Editor’s note: This article is a submission from Chelzee Nicole Yu, a second-year undergraduate studying chemical engineering. As a left-handed student herself, Yu has personally experienced how design choices can make simple tasks more difficult.
UC San Diego prides itself on innovation and commitment to “continuing physical transformation,” promising an accessible and welcoming space for all. Yet, there is a glaring gap between these claims and students’ everyday learning environments — especially for left-handed students. Most lecture hall seats are designed exclusively for right-handed students, confining left-handed students to the far ends of each row. Such constraints limit movement, participation, and even the ability to see the board. Despite campuswide accessibility efforts, the physical design of many classrooms reflect persistent oversights that disadvantage left-handed students.
I didn’t realize how much I had accepted my own discomfort until I attended a lecture in York Hall. For two hours, I twisted my body, nursed my cramping wrists, and struggled to keep my notebook from sliding off the tiny right-handed desk. After that class, I began noticing the same problem in lecture halls across campus, and I realized how I’ve been accepting these struggles as completely normal.
Noticing this problem everywhere prompted me to explore its causes. At first, I thought that the scarcity of left-handed desks was a budget issue — that perhaps they are more expensive or harder to acquire. But after observing multiple classrooms and checking suppliers, I discovered that Steelcase, a classroom furnishing company that supplies UCSD, lists both left- and right-handed tablet arm desks at the same price. This means UCSD’s lack of left-handed seats boils down to the University making design choices that overlook left-handed students.
Even in newer, more modern buildings, accommodations for left-handed students are minimal, isolated, or nonexistent. The Jeannie, built in 2020, contains 600 seats, of which only 8% to 10% are left-handed, all concentrated along the far left side of each row. Galbraith Hall, renovated in 2013, has 413 seats — none of which are left-handed.
In older buildings, awkwardly shifting shoulders and arms is unavoidable. This constant need for adaptation is exhausting and unfair. Center Hall, one of the older lecture halls at UCSD, combines narrow tablet arm chairs with a lack of left-handed seats, creating classrooms that are especially difficult to navigate for left-handed students. This reflects a broader pattern of design choices that assumes a right-handed norm.
The consequences go beyond discomfort. During a three-hour final in The Jeannie, 10 left-handed students, including myself, were forced to use a small right-handed tablet arm desk because there weren’t enough seats to accommodate all of us. I struggled to write and focus due to how uncomfortable it was, something right-handed students don’t even have to consider. To make matters worse, I was also accused of cheating because of the way I had to awkwardly contort my body while taking my exam, which created false suspicions that I had shifty eyes. This is often the daily reality for left-handed students at UCSD.
Left-handed people make up 10% of the world’s population, far from a negligible share. Still, simple everyday tools betray our hands. From scissors to lecture hall seats, the world is built for the right-handed majority. Until spaces are truly inclusive, left-handed individuals will have to keep navigating the discomfort of a world built without their needs in mind.
Redesigning every lecture hall isn’t simple. Planners have to balance budget, capacity, and accessibility. However, there’s no reason for left-handed students to experience academic life differently because of design choices that assume the needs of the majority. Installing full-sized desks that comfortably accommodate both left- and right-handed students would eliminate the daily obstacle that left-handed students face. This change would benefit everyone and show how even small design choices can make learning environments truly inclusive.
Left-handed students like me aren’t asking for special treatment. We are simply asking to participate in academic life without unnecessary obstacles. If UCSD truly values innovation and inclusion, it must go beyond tokenistic accommodations, ensuring that all students can navigate learning environments comfortably and equitably.
