Isabella Cuda is recovering from spinal surgery. She uses leg braces and a crutch to navigate the 226-acre campus. There are days when traversal is so fatiguing, she’ll put off going to the USC Village to collect an Amazon package. And yet — according to Cuda — walking on foot is still more reliable than the University’s transit solution: the Disabled Access to Road Transportation program. 

“It’s just not worth being late all the time going to class,” said Cuda, a junior majoring in film and television production. “Even though it is really physically challenging for me, a lot of my classes are very strict on being late, because it’s all hands-on classes … I’ve had many experiences being late because [DART] either forgot about my appointment or they don’t answer the phone.”

DART is an accessibility service in which student employees drive individuals with disabilities to and from classes on golf carts. Students may sign up for the service via USC Transportation , and once they provide their class schedules and request a pickup, a golf cart will drive them from their on-campus housing to their classes’ buildings. 

However, there are limitations to the service. Because DART golf carts do not meet the California DMV’s “street legal” standard, their service area is limited to the campus boundaries only. That means USC Village, as well as off-campus housing, classes and parking structures are all unavailable through the DART program. Additionally, a lack of advertising for DART has led to both understaffing and underutilization. 

As a result, some disabled students have difficulty accessing their off-campus classes.  Cuda said she spends up to $60 a week on Lyft rides to get to and from her 10 a.m. class at the Zemeckis Center.

“Everybody else has the opportunity to get to the places that they need to go to just by walking,” Cuda said. “But I have to limit myself and say, ‘Okay, well, I can’t go to this place because I can’t walk that far, and I don’t want to spend $20 on a Lyft just to get there.’” 

In a statement provided to the Daily Trojan, Tony Mazza, executive director of USC Transportation, wrote that, “USC Transportation is committed to providing transportation options for the USC community. The Disabled Access To Road Transportation program, known as DART, is a long-standing program that was expanded last year.”

 DART operates from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with the start time being 30 minutes earlier and the end time being an hour later than previous years, according to Mazza.

 Mazza said that since expanding the morning service, they have seen an increase in demand, averaging five rides between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Additionally, there have been two requests for rides before 8 a.m., which DART was unable to accommodate. 

“With limited demand and student staffing challenges in the mornings, it is not feasible at this time to schedule earlier service,” Mazza wrote. “The USC Lyft Rides Program begins service at 7 p.m., so this is an option for students to use after 7 p.m.”

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, Associate Vice President of Disability Access and ADA compliance Christine Street wrote, “The general rule across the country is that individuals with mobility limitations are responsible for providing their own devices, such as scooters or wheelchairs. USC has gone a step further to offer this additional service in support of our community.”

Within their operating hours, DART carts can only wait for five minutes after a scheduled pickup time. This prevents students who need DART from attending early morning or late evening classes, as well as on-campus clubs that meet outside those hours.

DART isn’t the only surface-level convenience, either. Uneven pavement, non-operational door buttons and broken elevators can hinder or outright prevent students with disabilities from navigating the campus. To solve the gaps between the hours of classes and of DART operations, Cuda suggested that DART no longer hire student employees.

“Obviously, we understand that the drivers are students,” Cuda said. “They all have work. They all have other activities going on in their lives. But I think that’s the reason why their hours are just so limiting to us, instead of hiring actual staff members who can drive us around, because it feels like disabled people don’t exist after 8:00 p.m. or during the weekends.”

Cuda shared a conversation with a DART driver in which she was told that out of the five golf carts available to DART, only three are operational. However, she said that the drivers are not to blame and that they’re “busting their asses” to bring students with disabilities to and from classes every day. 

Duck Brown, a sophomore majoring in costume design, is another student who uses DART and feels the same way as Cuda. 

“DART drivers tend to be some of the sweetest people alive,” Brown said. “DART drivers are students who are doing this as either work-study or just a job, and are working incredibly hard, and I don’t know anyone [who’s] really had big issues with the drivers themselves.”

Brown said that DART hours should correspond to the earliest and latest class times that USC offers.

“If there is a ride service to take disabled students to classes that start later, it means disabled students cannot take early morning classes,” Brown said.

Additionally, Brown said students with a documented disability may request disability housing. However, while this can secure disability housing on campus until senior year, there is limited availability and housing is not always guaranteed.

Angie Del Gaudio, the current USG accessibility chair and a sophomore studying non-governmental organizations, said the Student Accessibility Assembly is working on expanding the operating hours of DART.

Angie said there are several problems the DART program faces, including overlaps in pickup times, the tedious form process and the struggles of fitting certain medical equipment into a golf cart. She went over some of the projects USG Accessibility is working on this semester, such as expanding RestSC in libraries to allow students with disabilities a place to recuperate midday. 

Izzy Del Gaudio, former USG accessibility chair and a senior majoring in political science, said the committee’s plan is to spread the word about available accessibility services on campus. 

Izzy and Angie also discussed their plans to expand accessibility day into an accessibility week in January and to create a template for students to apply for OSAS accommodations.

“When people apply to accessibility, they think it’s financial accessibility or food on campus,” Izzy said. “When accessibility is truly for the students [who] may identify with having a disability, invisible or visible, and so I keep pushing for what accessibility means.”

Cuda said that a disabled friend of hers had injured herself multiple times walking to and from class when DART was unavailable, and had to either call DPS or ask a friend to carry her home, and that Cuda herself also occasionally had to rely on friends for transportation.  

“To get around during non-DART operational hours, I called  [my friend], and I was like, ‘Hey, can you, like, push me on your scooter?’ Because I need to get somewhere. I can’t walk that far. So, that’s what I’ve had to resort to, because there’s no other option for us,” Cuda said.