The five students who spent the day in a wheelchair Monday say they learned an important lesson: how to hold it when nature calls.

Accessibility Awareness Week kicked off Monday as five non-disabled students from the group Wheels of Change donned blue shirts and started a week of socializing, attending class and navigating campus in a wheelchair. During this week, the students will discover the inconveniences that people with disabilities face every day, said participant J.P. Adams.

“I did not think of a lot of things until I got into a chair – little ridges in sidewalks and hills you never knew were there,” said Adams, a Weinberg freshman.

One major inconvenience was the scarcity of accessible campus bathrooms. Not every building has an accessible facility, and some large, multi-floor buildings like University Library or Allison Hall have only one.

Participant Jake Reitan waited until dinner to go to the bathroom to avoid making more than one trip to the first floor. Adams, not realizing there was an accessible bathroom in Allison, wheeled across campus to the library in search of one. And Becca Pascal decided to wait after she found herself on the third floor of the library with the nearest accessible restroom three stories below her.

Students encountered other obstacles, including non-electric doors, buildings without elevators and the physical challenge of pushing their wheelchairs. Pascal said she got stuck between two shelves at the library. Reitan was trapped on the third floor of Swift Hall after he rode the freight elevator up but lacked a special key to get back down.

Even opening doors posed a challenge. While more than 50 campus buildings have entrances with wheelchair-accessible ramps, not all doors have electronic push-to-open buttons.

“I got right up the ramp, but then I got stuck at the door,” Pascal, a Music senior, said of her experience at Leverone Hall.

Wheels of Change members say that while the NU administration does not technically violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, the school could do more to improve campus accessibility. Wheels of Change aims to increase student awareness and push for action, Reitan said.

“I feel there’s a cloud that people go through in thinking about people with disabilities,” Adams said. “But it shouldn’t be there – it needs to be cleared up.”

Adams said he hopes Accessibility Awareness Week will change students’ perceptions of people with disabilities. Upcoming events include a Friday meeting with administrators, followed by a rally at The Rock.

“I really feel that there’s an energy among students for this change,” said Reitan, a Speech sophomore. “The way NU is now, the lack of accessibility leads to social isolation, segregation and a lack of freedom for students with disabilities.”