Image courtesy of Tina Mao ‘27
On Thursday, Nov. 20, the Disability Living Room—Vassar College’s new affinity space for disabled and neurodivergent students—officially opened. Members of the Vassar community gathered in Jewett House 122, the chosen location of the Disability Living Room, to celebrate the affinity space’s grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by pizza.
The glass door entrance leads to a large table that occupies the center of the room. The sides of the room are lined with couches of different shapes and colors. A bookshelf that sits next to the table is replete with literature on disability and a box of sensory toys.
The creation of the Disability Living Room is made possible through sustained efforts from Vassar ACCESS in collaboration with the Office of Student Living and Wellness and Dean Luis Inoa. Vassar ACCESS, which took shape in 2022 and was officially recognized as a club by the Vassar Student Association in Spring 2023, is dedicated to building community for disabled and neurodivergent students and advocating for a more accessible campus.
In the past, ACCESS has worked with academic departments on campus to create an inclusive pedagogy workshop series, which they hope will foster better classroom environments and academic spaces for disabled students. In particular, ACCESS President Louisa Braun ’26 shared, “We spent a lot of time advocating for a button to open the Bridge doors. That was one of our small but tangible achievements in the past few years.”
ACCESS’s other events range from silent disco nights in the Mug to study break sessions in the disability lounge. The space that was previously referred to as the disability lounge is now the official disability affinity space known as the Disability Living Room. “Students work together on their own priorities for accessibility on campus and learn from each other since accessibility looks different for everybody,” Braun added.
ACCESS has been working on creating an affinity space since its founding. The project was started by founding executive board member Thayer Lehman-Borer ’26. According to Braun, Lehman-Borer took inspiration from the Women’s Center and LGBTQ+ Center and felt it was necessary for Vassar to have an accessible space for disabled students.
Braun told The Miscellany News that they hope the disability affinity space will be multifunctional: “People can work in there, go in there to decompress, have meetings there and do activities and crafts. We want it to be a space where disabled students could build community and a supportive peer network, and a space that celebrates disabled identities and provides support for disability advocacy and disability justice on campus.”
Although it has officially launched, ACCESS members feel that the Disability Living Room remains unfinished in more ways than one. In particular, several members expressed frustration at the fact that the automatic door button leading to the Disability Living Room, meant to make the entrance accessible, does not work.
ACCESS member Isabel Auerbach ’27 emphasized, “I think it is completely shameful that we are an affinity space surrounding disability, it is a place for disabled students, and you cannot get into the room without the help of someone who can open the door.”
Braun also communicated intentions to make the space fully accessible: “We are trying to get a sign of the space with braille as well and also a button to have the door become fully accessible.”
On top of addressing the inaccessibility of the affinity space, members of the Vassar community spoke about other things they would like to see in the Disability Living Room. Auerbach commented, “The walls are bare, we don’t have art that we’ve hung up yet and we were originally planning to have more plants in the space.”
Assistant Professor of English Pasquale Toscano, who attended the event, had similar visions: “One of the things that seems really important to me is having books written by disabled authors and other kinds of artwork. I think [we should] really create a space where there’s a sense that disabled people are creating art, they’re contributing to culture. This is not an identity that is only about tragedy, or only about sorrow, or only about hardship. This is an identity that has a tremendous range of beauty and insight and ethical wisdom to share with the broader community.”
When discussing his idea of a completed disability affinity space, Toscano underscored, “What one person requires or what the cookie-cutter version of accessibility requires may not actually be ideal for everyone, and there may have to be some compromises. At the end of the day, it’s about acknowledging and realizing our particular needs. Disability gives us the vocabulary for communicating physical contingencies and exigencies that society would rather have suppressed.”
The opening of the Disability Living Room marks a significant step in disability advocacy at Vassar; however, ACCESS members feel that it also highlights the lack of disability awareness and the absence of accessibility across campus. For instance, Auerbach and Braun shared that the Disability Living Room is located in Jewett House because it is one of three accessible dorm buildings on campus, along with Noyes House and Main House. The space was originally set to open in Cushing House, which was planned to be renovated to become accessible. However, after renovations were repeatedly delayed, the club had to relocate the affinity space to Jewett House.
Auerbach is unsatisfied with Vassar’s handling of disability accommodations: “I have a friend who has been trying to get accommodations for years. It is currently this person’s last or second-to-last semester here, and they have only just gotten accommodations regarding stuff like test-taking.” They expanded, “But there’s also these problems regarding mobility on campus. Only three of the dorms are accessible all the time.”
In line with Auerbach’s comment, Toscano reflected that creating accessibility at older academic institutions like Vassar is often seen as a process that would destroy the beauty of the existing architecture. “But, you know, this is when we get into this rut of thinking, well, disability or access necessarily mean a violation of beauty, which is not the case,” Toscano remarked. He continued, “And so I think when we’re talking about what we want specifically a disabled space to be, we have to be thinking about not just what’s practical. We also have to allow ourselves the luxury—because it’s not, in fact, a luxury—to insist on the importance of cultivating a sense of disability pride and true disability culture.”