Spring 2004 Disability Services Newsletter

WATCH for upcoming details on Disability Services’ 30 year celebration in October!

Disability Services Concerned for Faculty and Staff with Disabilities

DS has long understood that although we have a student-centered mission, there are underserved faculty and staff with disabilities on campus. We are concerned that CU-Boulder provides a little known and fragmented system of support for persons with disabilities in the workforce. Led by Jim Cohn, a DS specialist, DS researched and produced a resource guide for the campus. This brochure, entitled Faculty and Staff with Disabilities: A Resource Guide for the University of Colorado at Boulder Campus Community, offers background information on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The legal definition of a disability, disability related offices, services, committees, and employment resources for workers with disabilities and/or those who work with employees with disabilities is also covered.

The effort to promote confidential and pro-active support services for faculty and staff with disabilities coincides with a newly formed ad hoc CU system-wide Faculty Council Committee in Disabilities. The committee’s mission is to identify and report on issues related to faculty and staff with disabilities at CU, describe the extent of specific and general problems related to this issue, suggest possible actions for problems identified, and suggest a possible structure for Faculty Council to deal with disability issues in the long term. Findings and suggestions will be reported to the Faculty Council by the end of spring semester 2004. Jim Cohn has been invited to serve on this committee.

Are You Interested in Disability Culture & Issues?
Hillary Jorgensen, Student

Are you a student on campus with a disability? Are you interested in raising awareness about disability issues among the rest of the campus population? Are you interested in helping foster a sense of community for those with disabilities on campus? If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, then you should come check out the new group on campus for students with disabilities and their allies. The student organization, Discover Your Abilities, was founded in response to a desire to raise awareness of disability culture and issues on campus as well as to help foster a sense of community for individuals with disabilities on the CU-Boulder campus. If you would like to be added to the mailing list or want more information, contact Hillary Jorgensen at hillary.jorgensen@colorado.edu or Shannon Coffey at shannon.coffey@color-ado.edu.

DS Staff Awarded

Karen Boyd, specialist in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, is being honored with the Women Who Make A Difference award. Karen is very deserving of this award due to her commitment to working with faculty, staff, and students, and as a committee member of the Chancellor’s Committee on Women.

2003 Assistive  Technology Conference

Accessing Higher Ground, the sixth annual conference on Assistive Technology and Accessible Media in Higher Education, was very successful.

National leaders in the field of assistive technology and media participated in the November event to educate students, staff, faculty, and the community on the availability and potential benefits of assistive technology in education.

The keynote speaker for the conference, Beth Finke, is an author and occasional National Public Radio commentator. Her recent book, Long Time, No See (University of Illinois Press), chronicles her struggle with juvenile diabetes, blindness, and a host of other challenges.

During the keynote breakfast talk, Finke discussed her loss of vision in 1985 and how it affected her work and personal life. She had been working in an international studies office, traveling and counseling college students about overseas studies. When she lost her sight, she lost her job. While undergoing eye surgeries, she kept journals about her experiences on audio tape. When the surgeries failed, her husband, Mike, bought her a talking computer. She continued journaling. Initially, she did not have a book in mind, but simply wrote because it was therapeutic. So much had happened, there was plenty to write about. There was going blind, of course, but also the birth of their son, Gus, who was born with a genetic disorder and multiple handicaps of his own. She also wrote about training with a guide dog, even though she was afraid of dogs, struggling to find work again, and staying married through it all.

Today Finke’s articles appear in national magazines and her commentaries air during the Morning Edition segment of National Public Radio. Over the years, Finke gathered her cassettes, floppy discs, and other computer journal entries together and rewrote them into a memoir. Long Time, No See was published in April, 2003.

More than 35 workshops were presented throughout the conference, several by people with disabilities, on topics ranging from the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, legal and policy issues, software for students with learning disabilities, teaching accessibility in the classroom, developing a campus web access policy and more.

David Baquis of the U.S. Access Board discussed Implementation of Section 508 in the University Environment at a half-day workshop during the pre-conference. Dr. John Slatin, author of Maximum Accessibility (Addison-Wesley, 2003), and Jim Allan from the Texas School for the Blind, taught a hands-on workshop on Achieving Web Accessibility with Section 508.

Special events included a presentation by the Coleman Institute on the CU Center for Lifelong Learning and Design: Research Initiatives in Assistive Technology Design; a mini-institute focusing on access to distance learning, particularly commercial courseware management systems, a collaborative effort between CU-Boulder and Equal Access to Software Information, a provider of online training on accessible information technology for people with disabilities.

The National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), an affiliate of PBS television station WGBH, taught a full day workshop on accessibility at community colleges. Approximately 25 attendees from local community colleges attended the event.

Approximately 150 individuals attended the four day event, including participants from across the U.S. and Canada.

The AT conference is sponsored by the President's Fund for Diversity Programming, the Office of Diversity and Equity, the Vice Chancellor's Office for Student Affairs, the Coleman Institute, the Information Technology Council and the Colorado/Wyoming Consortium of Support Programs for Students with Disabilities.

To hear audio of the presentations from the conference and access handouts, visit the conference web site at www.colorado.edu/ATconference.

Where Does Test Anxiety Come From?

At some time or other, everyone has experienced test anxiety. It can simply be an uncomfortable feeling or a very intense panic where you blank out and can’t think (even though you know that you have thoroughly studied the material in front of you), or you might have physiological symptoms such as a racing heart or the feeling that you can’t get a deep breath. It causes you to doubt yourself and creates frustration that you are unable to perform your best and demonstrate what you know. Research has shown that there are several reasons why students experience test anxiety:

• They do not have good study skills.
• They are not skilled test-takers.
• They do not mentally program themselves for success and, because they do not believe they could be successful, their self esteem is low.
• They are overwhelmed by their body’s reaction to the stress of the test taking situation and can’t think.
• They are not adequately prepared.
• A do or die belief.  The idea that all is lost if you don’t pass this test or get the grade that you want.

The good news is that all of these situations can be addressed and new, more helpful behaviors established and skills learned. Learning to eliminate or decrease test anxiety takes a commitment to do things differently as well as time to develop the necessary skills.

Disability Services, in conjunction with SASC, offers a two session workshop each semester to help assess the underlying causes of test anxiety as well as to teach skills in test taking. Check the DS calendar for the upcoming dates for spring semester. There is also individual help available.  Call Disability Services at 303-492-8671, and ask for an appointment to speak to someone regarding getting help with your individual test anxiety problems.

Procrastinators Anonymous

DS cosponsored a week of quiet evening study hours for students just before and during this past fall semester's finals. The idea of opening up our study spaces and labs in the evening was suggested by one of our student leaders, Shannon Coffey, who thought other DS students may appreciate an alternative space on campus as they prepared for exams. Not only were the DS lounge and Writing Lab available to students, but also, much of the third and fourth floors of the Willard Administrative Center's classrooms, computer labs, and lounges that house the Student Academic Services Center (SASC) and McNair Scholars Program. Snacks were generously provided by SASC.

From Our Director

Another semester is under way and hopefully students’ experiences in the fall were positive and success filled. Remember, the DS staff is here to provide support where needed in developing the academic strategies so necessary at the university. Also, there is a disability student group to join for companionship, networking, and activism. See their article on the front page. To further expand your experiences, be sure to attend the campus Diversity Summit activities at the end of February. DS is bringing in a guest speaker to address numerous disability issues on Thursday, February 26, at 1:00 p.m. in the UMC.