
Drolsbaugh, who is deaf, discussed her personal experience with creating DeafSpace. “In my home, I am not disabled,” Drolsbaugh said, speaking of the ways in which she has adapted her home to create greater accessibility for her. Drolsbaugh also emphasized a cultural view of deafness that sees it as a cultural minority and a language difference, not necessarily as a disability. However, she added, many Deaf people who may not consider themselves to be disabled must identify as so in order to receive any aid from the government. At this point, Drolsbaugh expressed her uncertainty and fear at the recent removal of information about the Americans with Disabilities Act from federal government websites.
Drolsbaugh also used her specific experience as a deaf professor of ASL to discuss ways in which the typical college classroom environment can be adapted to be more in line with the principles of DeafSpace. For instance, she stated that a “horseshoe” arrangement of desks is much better for deaf and hard of hearing people because it allows for better eye contact and space for signing. Drolsbaugh did take care to emphasize that each deaf or hard of hearing person has their own preferences and experiences, so the most important way to create accessible spaces is to ask them.
Event organizer Grace Cipressi stated that the purpose of the event was to facilitate “more of an open conversation about disability, accessibility, and culture.” Event organizers expressed hope that the events of the 2025 Accessibility Series will “make more space that will be accessible to others.” From this event series and recent proposed resolutions at Bryn Mawr Plenary to create a Disability Studies minor and have more accessible outdoor lighting on campus, it is clear that members of the Bi-College community are interested in accessible space.
