Transcript Accessiblity Services and Post Secondary Education

Accessibility Services and Post
Secondary Education
• Introduction overview
• . Studies have shown that students with disabilities can participate
in higher education and compete favorably with other students.
• This section will cover these important points:
• Faculty should expect to have students with disabilities in their
courses.
• When students with disabilities graduate, they are as successful as
other graduates.
• Students with disabilities generally see faculty as supportive and
willing to accommodate.
• Faculty should have the same expectations of students with
disabilities as other students, and maintain the same academic
performance standards.
• Study of incoming freshmen
• Studies show that students with disabilities make up
a growing proportion of college and university
enrollment in the U.S. In 1978, less than 3% of
incoming freshmen reported having a disability. By
1998, it was about 9%. Current data (Rothstein,
2005) indicates that the level is stabilizing at
approximately one in eleven incoming students.
•
• After graduation
• Other studies have shown many similarities between
college students after graduation. Students with and
without disabilities who graduate from U.S. colleges
and universities:
• Are equally likely to be employed.
• Earn similar salaries.
• Are equally likely to attend graduate school.
Horn, L. & Berktold, J. (1999). Students with disabilities in post-secondary education: A profile of preparation,
participation, and outcomes. National Center for Educational Statistics, US Department of Education, Statistical Analysis
Report No. 1999-187. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
• Students’ perceptions of faculty
• In the US and Canada, research indicates that, by and large,
college students with disabilities respect their professors,
appreciate their efforts, and generally think well of them.
• What students with disabilities said:
• On average, instructors’ willingness to make
accommodations was good to excellent.
• Generally, faculty were sensitive, willing to accommodate,
and positive.
• There were exceptions: Not all faculty were perceived
positively.
• A higher proportion of students with "invisible disabilities"
reported negative experiences with faculty.
Faculty attitudes about accommodation
• When faculty are surveyed, they report the following:
• Are willing to accommodate students with disabilities
(88%)
• Feeling unfamiliar with campus resources and services
(55%)
• Having had little or no training (82%)
Leyser, Y., Vogel, S., Wyland, S., & Brulle, A. (1998). Faculty attitudes and
practices regarding students with disabilities: Two decades after
implementation of Section 504. Journal of Post-secondary Education and
Disability, 13(3), 5-19.
A few implications of this research
• Since students with disabilities make up 1 in
11 incoming freshmen, all faculty should
expect to have students with disabilities in
their courses, labs, and field sites.
• Students with disabilities will pursue the same
range of careers as other students.
• Students with disabilities should have the
same rigorous curriculum and standards as
other students.
Introduction summary
• We need to have the same expectations and impose the
same standards of performance on students with
disabilities as we do for all students. Disability
accommodations or academic adjustments must not water
down the curriculum, lower standards, or waive
requirements for essential skills or knowledge. It is not
consistent with the intent of the law to do so.
• Providing reasonable accommodations while maintaining
academic standards is essential to understanding how to
work appropriately with students with disabilities in higher
education.
Reasonable accommodations
• Adaptations intended to lessen the
educational impact of the individual’s
disability without compromising the integrity
of the academic program or course.
Accommodations may include instructional
strategies, technology, and/or aids.
Two main laws for higher ed
• Two laws influence disability-related services in
higher education:
• Section 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973
• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990/ADAAA
2008
• These laws are civil rights statutes designed to
protect the rights of and prevent discrimination
against students with disabilities. Without going
into detail on these laws, let’s look at four of their
most important implications for higher education.
Four implications
• Those who have qualified for admissions have
a right to be in higher ed.
• Students, once admitted, have a right to
access academic and non-academic programs.
• Qualified students are eligible to receive
reasonable accommodations that relate to
their disability.
• Students have a right to confidentiality of all
disability-related information.
Right to be in higher education
• Students with disabilities must meet the same
entrance criteria as other students. Once they
have met the institution’s admission criteria, with
or without the use of accommodations, they have
the same rights as other students.
• You will notice that we didn’t say that students
with disabilities are entitled to a college degree.
Having a disability doesn’t mean it’s a "free ride."
Just like other students, those with disabilities are
responsible for determining their own level of
success or failure.
Right to access all programs
• Once admitted, students with disabilities have
the right to access all programs, academic and
non-academic, that are available to other
students.
• An instructor cannot refuse to work with a
student because the student has a disability or
because the instructor is concerned that
having a disability would keep the student
from being successful in education or
employment.
