How can one or two blind people open up options for others while at the
same time getting their own needs met? The story below tells how two
Perdue University students filed discrimination complaints about access to
math and science cources. Now Perdue has a Braille and alternative format
production facility that has a yearly budget of more than half a million
dollars. All of this is the result of action taken following an ADA
complaint.
kelly
The Chronicle of Higher Education
From the issue dated January 26, 2001
How a Landmark Anti-Bias Law Changed Life for Disabled Students
At one university, services and facilities that were once unimaginable
are now commonplace
By SARA HEBEL
West Lafayette, Ind.
On a crisp winter day, the sun is shining on an old curb cut in the
sidewalk, across from the bell tower in the heart of the Purdue
University campus.
More than two decades ago, student groups raised almost $20,000 to pay
for
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ALSO SEE:
Students at Purdue with Disabilities
Colloquy: Join a debate on the issues raised in this article
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about 100 of the cuts, which make it easier for students in
wheelchairs to navigate.
Today, a new era of accommodations for students with physical and
learning disabilities has dawned at Purdue, leaving behind the days
when these kinds of improvements were seen as acts of charity.
Workers are inside nearby Recitation Hall, putting the final touches
on a new elevator, one of two being installed this academic year. When
that work is done, only one academic building, the 124-year-old
University Hall, will be without an elevator, and it is scheduled to
receive one next year.
"I never dreamed there would be elevators in some of these buildings,"
says Betty M. Nelson, Purdue's first coordinator of disability
services, who held the post from 1975 to December 1995, when she
retired.
Ms. Nelson and other Purdue officials say the Americans With
Disabilities Act of 1990 deserves much of the credit for the swift
turnaround on the campus. As the A.D.A. enters its second decade, The
Chronicle visited Purdue to explore the law's effect on a major public
university.
The A.D.A. gave an unprecedented amount of publicity to the rights of
disabled persons, empowering them to hold institutions more
accountable to their needs. Colleges almost instantly faced the threat
of lawsuits, as students began pressing administrators to stop
dragging their feet on expensive accommodations.
Students with disabilities and their advocates say the record for
colleges so far is mixed. Small private colleges -- with modest
endowments and relatively few disabled students -- have been
especially slow in making needed improvements.
Even at large public universities, progress has varied, depending on
the level of student activism, campus approaches to compliance, and
specific challenges faced, including topography and historical campus
attitudes toward fostering diversity.
Progress also has varied by type of disability. Over the past decade,
many campuses have received face-lifts and added transportation
services that make it easier for students in wheelchairs to get
around. Services for students with visual and hearing impairments also
are improving, although institutions continue to struggle with the
high costs of providing Braille services and interpreters.
Colleges, though, have faced an explosion of growth since the passage
of the A.D.A. in the number of students they are enrolling with
learning disabilities. Services for those students also have improved,
although some faculty members and officials remain skeptical about
accommodating them, by giving extra time on tests, for example.
Disability experts say the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
of 1975 -- which requires public schools to accommodate disabled
students -- helped more students with learning disabilities get
diagnosed and helped earlier in life, leading more to college.
Advances in medical treatments also have allowed people with more
severe psychological and emotional disabilities, and more traumatic
brain injuries, to enter higher education, they say.
Purdue, like most institutions, has been serving a growing number of
students with all types of disabilities. In 1999-2000, Purdue assisted
759 students with disabilities, more than three times the number it
helped a decade earlier. Its population of students with learning
disabilities was 497 in the last academic year; there were 148 in
1989-90.
Over the past decade at Purdue, students have pushed for better
accommodations, and administrators have often responded generously.
The institution's disabled students and their advocates have the
advantage of a highly placed administrative ally, Purdue's treasurer,
who has fought for financing for worthy projects. For example, a
laboratory that produces special Braille materials for students
employs some 15 people, at an annual cost of more than half a million
dollars. The university also has taken special care to coordinate
various offices, believing the team approach allows them to more
quickly and competently respond to A.D.A. concerns.
Before 1990, Purdue was slowly making improvements to campus buildings
and disability services. Ms. Nelson says the new disabilities law sped
up the process: "It flagged that this is a serious federal government
mandate."
The A.D.A. actually imposed few new requirements on colleges. All
institutions that receive federal funds had been subject to nearly
identical standards under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of a disability.
Many colleges, however, ignored the law, and they were unlikely to
face tough federal enforcement or campus activists demanding change.
The A.D.A., they say, simply could not be pushed aside.
Section 504 "was signed under duress and very quietly," says Richard
W. Harris, director of disabled-student development at Ball State
University since 1973. In contrast, President George Bush signed the
A.D.A. "on a beautiful sunny day in the White House Rose Garden," he
adds. "It enjoyed a lot more validity."
In short order, students began filing -- or threatening to file --
grievances with the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil
Rights. Some took their institutions to court. Campus advocates of
increasing services for disabled students also had new ammunition for
their priorities.
