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FSEC tutored on Disability Services
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
Faculty representatives learned about the services provided to UB students with disabilities yesterday in a presentation by Randy Borst, director of disability services, during the regular meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC).
There has been a significant increase in the number of students with disabilities in higher education in recent years, said Borst, noting that Disability Services today serves more than 500 students and experienced a more than 26 percent increase in students served from 2003 to 2005.
"The number of university students with disabilities went from 9 percent to 11 percent nationally," he said. "Learning disabilities comprise nearly half the people we treat. The fastest-growing group is people with mental impairments." Mental impairments include depression, bi-polar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, he said. Students with visual or hearing impairments also benefit from Disability Services, but are less numerous at UB. Moreover, Borst estimated there are fewer than 20 wheelchairs users at UB-despite the fact that universities just twice UB's size are more than 10 times larger in terms of wheelchair users.
"Ohio State University, which has a little more than double our population, [has] upwards of 200 students with wheelchairs," Borst said. "We really should have many more."
Although inclement weather and high snowfall partly account for the disparity, Borst noted that access to facilities and programs remains a great concern. "There's going to be significant reconstruction going on all over campus in response to the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] audit that occurred a couple years ago," he said, pointing out that construction will include improvements to elevators and washrooms and additional curb ramps in high-use areas. He added that UB has sought to address the issue of dealing with snowfall through a program in which Disability Services and UB Facilities coordinate to place higher priorities on clearing paths frequented by students with disabilities.
Other services provided to students through Disability Services include assistive-technology assessment, assistive-technology training, counseling services, intra-campus transportation, accessible parking permits and, in certain cases, early course registration and alternate recommendations for core requirements. Also available is an e-text service that scans course materials, articles and textbooks for students using assistive technology to enlarge on-screen text or translate it into spoken language or Braille. Teaching student with disabilities to self-advocate is another important aspect to Disability Services, said Borst.
"We help them to find a vocabulary for civil and affective discourse that will help them to advocate for what they need to access your courses and other things at the university," he told faculty members. "The goal behind that is that they can come to you and converse with you and it's simple and effective. We do a lot of that, both formal and informal."
In addition, Disability Services assists with such accommodations as readers and scribes, computers and calculators, distraction-free locations for testing, modifications to classroom-attendance policies and additional examination time.
The most common reason for students requiring additional time on an exam relates to differences in the manner in which a test is taken, Borst added, noting that proving double time on a test does not mean a student is slower, but that changes in manner, such as the use of a reader or scribe, requires minor time accommodation. Recommendations to alter attendance policies aim to be reasonable, but Borst encouraged faculty with questions or concerns to address them to Disability Services.
"Please don't hesitate to call us and we will work something out with your and your student," said Borst, noting the goal is to accommodate students with disabilities, as well as "preserve the integrity of your courses."
In other business, Scott Nostaja, interim vice president for human resources, discussed the UB Jobs Web site launched in early February. Although more than a dozen "tweaks" have been performed to the site in the past month and a half, Nostaja said, the project has been deemed a success based on the response of staff applicants during the unofficial pilot phase. The site should be in good order for the deluge of staff applications expected over the summer, he added.
"We're getting more and more demand to take applications electronically," Nostaja said. "It really is an electronic world. The longer we stay in the paper-based world, the more challenges we have to our overall goal to recruit the best and brightest faculty and staff of all types."
In addition, Barbara Burke, associate director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Affirmative Action, addressed a project to centralize UB's recruitment advertising in order to reduce inconsistent and duplicate advertising and guarantee that a consistent UB image is communicated in all departmental position advertisements.
The project aims to determine the outlets that are best at attracting the most talented and diverse job candidates as well. "We're currently using outlets that do not produce candidates," said Burke, noting that the Internet has become the place to find the best and brightest candidates.
Officials involved in the project will garner further data about online advertisement from a $4,100 half-page ad for UB that appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education in November, she added. Initial assessment suggests the spot received about 1,100 hits that coincided to about 1,000 visits to UB's College of Arts and Sciences Web site.
"We really generated a lot of interest for what was not a bad cost," she said.