Eligible for reasonable accommodations
• Faculty need to be prepared to make adaptations,
or what we call reasonable accommodations, to
instructional practices so that students with
disabilities can do the same things that other
college students are required to do. This may
mean making changes in the delivery of some
course materials and assessment of knowledge.
• Each student must provide evidence of the need
for each accommodation. For example, notetakers are provided only if there is a documented
impairment that limits the student’s ability to
take notes.
Right to confidentiality
• Information about a student’s disability is confidential. As a
result, there may be times when you receive a request for
accommodation from the Disability Service Office without
knowing which student needs the accommodation. Most of
the time, however, the student will approach you and tell
you that he or she has a disability that will require some
accommodation.
• In either case, information about a student’s disability or
accommodations should not be disclosed without the
students permission. It is up to the student to decide how
much information he or she is comfortable sharing.
• Faculty should use caution to avoid inadvertently
identifying a student with a disability to classmates or other
faculty. Violation of confidentiality can present a legal risk
to faculty and the institution.
Accommodation defined
• Let’s talk for a few minutes about what we mean by the
term reasonable accommodation.
• Accommodation refers to adaptations aimed at lessening
the impact of a disability-related limitation. For example, a
student with a vision impairment may need to have his or
her textbooks made available on audiotape. Remember,
the focus of all accommodations is to mitigate the effects of
the disability, not to make sure that all students with
disabilities are successful in college.
• Although a student may benefit from using personal aides,
the University is not responsible for providing them. A
university is not required to provide students with
disabilities with personal or individually prescribed devices,
such as wheelchairs, prescription glasses, or hearing aids,
or to provide services of a personal nature, such as
assistance in eating, toileting, or dressing.
Academic Accommodations
• Nonexaustive list of “typical” accommodations:
– Priority registration
– Extended time on exams
– Take exams in a distraction-reduced environment
– Not being penalized for missing class/assignments
due to exacerbation
– Substitutions and extensions
– Note taking assistance
Reasonable Accommodations in Higher
Education
• Essential Components of the
Curriculum/Class May Not be Altered
• Level the Playing Field
• Access to All Programs, Curriculums,
and Services
• Code of Conduct Enforced
When are accommodations
unreasonable?
• Fundamentally alter the nature of the training
program
• Compromise the essential elements of the
program
• Cause an undue financial or administrative
burden
• Endanger the safety of self or others
• Accessibility Service Office
• As you can imagine, designing individual, course-specific
accommodations is complex. Thankfully, most universities
have a designated Accessibility Service Office (ASO) to do
that job. We will refer to this office as the ASO (Accessibility
Service Office) throughout this program.
• The ASO oversees and coordinates a variety of disabilityrelated services. ASO staff may:
• provide training and support for faculty, students, and
departments
• advocate for rights of students with disabilities
• evaluate students’ eligibility for accommodations
• recommend and coordinate accommodations
• provide accommodations
The law summary
• In order to keep this program as short as
possible, we only provide basic information
about working with students with disabilities.
Therefore, we encourage you to get
acquainted with the ASO office and the many
valuable resources they have to offer. The ASO
staff can support your efforts, protect you
from liability, and offer critical support to your
students with disabilities.
5 Steps in the Accommodation Process
• For convenience, we are going to talk about
the process as having five steps.
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Getting to the DSO
Meeting the eligibility requirements
Deciding on specific accommodations
Implementing the accommodation plan
Revising the accommodation plan
• Step 1: Getting to the ASO
• The first step in the process is Getting to the ASO.
There are a variety of ways that students contact
the Accessibility Service Office. Those who
received accommodations in high school may be
referred by their high school counselor or their
parents. In these cases, getting to the ASO is fairly
straightforward.
• But sometimes students are not aware of the
ASO. Some students do not even know they have
a disability until they have been in college for a
while. This puts you in a position to refer students
to the ASO.
• The easiest way to do this is to include a
statement on your syllabus about your
institution’s policies on students with
disabilities and spend a little time in class at
the beginning of the semester talking about
how a student should go about getting
disability-related accommodations. This lets
the student know you are approachable and
provides clear direction to the student on the
steps to follow to receive accommodations. It
also emphasizes that all disability-related
accommodations have to be coordinated
through the DSO.