Purdue's office for disabled students had meager beginnings, with Ms.
Nelson first taking on those services only as part of her work as dean
of women. Now, the university employs an equivalent of 7.75 full-time
people -- more than many other universities its size -- to handle
services for disabled students.
Immediately after the 1990 law took effect, Purdue focused its
attention on its most glaring deficiencies. It added entrances,
elevators, and bathrooms to make accessible widely used facilities,
such as the Purdue Memorial Union.
About halfway through the '90's, facilities planners were able to move
beyond these stopgap changes and into strategic planning. As buildings
were scheduled for renovation, new and better ramps, fancier restrooms
that were accessible to disabled people, and other accommodations were
added as a matter of course. Officials are now down to "second-tier
priorities," such as increasing the number of signs that use Braille
and adding spaces for wheelchairs at the football stadium, which now
has seating space for 40 to 50 people in wheelchairs.
Officials also are taking steps to help disabled students have
experiences that closely match those of other students. In 1995, for
example, Purdue made a room in the job-placement office accessible to
students in wheelchairs so that they would no longer have to schedule
meetings with recruiters at other campus locations. The room had been
located three steps down from the main hallway; the university raised
the floor of the office to make it level with the hallway.
At Purdue and across the country, gaining access to technology is
becoming increasingly important for students with disabilities.
Around 1990, Purdue created a laboratory that helps disabled students
use computers to assimilate reading material, conduct research, and
complete class assignments. The lab contains specialized equipment and
software programs, such as screen magnifiers and applications that
allow visually impaired and dyslexic students to scan materials that
the computer will read back.
Looking back on a decade of progress, university officials acknowledge
that the 1990 nudge from Congress was instrumental.
"I am convinced," says Kenneth P. Burns, executive vice president and
treasurer, "that here at Purdue -- and really across the country --
the changes that occurred would not have occurred without A.D.A., or
at least so quickly."
Many Purdue officials credit Mr. Burns with driving much of the
change, since he promoted an attitude that accommodations had to be
included in the institution's budget, whatever their cost. When, for
instance, Purdue began to weigh starting its Braille production
facility, he offered financing: "It's very expensive, but it's an
irreplaceable service," he explains.
Elsewhere, some colleges were doing much to help disabled students
long before the passage of A.D.A. In 1947, the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign developed the first program for physically
disabled students, besides those at institutions whose missions
focused on serving students with disabilities. Curry College, outside
Boston, offered the first support program for students with learning
disabilities in 1970.
Purdue, some national disability experts say, made particularly rapid
progress in the years after the A.D.A. The campus's advances were, for
instance, quicker than at its Big Ten rival -- Indiana University at
Bloomington. Indiana -- which serves a student body similar in size to
Purdue (both have more than 35,000 students) -- is just now hitting
its stride, campus officials and students say.
"Bloomington's hilly and the university's old, so access has not
always been easy," says Martha P. Jacques, who has been director of
Indiana's disabled-student services since August 1999. But she says
that the dean of students is committed to financing services and
improvements for the campus's growing number of students with
disabilities. Last semester, Indiana served about 520 students with
disabilities, about 75 percent of whom have learning disabilities.
The university signed off on its campus plan to meet A.D.A.
requirements in 1993, and two years later pledged to make further
progress when it entered an agreement with the Education Department.
The Office for Civil Rights had investigated a complaint charging that
30 buildings had limited access to disabled students. Indiana agreed
to improve access to drinking fountains, telephones, and parking
spaces, and to fix buildings constructed after June 1977.
Now only a few academic buildings are inaccessible to people in
wheelchairs. The university also has improved its technology offerings
for disabled students. In fall 1999, Margaret Londergan, a long-time
Indiana employee who developed campus computing sites, started a
center that provides software and equipment designed to help students
with disabilities.
She began with little more than a few tape recorders and a computer
used for Braille translating. Now Ms. Londergan operates a service
that provides much of the same technology that Purdue's lab offers,
including scanning and screen-reading applications.
"I would not have this position if the A.D.A. had not heightened
awareness on campus," says Ms. Londergan. "I view this as a very
optimistic time."
Still, some Indiana students say access to campus facilities and
activities needs to be improved.
Ryan M. McCrocklin, a junior, uses a wheelchair and values many of the
accommodations the university provides, especially its van service to
classes. But he also says that more academic buildings need automatic
door openers. And he laments the seating in Assembly Hall, where the
Hoosiers play basketball. Wheelchair seating is behind the section for
students, who stand throughout the game, obscuring his view.
"People need to really be dealing with the fact that I.U. needs to
make changes to make it easier for physically disabled students to
come here," Mr. McCrocklin says.
At Purdue, students have perhaps been more successful in advocating
for change.
