By Bernardo H. Motta
This article is a response to an opinion piece published by staff writer Savannah Carr on Jan. 21 in The Crow’s Nest and an appeal to administrators, faculty, staff and students to move the burden of getting accommodations from disabled students and put it where it should be: on all of us.
First, to my colleagues in the faculty, we need to make sure the content of our classes, assignments and any task or resource is either accessible or has accessible alternatives. It’s not only the law, but it’s good practice.
Any faculty member can work with the library’s instructional design specialists to build accessible content for courses. Doing so reduces much of the burden on the students to figure out with Disabilities Services how to adapt to each individual course while they are already taking the course.
This shouldn’t need saying, but Savannah’s experience proves it still does: Don’t make your students’ lives harder than necessary. Students are human beings with jobs (often more than one), families, other classes and health issues, just like everyone else.
Disabled students usually have to go through a routine of self-care that takes a lot of their free time in addition to what everyone else has to do. We can demand quality in their work and effort in their learning, but we must be reasonable and be willing to work with them. Asking disabled students (or any student) to jump through unreasonable hoops just because we don’t want to be flexible is not just unfair, it’s morally wrong. If you don’t know how to help them, learn. It’s part of our job.
Second, Savannah has reached out to administrators, including Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock, but we don’t seem to be collecting proper data on disabled students. We need to start collecting and making the data accessible to the public. We can’t improve anything systemically if we don’t know what the system is.
The university should also offer proper training to staff, faculty and students to make the campus culture more inclusive and accessible. We can’t say that we welcome disabled students and then make their lives unnecessarily and disproportionately harder than the lives of others.
Many of the issues are linked to visibility and education. We should hire disabled experts on disability and inclusion in education to provide training and consulting. They are at the forefront of the discussion and can be much more effective than non-disabled experts.
Speaking of visibility, the ADA accommodations on campus need to be labeled better. For students in wheelchairs or other students who cannot take the stairs, it is difficult to find the elevators in almost every building — for example, the elevator in the Student Life Center. Not to mention, the ramps are rather secluded for some buildings, such as the University Student Center.
Again, there is a legal liability here, but it’s also a crucial element in forging a welcoming campus culture.
We all should treat disabled students exactly as we would like to be treated. If you are planning an event, make sure it’s accessible and inclusive — not just physically, but also culturally. Use the microphone (it’s not for you, it’s for the disabled student). Don’t schedule meetings in places that are inaccessible. Don’t make inaccessible activities the center of an event without offering inclusive alternatives. Use communication technology that allows for a range of disabilities and improves the experience overall.
We hope this will provide everyone on campus with a place to start. Here are a few links that can help:
Savannah Carr contributed to this report.
