"It was only due to the goodwill of people who didn't complain that you weren't in court," Zewinski adds.
Buildings such as the soon-to-be renovated University Hall, which is currently inaccessible to mobility-impaired students, or buildings which require disabled individuals to use separate entrances--are places where Harvard could be vulnerable to a lawsuit.
"They could come in and say, 'There's a disabled student that can't get into see the dean of the College or the dean of the Faculty; you're a defendant in a lawsuit," Zewinski says.
Since MAAB code is not a duplicate of the ADA, Harvard could even be the subject of a lawsuit where it has complied with MAAB regulations according to Zewinski, though he doubts such a lawsuit would be likely.
Doing What They Can
Administrators believe they have been spared because while full-scale renovations of major buildings is implausible, they are vigilant about making accommodations whenever necessary.
"What I think we do very well is, if we can't give a person exactly what they're asking for, [we say] 'What can we do?'" says Marie A. Trottier, the University disabilities coordinator. "We try not to say no."
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