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The Duane Physics building at the University of Colorado Boulder has long been a hub for groundbreaking science education, but until recently, its infrastructure posed significant challenges for students with physical disabilities. There is still some work to do, but a recent upgrade to lecture hall Duane G1B30, one of the most well-used rooms on CU Boulder’s campus, marks a critical step forward in addressing those challenges. The upgrade focuses on accessibility by offering a wider range of seating options in agreement with the American Disabilities Act (ADA), giving more students the ability to learn where they’re most comfortable.

“Once I was aware of the Duane lecture hall experience for students who are unable to use stairs, it was clear that changes needed to be made. Maintaining the status quo for another 50 years was not an option,” explains CU Boulder Associate Teaching Professor of Physics and Director of Community Initiatives, Eleanor Hodby. “The fact that there is a solution now is exciting. It’s not a perfect solution, but we’re making progress.”

The Challenge of Inaccessibility

Before its update, G1B30, like many buildings from the 1960s, was not designed with accessibility in mind. The lecture hall’s tiered design—which feels like walking into an M.C. Escher drawing—while celebrated for enhancing engagement between students and instructors, also excluded students and lecturers with physical disabilities.

“In the 1960s, when Prof. Frank Walz designed this lecture hall, he likely wasn’t thinking about accessibility,” elaborates Alex Ennor, the Facilities Manager for the Physics Department. According to the A history of the Department of Physics of the University of Colorado at Boulder: 1876-2001,��written by Al Bartlett, Walz designed lecture halls G1B20 and G1B30 so that no seat was more than 60 feet away from the lecture table.”

Eleanor Hodby, a physics professor and member of the Physics department’s ‘Representation, Recruitment, and Retention’ committee (R-cubed), echoed these sentiments. Hodby explained that Duane's accessibility concerns first came to her attention during an R-cubed brainstorming session. Physics Professor Loren Hough, graduate student Claire Savard, and postdoc Tori Borish all shared different concerns and experiences around this issue. These concerns were later amplified by a fifth-year Biomedical Engineering PhD student, Olivia Tonti, who uses a wheelchair and experienced many serious accessibility challenges while taking undergraduate classes in Duane. Finally, R-Cubed reached out to the Physics and Astrophysics faculty who teach in the Duane lecture halls:

“We got an overwhelmingly positive response from faculty...basically, ‘I've been worried about this issue for 30 years. Thank goodness you’re addressing it,’” Hodby adds.

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One Shot to Upgrade

The stakes were high for the future G1B30 renovation, as the team knew they had only one shot to get it right. With limited opportunities for upgrades and the public statement such an upgrade would make in such a heavily utilized lecture hall, ensuring that the new design met ADA compliance standards and created an inclusive environment from the start was crucial.

“We couldn’t afford to get this wrong,” said Ennor, highlighting how the timeline and budget constraints meant this was a one-time opportunity to make lasting, impactful changes for students with disabilities.

To meet this challenge, Ennor brought together a diverse team, including Trisha E Hallerberg, the Project Manager of Planning and Design for the physics department and CU Boulder, CU Boulder’s ADA team, Research Assistant Gwen Eccles, who oversees the vast Physics demonstration library housed backstage of G1B30 and Hodby, who was able to represent the opinions of the many faculty who teach in this space.

“Feedback from students who are unable to use stairs confirmed that we needed to provide ADA seating options on the lower level near the teacher,” Hallerberg stated. “I started to work with the design team on how best to provide all students the same inclusive feeling in the classroom.�� We were able to provide 3 ADA locations on the lower level near the teacher and 3 ADA locations on the upper level.�� Giving students options to sit where they feel comfortable.”

A Years-Long Process

The journey to ADA compliance in G1B30 was not a simple one.

“It was a long, back-and-forth process,” Hodby noted, “Since the first R-cubed brainstorming session to the final construction, it was around two years. But it’s important to remember that this issue has disadvantaged wheelchair-users for decades.”

