Services for Disabled Students Continue to Grow

Being a student is difficult. The schedules, the long hours studying, the stress of quizzes and tests, the distractions of a campus social life-- all contribute to many anxious years, hopefully rewarded by a degree,  a certificate or a diploma. But what if academic concentration is excessively difficult, if not impossible?

For some students, the experience of school is so terrifying that they experience full-blown panic attacks.  Others face the stress of getting around campus in a wheelchair, having to endure stares, or even no eye contact at all. Some endure whispered (and sometimes not) insults and jokes, snickers and laughs, all the while trying to get the same education, the same degree, as everyone else.

So what does UCC do to help? How can students with disabilities get assistance when they need it? How satisfying is the experience of coming to school here?

“I would say that the overall satisfaction level is good. Hopefully the satisfaction level of the students will increase,” said Danielle Haskett, Disabilities Coordinator for UCC; “I have only been here for about five months, so I am still learning a lot and trying to make sure this office does the best job that it can.”

One of the things that Haskett has added this year is a streamlined process to transfer information electronically between disabled students, faculty and her office. The process is now more private and less work is required of the students seeking services.

Despite the efforts of her office, Haskett sees that more work needs to be done.

“There is a need to improve our accessibility,” Haskett said; “for example, . . . a vision-impaired student being able to see that their text can be enlarged and they can read it better, or a hearing-impaired student can have note takers and FM systems.”

The goal, said Haskett, “is making sure that all of the [disability coordinator] materials are available for all of the students, with or without a disability.”

Hasket has some plans to improve the educational experiences of disabled students.  “I would love to improve accessibility and technology, make sure that our students know that we have a computer available to them in the library for speech to text, text to speech, and being able to utilize those programs and making sure that we have the resources available to them so that they are successful.”

The Mainstream is a student publication of Umpqua Community College.