Chris Miller is a typical AU student. Miller, a 19-year-old freshman in the School of Public Affairs, is involved in several organizations on campus, including Phi Alpha Delta and the Roosevelt Institution. He said he has always had an interest in politics and law, which is why he considered AU when applying to colleges.
However, the Tarrytown, N.Y., native had to research colleges for some aspects many prospective students rarely consider. Miller uses a power wheelchair and has no use of his right arm or hand, so he had to research the accessibility of each college he was interested in attending. Of the schools Miller looked at, AU was the friendliest toward people with disabilities, he said.
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DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES:
Who: Joanne Benica has worked as Disability Support Services director since October 2003. Erica Bell, assistant to the director, came to AU in 2000. Kamran Rasul, assistive technology specialist, came to AU in January 2007. What: Disability Support Services provides several services to eligible students without charge that are individually tailored to each student's needs. These include: * Note taking services * Textbooks in alternate formats - including Braille, audiotape and electronic * Sign language and oral interpreters * Letters to professors notifying them of the student's registration with the office and the accommodations needed Where: DSS is located in Mary Graydon Center 206. The phone number is 202-885-3315 and people can reach the office via e-mail at dss@american.edu. |
Miller said he and his family had to threaten to sue Sleepy Hollow High School to get accessibility. Some of the buildings at the school did not have elevators or accessible bathrooms, and many did not have accessible entrances, Miller said. He had to fight for basic accommodations, like ramps and wheelchair-accessible stalls, he said.
"They had a very narrow interpretation of what accessibility was," Miller said
The definitions of 'access'
To ensure his accessibility to the classroom and AU's campus, Miller registered at AU's Disability Support Services office. On average, DSS serves 150 students with physical, mental and psychological disabilities during a given year, according to Joanne Benica, the office's director. DSS works closely with the Academic Support Center, which provides general academic support to all students in addition to serving students with learning disabilities and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Some students have dual disabilities and the two offices do share students, Benica said. However, students who solely have learning disabilities only use the support center.
"The goal of all that is to ensure access," she said.
AU gave Miller a single room, installed electronic door openers on the bathrooms and the common lounge on his floor, as well as other accommodations. DSS has met all of his testing needs, such as double time on tests because of a learning disability and a room with a computer with voice recognition software, he said.
"They did all of that with a smile," Miller said. "No one had ever actively helped us with anything before or cared."
DSS does not just work to promote physical access - most of its work is related to classroom access, such as testing accommodations, Benica said.
To be eligible for the office's services, one must be a "qualified" AU student with a documented disability - a person who meets the essential eligibility requirements of the academic program and who is able to perform the essential requirements of the program "with or without reasonable accommodation," according to DSS literature. These definitions are based on the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The ADA defines a "disability" as an impairment that "substantially limits one or more of the major life activities."
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SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE 'INVISIBLE'
Students with mental health disabilities comprise the majority of students that Disability Support Services helps, while people with medical disabilities comprise the second largest group, Benica said. Stacia Young, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, belongs to the second group - she has Crohn's disease, which is a chronic digestive disorder that causes the digestive tract to swell and become enflamed. The disease has advanced up Young's digestive tract to her esophagus, she said. One can only treat the symptoms, "which are gruesome and gory," Young said. One of the effects of the disease and its treatments is severe fatigue. She also has a suppressed immune system. "If somebody sneezes on me, then I get sick," Young said. Young said registered with DSS during the second semester of her freshman year, after she got sick and missed a month of classes. She is able to alert professors that she has a chronic disease, which gives her leverage to negotiate flexible deadlines in case she has a Crohn's flare-up. Some professors don't understand the illness or why Young is registered with the office since she does not have a physical disability, she said. They also often forget she is registered with DSS, so it's important for her to have a letter from the office that she can reference, Young said. "It's also a really great way to go into professors' office hours and talk to them about it," she said. |
"There aren't all that many curb cuts in organized places, so I kind of always have to go out in the street to get where I need to go," Miller said about the sidewalks near South side. He added he does not mind doing this, but it is more difficult to do at night.
