Last spring, American University’s Student Government called on the University to implement the Disabled Students Bill of Rights (DSBR) following the unanimous approval of Resolution-21-013. The bill addressed accessibility barriers voiced by students with disabilities.
The bill outlined eight articles, including reinforcing the rights of disabled students, academic accommodations, housing rights, disability studies, physical accessibility, digital accessibility, healthcare and campus life inclusion. The resolution was passed after three years of workshopping and multiple iterations.
“A lot of [points in the bill] had been brought up in the past,” Kaleigh Olsen, a junior in the School of Public Affairs and one of the bill’s sponsors, said. “We really wanted to make sure that we had the Disabled Students’ Union in the conversation because they hadn’t been properly included in the past.”
According to the club's President, Katherine Radt, an AUSG senator approached the Disabled Student Union to draft a piece of legislation outlining several changes to confront the many challenges disabled students face in academics and everyday life.
“After a series of issues and revisions the last few years, this was the result of a much more thorough process,” Radt said.
Students with disabilities often face accessibility challenges, including difficulties getting accommodations approved in a timely manner.
“Physical accessibility is not really reliable at AU,” Radt said, adding that she still needs to ask University event hosts about accessibility requirements such as wheelchair access. According to Radt, this is especially frustrating at a “theoretically diverse university.”
Additionally, the University did not have a 504 coordinator until the summer of 2025, Radt said.
504 coordinators manage the accommodations process, ensuring follow-through for students with disabilities. The Rehabilitation Act requires all universities that participate in federal student aid programs and have over 15 employees to have a 504 coordinator available for students.
As of 2025, the University now has someone in this role listed under the Office of Inclusive Excellence, according to the University website.
“American University has pledged to make an inclusive environment for all students,” Olsen said. “But there are a lot of ways where they have denied people the right to do so.”
A more transparent and quicker accommodations process was a major priority for students who talked with the resolution’s sponsor.
Anna Russell, a recent graduate from the School of Education and the Disabled Student Union interorganizational liaison, said that even when they would make requests or try to be included in larger conversations, they were often simply complimented on their strength.
“I don’t want to be told I’m strong,” Russell said. “I want you to listen to us.”
The Disabled Students Bill of Rights also called on the University to provide adequate training for clubs and faculty members to ensure all students have access to the opportunities provided by the University.
“We’d really like there to be better resources on campus for the people who are well-intentioned, but perhaps not experienced to be able to implement accessibility,” Radt said.
Both Radt and Russell said the three-year-long process has had its challenges: while the first iteration of the bill included members of the DSU’s input, the second did not.
“The second iteration of the DSBR was entirely divorced from the disabled stakeholders who’d been involved or the disability organizations,” Radt said. “I was very heartened this year by all of the senators involved in the commission who were lovely and took so much time to go line by line … it was also just a better, more collaborative process.”
Russell, who formerly held the presidential seat on the SOE Undergraduate Council, acknowledged that the resolution alone is not enough to make adequate change.
“[AUSG] has a lot of weight to get access to, like, advocacy avenues that are a lot harder for other advocates to get to,” they said. “I’m hopeful that the senators will actually continue to advocate for this.”
This article was edited by Natalie Hausmann, Payton Anderson, Cara Halford and Gabrielle McNamee. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Arin Burrell and Nicole Kariuki. Fact-checking done by Luca Palma Poth.
