Transcript Slide 1
Disabilities Advisory Committee (DAC) Illinois Board of Higher Education Board Meeting December 4, 2007 Antecedents to the DAC Underrepresented Groups report to Governor & General Assembly Annual report with plans/strategies for increasing participation and advancement of minorities, women and students with disabilities Pivotal leadership of Mr. James Kaplan, former IBHE chair Gateway to Success: Rethinking Access and Diversity for a New Century A seminal study submitted in August 2001 Creation of the DAC Committee organized in February 2004 Charged to advise IBHE on policy matters – serving students with disabilities effectively Membership - disability providers and experts from universities and community colleges and a rep of students and ISBE. IBHE liaison assigned. Working on recruiting rep of independent inst. IBHE Grant Support - History Funds allocated total approximately $1.0 million since FY 2003 Examples of projects funded: Conference on Accommodative Teaching and Assistive Technology Transition support programs Training for meeting needs of multicultural, visually impaired students Promotion of web accessibility (ongoing) Systematic data collection/metrics on students with disabilities (ongoing) Disabilities Advisory Committee Current Goals & Outcomes Promoting better data collection and reporting on students with disabilities Collaborated in the modification of the Shared Enrollment and Graduation data base to track students with disabilities Working on development of disability metrics data collection systems/surveys Funding for Disability Service operations, especially high cost & time intensive services Collaborated with the ICCB on the Student Success grant Disabilities Advisory Committee Current Goals & Outcomes Promoting increased web accessibility Collaborated in training, information dissemination and advocacy throughout state Recommending new reporting standards for Underrepresented Groups report (see handout) Capacity building for Disability Service providers Collaborated with Interagency Coordinating Council and disabilityworks Collaborated with IBHE and ICCB on issues related to serving students with cognitive and developmental disabilities Future Plans Web Accessibility (HECA grant project) Recommending adoption by IBHE of the proposed web accessibility reporting requirements created by an Illinois consortium of colleges http://www.cita.uiuc.edu/collaborate/illinois/docs/ibhe-webreports.html (see handout also) IBHE – HECA Disability Metrics project anticipates recommending new data collection as part of Underrepresented Groups report: annual admin report & registered students report; provide tools/manual for other tracking of entering students, alumni Implementation of the state’s new IT Accessibility Act Current members of the DAC Tom Thompson, Chair Harper College Brad Hedrick, UIUC Sue Ouellette, NIU Kathleen Plesko, SIUC Michael Whitney, SIUC Debra Watkins, Chicago City Colleges Student representative to be appointed Ocheng Jany, IBHE Karen Hunter-Anderson, ICCB Victoria Amey-Flippin, NEIU Beth Hanselman, ISBE Harriett Shaikes, College of Lake County Peg Kennedy, Olney Central College