Miller is in AU's Honors program, but he cannot go to the program's office on the second floor of Hurst Hall because only the entry level of the building is accessible. People have brought him cake on days when the office has it and he has gone to Hughes for his advising appointments, he said.
"But I kind of would like to see what it looks like," he added.
Benica said a student can put in a request through her office to move events that are supposed to occur in the Honors office or in any inaccessible on-campus building.
"That's the reality of that building [Hurst]," Benica said.
AU is fortunate not to have very many buildings that fit the Hurst scenario, Benica said.
"We do very well in that regard," she said.
The School of International Service building is another building on campus that hosts club functions Miller cannot access. Miller said that while he knows DSS can get events moved, he usually finds out about these events on Today@AU on the day before or the day of an event - not in enough time to get the location changed.
Miller said DSS has been good about giving him keys to lifts in residence hall formal lounges when events happen there. However, Miller said he no longer uses these lifts - he has gotten trapped in one of them twice.
"I kind of don't let it happen anymore," he said.
Erica Bell, assistant to the DSS director, said the office had not received any complaints about the lifts.
Miller said that despite some of the problems he has encountered, he praises AU and DSS for the work they have done for disabled students.
"AU is still streets ahead of almost everywhere else," he said.
None of the issues Miller has criticized have made it impossible for him to live independently, he said.
"So as long as I'm able to do that, I'm happy," Miller said.
Combating home's stereotypes
Mohammed Ali Loutfy, 30, is a graduate student in SIS from Lebanon who lost his sight when he was 7. He said there is a stereotype in Lebanon about people who are blind - that they cannot study math or sciences because the courses are based on graphs or other visual tools. While many blind people he knew studied literature, Loutfy decided to study law.
"I always wanted to do something different, and I always had self-motivation to do something different or to disagree with lots of stereotypes or misconceptions that I face as a person with a disability, especially in developing countries," he said.
Loutfy was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study international development at AU and arrived in August. DSS has been "very reliable," Loutfy said, despite some difficulties when he first came to AU. The university had not had a blind graduate student in a long time, and professors were not familiar with the responsibilities of accommodating and adapting courses for blind students, he said.
The number of signs on campus with Braille is an issue for Loutfy. Some buildings, including SIS, have no Braille signage. Loutfy said that if he goes to a room in SIS, there is no way for him to know if it is the correct one, he said.
Typically, Braille has to be on elevators and hall signage. Benica said she works with University Architect Jerry Gager when an area needs signage. AU added signs in Watkins after receiving student requests, she said.
"Students just need to let us know," Benica said.
Loutfy said he feels AU respects his rights.
"Faculty members are very understanding for my rights," he said.
Room for improvement
However, Loutfy thinks DSS does have room for improvement. The office should play a proactive role to mobilize disabled students, promote inclusiveness within the AU community and encourage disabled students to become more involved in campus activities, he said.
"Visibility is not only about going to class and studying - it's also about being more and more involved in activities going on," Loutfy said.
Advocacy is the office's main role, Benica said. She said she considers it advocacy when students call DSS and want to speak with a faculty member to work out accommodations. What the office does is "probably mostly individual advocacy," she said.
Benica said she tried to organize a student group for students with disabilities when she began working at AU in October 2003, but there not enough students participated. The office serves a small number of students and there has to be an interested group to get an organization like that going, she said.
"I think it needs to be grassroots from the students," Benica said.
She said DSS helps ensure people hear disabled students' voices on campus. They go to the office to get the services they need in a more individualized way. Many of these students have invisible disabilities, she said.
"They may not want to disclose it to others," Benica said.
Miller said DSS is proactive and promotes acceptance, tolerance and inclusion.
"On a personal level, no one treats me differently because of my disability," he said.