Syllabus Statement
• NOTE: “In accordance with federal law, it is university policy to
comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). If you
believe that you have a physical, learning, or psychological
disability that requires an academic accommodation, contact
the Coordinator of Accessibility Services by phone at (505)
454-3252, via e-mail at [email protected], or visit Room
111 of the Felix Martinez building on the Las Vegas campus. If
you need the document upon which this notice appears in an
alternative format, you may also contact the Coordinator of
Accessibility Service.” David Esquibel Student
Advisor/Coordinator of Testing and Accessibility Services
• Step 2: Meeting Eligibility Requirements
• The next step in the process is Meeting the
Eligibility Requirements to receive
accommodations. In this step, the student
brings documentation of his or her disability
to the DSO.
• The DSO counselor evaluates the
documentation to determine whether or not
the student meets the eligibility requirements
as per the policies of the institution.
Step 3: Deciding on Specific Accommodations
• Once a student is found to be eligible, he or she
moves on to the third step in the process,
Deciding on Specific Accommodations. In this
step, the student and the DSO counselor look at
the student’s disability-related limitations and
how these limitations interact with the required
activities.
* The counselor may need to talk with you, the
instructor, to get information about the course and
to find out about the essential knowledge and skills
the course is intended to teach.
Step 4: Implementing the Accommodation Plan
• The fourth step in the process is Implementing
the Accommodation Plan. Your role in the
process often begins when the student
approaches you and tells you that he or she will
need some accommodations.
• The student should provide you with a letter from
the DSO recommending accommodations for
your course. If the student has not been to the
DSO or does not have this letter, inform the
student that all disability-related
accommodations must be coordinated through
the DSO and encourage the student to go to the
DSO.
Once Faculty receives the letter
• Once you receive the letter from the ASO, take
some time to look it over. Set up a time to talk
privately with the student so you can review the
ASO recommendations and discuss how the
accommodation will be delivered.
• Plan a way to carry out the accommodation so
that the student’s confidentiality is protected as
much as possible. Be sure to keep a copy of the
request for your files and refer back to it as
needed.
Step 5: Revising the Accommodation Plan
• The fifth step of the process is Revising the
Accommodation Plan. Sometimes it is necessary to
make adjustments to the original accommodation.
Keep in mind that most of the time accommodations
go smoothly and revisions are not needed. While
revisions are being worked out, continue to provide the
accommodations that you originally agreed upon.
• Most often, small adjustments can be handled
between you and the student. Other times, it may be
helpful to consult with the ASO. In any case, continue
to provide the original accommodation and
communicate in writing to the ASO any changes you
and the student make to the plan.
• Every student has unique challenges and
circumstances. The ASO is there to answer
questions and work with faculty, students, and
the administration to make sure that students
with disabilities are accommodated
appropriately while academic integrity is
maintained.
Faculty Rights
• Verify that a student is registered with the Office of Disability
Services and is eligible for accommodations
• Identify and establish essential elements of course, program
or activity
• Determine when and where students will take exams/quizzes
• Contact the Office of Accessibility Services with concerns
Faculty Responsibilities
• Ensuring that students with disabilities receive
accommodations requested
• If using proctoring services thru ODS, providing copy of
exam/quiz with completed proctoring sheet
• Allowing the use of auxiliary aides needed by student in the
classroom
• Using a syllabus statement that encourages students to
disclose their disability to ODS if they need accommodations
Interacting with Students with Disabilities
• Avoid expressions that are derogatory with
regard to physical or mental abilities, such as
"handicapped" or "retarded". Instead, use
person first language, such as "person with a
disability" or "person with Down's Syndrome".
People have disabilities, they are not defined
by them.
• Respond courteously to all accommodation requests
and be sure to promptly direct the request to
appropriate personnel who can assist.
• Not all disabilities are apparent. Because of the
stigma associated with certain disabilities, people
may be reluctant to disclose a disability or ask for an
accommodation. If someone looks as though he or
she may not understand you, do not ask them if they
have a disability. Instead, ask in a respectful way if
there is an alternative method for facilitating
communication.
• Don't make assumptions about the
person or the disability.
• Always speak directly to the person with
a disability, not to a companion, assistant
or sign language interpreter. Speak in
your normal tone and do not raise your
voice unless requested.
• If the person doesn't understand you, try
again. Don't become anxious if you have
to make repeated attempts at listening or
speaking to ensure effective
communication.
Good Resource for information
• http://dsp.berkeley.edu/TeachStudentsWithDi
sab.html
Questions