ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DENISE SWANSON SOLICITED foundations, searching for money so her daughter, and others who need help getting through doorways, won't need somebody to hold a door open.
For Jessica Swanson, the door to Hidden Valley Junior High is a barrier because of a physical disability.
She has to get her special-education aide or another student to open the door for her every day. She doesn't have the arm strength or mobility to do it. She goes to her classes in an electric-powered scooter.
Next year, seventh-grader Jessica won't have to depend on others to open the door at the Roanoke County school.
An automatic door will be installed that she can open by pressing a button or using a battery-operated remote control.
Similar entry doors will be provided at all of the county's 28 schools by the end of the 1997-98 school year if Denise Swanson, Jessica's mother, can raise $45,000 to pay for them.
The Cartledge Charitable Foundation has provided $1,600 to convert an existing door at Hidden Valley.
Swanson sends requests to foundations and businesses each week soliciting funds for similar conversions for a door at every school. Federal law requires access ramps for the disabled, but not automatic doors, at schools. All county schools have such ramps, curb cuts and parking for the handicapped.
Swanson said a committee composed of students, parents and principals at each school will decide which doors will be converted.
The county has not provided money for such doors because of a funding squeeze, but it has installed elevators for disabled students in several schools. Each elevator costs about $125,000.
"The school budget is so tight and there are so many things that we need," Swanson said. "Rather than bug them for the money, I decided I'd try to raise it."
She said she agrees with Thomas Leggette, new chairman of the county School Board, who has urged parents and the community to give more time and money to schools.
"He and I are on the same wavelength. I think we should do more to try to improve our schools," she said.
"This is the kind of effort we need by every parent," Leggette said. "We do not have sufficient money to fund all of the programs and positions we would like to fund."
Swanson talked with school officials about her idea for the automatic doors and they agreed to help her write the funding requests. They have joined in her financial appeal to foundations.
She said several hundred students in the county, including 23 at Hidden Valley Junior, can benefit from the automatic doors. Nearly 700 students at Hidden Valley would be helped by the door over its 30-year projected life.
"For some students who don't have a lot of independence [because of a disability], this would provide a big boost for them," Swanson said. "It would help give them a feeling of independence."
Most people take their independence for granted, she said.
"Witnessing an individual who is unable to open a simple door makes us appreciate our ability to do so," she said.
Marilyn Henry, an occupational therapist, said the automatic door will help Jessica and other disabled students be seen as equals by their peers.
"It will help her to go along with the business of being a student like others," said Henry, who works with Jessica.
Swanson said the automatic doors also would benefit elderly people in wheelchairs who might visit the school or attend a school program.
"For someone who wants to bring a grandmother or grandfather to school, this would help give them access," she said.
Swanson has given a name to the fund-raising project: "Open Doors Open Minds: Accessible Schools for All."
"Providing individuals with independence is a key to creating opportunities," she said. "Opening doors give them the independence so their abilities are recognized and their opportunities are realized."
Homer Duff, director of facilities and operations for county schools, said elevators have a higher priority because they are necessary for students in wheelchairs to travel between floors in multi-story buildings.
"We're attempting to make all of our facilities accessible," Duff said.
Like the county, the city of Roanoke does not have automatic doors at its schools, but it has ramps at some schools and doors wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs. The city has installed elevators in elementary and middle schools that it has renovated in recent years.
Swanson said she hopes other school systems and businesses will also install automatic doors.
"If you can't go somewhere and be as independent as today's technology allows, then how can you really be a part of the community?" she said. "You're not part because you need help at every turn, which makes you different."
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Jessica Swanson, a 12-year-oldby CNBseventh-grader at Hidden Valley Junior High School, won't have to
worry about getting people to hold doors open for her at school.
Starting this fall, an automatic door will ease her way in and out
of school. color.