The renovations required coordination between multiple departments and careful adherence to ADA guidelines. For a space as large as G1B30, ADA standards required the installation of six wheelchair-accessible seats and companion seats for potential caregivers or aides.

One of the biggest challenges was retrofitting the space without compromising the hall’s function or design.

“I remember going in there with Trisha, and we were trying to figure out where to put the seats,” Eccles adds.

One of the challenges was adding space for the wheelchair-accessible seats without affecting G1B30’s rotating stage. This key structure enables demonstrations to be set up backstage between lectures, so that the laws of physics can be demonstrated live in the classroom, despite the constraints of the rapid 15-minute passing period between classes. The original structure, including the lecture platform, had to be carefully adjusted.

“We had to saw-cut some of the concrete steps out just to get space for additional seating,” Ennor explains.

Moving the instructor’s platform back slightly also ensured enough passing room for wheelchair users to navigate the space freely.

“What if a lecturer is giving the lecture in a wheelchair?” Ennor adds. “Or what if somebody was in a wheelchair in one of the ADA seats, with a lecturer also in a wheelchair? We needed to ensure enough passing room for everyone involved. The potential for this all happening simultaneously is very small, but there is a chance”

Tonti notes that there is a systemic reason for this situation being unlikely “the near-universal inaccessible design of most universities severely disadvantages physically disabled students and researchers from pursuing their academic and career goals.”

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Accessible student seating at the front of G1B30

Accessibility in Action

For Eccles, who manages the lecture hall's backstage area, the improvements represent a significant step toward accessibility. She had firsthand experience with the hall's previous inaccessibility, often assisting students with disabilities by setting up special seating and equipment. Reflecting on the past, she shared how the lack of permanent accessible solutions was inconvenient for the students.

“There’s a stigma of having, you know, the special things having to happen,” Eccles said. ‘It really alienates those students, and in one case, a student stopped coming to class.”

Eccles and Hodby highlighted how the new seating options—now located both on the floor level and the balcony—give students with disabilities the choice of where to sit rather than relegating them to the margins of the room. For the balcony level, the old projector room of G1B30 was opened up, creating a cozy but accessible seating area for students to enjoy.

“Forcing students who perhaps need to use a wheelchair and who want to engage with the class to sit in the back where typically students are not engaged is simply not fair,” Hodby pointed out, referencing the importance of keeping all students, regardless of disability, close to the action of the lecture and the opportunity to interact directly with instructors. “We wanted them to have the option to be at the front with the engaged students, having those good conversations during this interactive class and, in particular, to be able to ask the instructor questions. That's a tradition in the department: you hang around and answer questions after class until the line is gone, until the last student leaves. That is the best time to sort your queries out right after you've thought of the questions.”

Looking Ahead at G1B20

While the renovation marks a huge leap forward, Hodby, Ennor, Eccles, and Hallerberg all agree that work still needs to be done.

“It’s not a perfect solution,” Hodby acknowledged, citing the urgent need for more automatic door openers in Duane, which would enable students to access the front-row seats independently. “But the fact that the people in the physics department were like, ‘No, we are going to find a solution no matter what,’ felt very positive,” she adds.

The upgrade has already begun to make a difference. So far, two students have started using the ADA-accessible seats this semester, and Eccles, who has been helping them navigate the building, is hopeful this is just the beginning.

“The fact that it’s an option now is really exciting,” she said.

The next goal is a similar upgrade to the adjacent lecture hall, G1B20. While there are already balcony seats that are ADA compliant, the team hopes that a few front-row chairs can be replaced with wheelchair-accessible spaces, allowing all students the same opportunity to engage with their peers, their instructors and the class material.

G1B30 is now fully booked, hosting classes from multiple departments across the university. Ennor hopes this renovation will serve as a model for other spaces both in the Physics department and around campus.

“We’re making small steps as we can...it’s important that we continue that as a campus,” he says.