A panel of postsecondary students with disabilities shared their experiences and answered questions about access and inclusion. The panel included a neuroscience master鈥檚 degree student at a university in New York, a Ph.D. student studying experimental psychology at a university in California, and two public health undergraduate students at a college in 糖心原创. The panelists shared information about their disabilities, which included autism, cerebral palsy, ADHD, a heart condition, learning disabilities, and other challenges related to brain injuries. The following headings were questions asked to the students, with bulleted responses listed below.
Hope Stout, Director of Access and Disability Services, Pierce College
Bryan Fauth, Accessibility and Support Services, Cascadia College
Craig Kerr, Director of Services for Students with Disabilities, Edmonds College
, Pierce College District, Ft. Steliacoom, WA.
, Cascadia College, Bothell, WA.
, Edmonds College, Lynnwood, WA.
Question 1: Faculty can be very accommodating; what is the balance you see between your office, the student, the faculty and the law?聽
Question 2: Do you have suggestions for how we can best support students who come to us self-disclosing various diagnoses that they might have, but they don鈥檛 have official documentation in place. And so getting them officially recognized accommodations or supports is difficult. So is there an alternative avenue for students to get those things recognized if finances or access is a barrier for them in getting whatever required documentation is necessary?
Question 3: I teach Mathematics and I鈥檝e actually been talking with some people that teach Mathematics, that teach Physics, teach Geology, teach Chemistry, about how we aren鈥檛 really positive how best to teach for certain topics, like 鈥渉ow do you describe a graph - how do you teach a student a graph who can鈥檛 see the graph?鈥 Or 鈥渉ow do you teach a student who has dyscalculia?鈥 Or 鈥渉ow do you take a student on a field trip who has a physician disability, who can鈥檛 walk through the field trip?鈥 So we鈥檙e actually proposing to do a grant to bring together some people to create a community of practice to do this, and we鈥檙e just kind of curious if there are people out there that would be willing and able to help us, facilitate and train us, because I don鈥檛 know anything myself. And is this also something that the Disability Resource officers at your school can do, too?聽
Question 4: I鈥檓 curious to hear your perspective on how an interested faculty member could arrange to meet with students before the term begins. I know that would help me to be a much better instructor if I had some specific tips, hints that I could incorporate.
Question 5: Are we dependent on requests for accommodation in designing our course? What about students who are not diagnosed? And doesn鈥檛 鈥渘eurodiversity鈥 apply to every person? Also how do we incorporate, communicate neurodiversity goals in our learning objectives?