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W ESTERN CAROLINA U NIVERSITY
Disability Services
Assessment Plan 2006-2007
Division Mission: In support of the mission of the university, the Division of Student Affairs is committed to the personal, social, and intellectual development of students as they live and learn within a diverse community. Programs, services, outreach activities, and facilities enhance the ability of current and prospective students to apply learning outcomes as they develop independent thought, take advantage of community involvement, and understand global responsibility.
Unit Mission: Disability Services works to foster a supportive and inclusive campus community for individuals with disabilities by insuring equal access to facilities, programs and services at Western Carolina University. Disability Services determines, provides and advocates for students with disabilities.
Disability Services Quality Standards: Adapted from the CAS Standards for Disability Support Services and the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) Program Standards.
- Ensure equal access for students with disabilities to all curricular and co-curricular opportunities offered by Western Carolina University.
- Provide leadership to the campus community to enhance understanding and support of disability services.
- Provide guidance to the campus community to ensure compliance with legal requirements for access.
- Establish clear policies and procedures that define the responsibilities of both the institution and the person eligible for accommodations.
- Ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities receive reasonable accommodations so as to have equal access to all institutional programs and services regardless of the type and extent of the disability.
- Define and describe the procedures for obtaining services and accommodations
- Provide guidance and training for institutional staff and faculty members in the understanding of disability issues.
Provide learning outcomes for students in the following domains:
- Intellectual growth
- Effective communication
- Enhanced self-esteem
- Realistic self-appraisal
- Clarified values
- Career choices
- Leadership development healthy behavior
- Meaningful interpersonal relationships
- Independence
- Collaboration
- Social responsibility
- Satisfying and productive lifestyles
- Appreciating diversity
- Spiritual awareness
- Personal and educational goals
- Identify environmental conditions that negatively influence persons with disabilities and propose interventions designed to ameliorate such conditions.
- Regularly evaluate the campus for physical access.
- Advise university administrators on how to best respond to current litigation, interpretation of case law, changes in the field of medicine, and diseases, changes in documenting disabilities, and trends in the field of secondary special education.
- Provide consultation with faculty regarding academic accommodations, compliance with legal responsibilities, as well as instructional, programmatic, physical, and curriculum modifications.
Program Outcomes:
- Develop sound policies and procedures for delivering comprehensive services to students with disabilities; particularly for determination and provision of academic and housing accommodations, and support services such as tutoring, disability counseling, and mentoring.
- Increase campus-wide awareness of disability issues by coordinating activities during Disability Awareness Week, presenting at USI 130 classes, special education, human services and other related classes, and providing training, resources and consultation on disability issues for faculty and staff.
- Establish a student group to focus on campus-wide disability issues, form a supportive network for students with disabilities, and assist with ideas and planning for disability awareness activities.
- Collaborate with Information Technologies to update accessibility of technological resources available to students, faculty, and staff with disabilities in the library, classrooms and computer labs.
- Increase efficiency in meeting accommodation requirements for students with print disabilities access by purchasing equipment and software for converting text to CD-ROM.
- Provide disability accommodation letters to students who provide documentation of a disability, and guide students in developing self-advocacy skills for discussing their accommodation needs with faculty.
- Provide Braille materials, note takers, readers, scribes, interpreters, CART services, and books on tape or CD-ROM for students with disabilities who require these services.
- Collaborate with Career Services and rehabilitation agencies to provide services and programs designed to assist students with disabilities in exploring career choices and opportunities, creating resumes, locating sources of career information, requesting employment accommodations, and preparing for interviews; all with special consideration of issues related to visible vs. invisible disabilities.
- Collaborate with the Women’s Center, Health Services, Psychological Services, the Counseling Center and academic departments, to promote health wellness, and successful living for individuals with disabilities.
- Partner with Psychological Services to assist students in obtaining affordable diagnostic assessments for learning disabilities, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other concerns.
- Plan and implement a transition/orientation program to prepare prospective and incoming students with disabilities; parents; and high school personnel for making a successful transition to post-secondary education.
- Serve as a liaison for area high schools and resource for information on disability services at the postsecondary level; provide assistance for guidance counselors, teachers, and prospective students with disabilities in planning a successful transition to college.
- Engage faculty in identifying barriers and exploring methods of increasing accessibility of academic curricula and delivery of course content by presenting workshops, faculty training sessions, and inviting faculty to participate in a Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) Learning Community as a collaborative project with the Coulter Faculty Center.
- Plan programs to enhance self-awareness, self-acceptance, independence, and personal and academic development for students, faculty and staff with disabilities.
- Work proactively with Facilities Management to prioritize building and renovations projects according to ADA code to increase physical accessibility of parking, travel routes and buildings on campus and advocate for students with immediate need for assistance with accessibility concerns.
Learning Outcomes:
The functions and activities of Disability Services, under the auspices of the Division of Student Affairs, are intended to foster and increase the following learning outcomes for students of Western Carolina University:
Students with disabilities will development pragmatic and affective skills that will enhance their ability to effectively self-advocate in the university setting and in preparation for their entrance into the professional realm of their chosen fields.
Students will:
- Contact disability services before the start of each semester to request accommodations.
- Describe his/her disability and its impact in the university setting.
- Articulate needed accommodations to disability services staff and professors.
- Demonstrate understanding of rights and responsibilities by requesting services in advance and following through by delivering disability accommodation letters to faculty as needed.
- Use available support services to enhance personal, social, and intellectual development.
Students with disabilities will maximize their academic success by increasing their understanding their own unique learning styles, strengths, and weaknesses and by using appropriate accommodations and support services, including:
- academic accommodations
- housing accommodations
- tutoring and use of writing and math labs
- use of adaptive equipment and software
- advising, counseling, and mentoring provided through Student Support Services
Students without disabilities will participate in awareness activities that will improve general understanding of disability etiquette, and basic information about legal requirements.
Given training opportunities, resources, and individual and departmental consultation, faculty members with follow university policies regarding students with disabilities, assist with provision of approved accommodations, and develop skills for increasing the accessibility of course materials. The following will be provided:
- Training presentations for new/continuing faculty members
- Faculty Guide for Accommodating Students with Disabilities
- Disability Newsletter
- Individual and Departmental consultation to address specific and general disability issues
- Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) Learning Community
Assessment Measures:
- Program outcomes and Learning Outcomes will be evaluated using multiple qualitative and quantitative measures.
- A daily contact log will be kept to document requests for services from students, faculty, staff, parents, diagnosing professionals, and other constituencies.
- A monthly data report will be compiled to include statistics detailing provision of services for students with disabilities.
- Faculty and student surveys will be conducted to rate training services and to measure awareness of current policies and procedures.
- Observation and documentation of common concerns or difficulties experienced by students with disabilities.
- Analysis of evaluations of interpreters, note takers, readers, and CART services.
- Program evaluations and qualitative feedback from transition/orientation programs, disability awareness events, and class presentations will be compiled, summarized and used to make on-going improvements to programs and services.
- Disability Database will be created and maintained in order to monitor numbers of students receiving services, number of students disclosing specific disabilities, retention rates, and other factors that will guide program planning.
- A collaboration rubric will be used to report on programs and events implemented in partnership with other campus offices, off-campus agencies, etc.
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