When University of Texas student Fabiola Amaya heard the fire alarm blare through her dorm, she felt a sense of panic. Unlike the rest of her peers, Amaya couldn’t immediately evacuate the building. She was told to stay put and wait for further instructions.
Amaya uses a power wheelchair, and at the time she lived on campus with her mother, who serves as her full-time caregiver. Unlike many other universities and community colleges across Texas, UT Austin doesn’t have evacuation chairs in any of its buildings.
“It was about 20 minutes of me not knowing what was happening, the alarm going off, everyone around me having been evacuated except for my mom and I, who stayed behind with me as my caregiver,” Amaya said. “It was a very traumatizing situation.”…