Cary A. Supalo, a blind student who attended Purdue from fall 1994 to
May 1999, says that when he first arrived the university "had nothing"
for students like him.
He spent days converting his textbooks to Braille, punching it out by
hand as a reader provided by Purdue dictated the text. He also asked
his reader to trace diagrams on Braille paper and go over the lines
with a hot-glue gun to create a raised surface that Mr. Supalo, a
chemistry major, could read.
In 1995, Mr. Supalo contacted the U.S. Justice Department to ask
whether the A.D.A. required Purdue to provide academic materials in
Braille. After he learned that it did, Mr. Supalo says he wrote Purdue
officials a "nonthreatening threatening letter" asking for the
accommodation. A second student lodged a similar complaint.
In 1996, the university responded by creating a Braille enterprise
unmatched by other colleges.
Many campuses offer texts in Braille, and some have software programs
that provide automated translations. But no other institution has as
many specialists as Purdue does to decipher complex scientific and
mathematical formulas and diagrams and translate them -- by hand --
into a special type of Braille, known as Nemeth Code.
Purdue also provides materials within 48 hours; the process takes
weeks elsewhere. Purdue officials consider the service necessary,
despite its annual $550,000 budget, because the curriculum here is
dominated by math and science.
Both students and campus staff members have helped soften another
common roadblock to improvements: the attitudes of faculty members
toward the A.D.A.
At Purdue, officials say there was a breakthrough in 1992-1993, when
the university's faculty senate explored the details of the
disabilities law.
Faculty members started to warm to the A.D.A. when they began to
understand it "wasn't an affirmative-action law," says Paula J. Micka,
assistant dean of students. "We weren't lowering standards. It wasn't
the kind of policy where we had to admit 'x' number of students with
disabilities."
Students at Purdue and Indiana who need extra time on tests and other
accommodations say they often encounter professors who go out of their
way to help. One Purdue instructor, for example, went to the dorm of a
student in a wheelchair to proctor weekly tests. But the students also
still face professors who are reluctant to honor their needs,
especially if the students have "invisible" disabilities like
attention deficit disorder.
Some college officials across the nation worry that some students and
their parents might be "gaming the system" to gain extra time and an
edge on tests. They fear that wealthier people might be able to get
easier access to a diagnosis of a learning disability, when a student
might not have a legitimate condition and just be lacking in ability.
Research has shown that students from upper-middle-income families are
most likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability.
"It is very easy to understand visible disabilities, but invisible
ones are harder to judge," says Glenn Hueckel, an economics professor
at Purdue who led the faculty committee that studied the A.D.A. in
1992-93. "There is this question that still troubles faculty, that if
I have 100 students, how can I assure the other 99 that it's fair to
them that this one student gets extra time on a test?"
It has helped faculty members, he says, to be assured that there is a
process in place by which the university carefully documents who
really needs the extra time.
Nevertheless, "you get a variety of responses -- everything from, 'Is
there anything I can do?' to 'What are you doing in my class?'" says
Chris G. Fisher, a senior at Purdue who has cyclic seizures and
short-term memory difficulties resulting from a 1994 car accident.
"It's very discouraging to have to say, 'There is paperwork to back me
up.'"
Over all, many students with disabilities and campus officials say
that the A.D.A. was not a magic bullet that instantly improved campus
climates and accommodations. But many changes would not have happened
without the law, they say.
Standing outside Stanley Coulter Hall, home of Purdue's department of
foreign languages and literatures, Ms. Nelson points out that an
elevator was added to the building during a remodeling in the
mid-90's. Purdue also removed steps leading up to the side entrance
and created a gradual incline, so that students in wheelchairs could
enter. Such changes would have been almost unthinkable in the days
before the A.D.A., she says.
"Having all our language labs accessible is a gift from the gods," Ms.
Nelson says. "We've come a long way."
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STUDENTS AT PURDUE WITH DISABILITIES
A growing population ...
The figures show the number of students with disabilities who were
identified by Purdue's Office of the Dean of Students. Much of the
growth has come from an increase in the number of students with
learning disabilities, attention-deficit disorder, neurological
disorders, emotional and psychological disorders, and traumatic brain
injuries.
Bar chart
... with expensive needs
The following figures are estimates of average costs at Purdue to help
students with disabilities.
New elevator $1-million
Replacing freight elevator with passenger elevator $500,000
Outside ramp $70,000
Renovating a bathroom to make it accessible $25,000
Automatic door opener $5,000 per entrance
Curb cut $500 to $1,000
Sign-language interpreters $29 to $35 per hour
Note takers $10 to $15 per hour
Readers for blind and visually impaired students $10 to $15 per hour
Annual operating budget of center providing special Braille services
$550,000
Braille paper 75¢ to $1 per sheet
SOURCES: Chronicle reporting, Purdue University
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http://chronicle.com
Section: Government & Politics
Page: A23
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