On-line enrollment trends re-emphasize need for accessibility

It probably comes as no surprise that the
number of on-line students is increasing.

According to the ARS Technica news article linked above, there were approximately 3.2 million students who took at least one on-line class in the Fall 2005 semester. That is a jump of more than 1 million students compared to the same semester one year earlier.

With that fact in mind, it is imperative to make on-line learning accessible.

It takes a stronger sense of self discipline for students to achieve success in on-line classes. I would tend to think this sense can only be complicated when the students have a disability, much less when they encounter an inaccessible on-line class. If a student has a disability and the material is not in a format that provides access, he/she will spend valuable time attempting to resolve the technological dysfunction. The time to do this will take away from the already-tight time schedule the student has, trying to fix what should have already been fixed.


The increase is a trend that is very likely to continue for years to come. It re-emphasizes the points that noted ADA legal expert Salome Heyward made during her presentation at the AHEAD in Texas conference:

1. It is not just web access that needs to concern colleges and universities. The schools need to begin by looking closely at the contracts they are signing with vendors providing on-line material like WebCT and WebAssign.
2. Pay attention to the issue of access before signing the contract.

3. School administration needs to be aware of access concerns before they sign and commit the school.
4. If the administrators overseeing the contracts are not aware of access concerns, it is the duty of the ADA Coordinator/ DSS Coordinator to make them aware.

5. On-line programs such as WebCT and WebAssign are as accessible as they are designed to be. They can be made to be accessible.
6. Other items posted to these sites, such as lecture notes from individual professors, need to be put into an accessible format if they are not already in such.

As DSS cordinator, you can use your resources within AHEAD to help connect your school to experts to guide in this area. Like so many other things, it is all about knowing your resources.

Gallaudet University update...board rejects incoming president

To update you,
Gallaudet University's Board has voted to search for a new president.
This means the student protests over the past three weeks were successful and, in response, the board has Rejected Incoming President Jane Fernandes.

There is still something to be said for student activism and standing up for what one is passionate about in today's world. The students from Gallaudet, the only U.S. liberal arts college for the deaf, can testify that their voices acting in unity made a difference, and, pardon the pun, did not fall on deaf ears. It will be interesting to see which direction the search for the next university president heads.

Gallaudet University demonstration news and links

An update on the student protest at Gallaudet University.

The demonstration against the incoming university president has now been going for more than 20 days. In the last week, several students, and faculty members who support them, walked en mass to Capitol Hill to call upon three U.S. senators who are on the university’s board, asking them to intervene on their behalf. Yesterday,
university officials brought in heavy equipment
to gain access to gates the students have taken control of to deny access to the campus.

Acording to the Associated Press story:

“Gallaudet University maintenance workers cut a chain that was being used to block a side entrance and used a construction vehicle to move a tent city the students had built, protest leaders said. Other protesters then used their cars to block the gate again.”

If you want to view images of the student unrest, Yahoo has a
slide show
chronicling the on-going protest.

A good discussion on the
sense of identity,
so strongly tied to the deaf community and central to this demonstration, is presented by Washington D.C. columnist Clarence Page. In his latest column, Page also offers a quick primer on the background of the current situation at Gallaudet.

While we should all applaud passion and students standing up for what they believe, I would predict the outcome of this demonstration will be for naught. The protesters have given reasons against the incoming president, Jane Fernandes,to cite her as being unqualified for the job, but the underlying reason is that the students, and many of the faculty, think she is not deaf enough. I understand passion and identity, but that is not a disqualifier folks.

Gallaudet University update

To update you, the
situation at Gallaudet University
is
continuing to escalate.

The campus of the Washington D.C. university for the deaf has now been shut down for two days due to students staging protests over the incoming president. In the latest turn of events, the football team joined the protest. Students are blocking entrances to the campus. Meanwhile, police sit by and watch.

This is not the first time that students at Gallaudet have demonstrated in sucha fashion. It was 18 years ago that student demonstrators forced the university to appoint the first deaf president.

The actions of the students are truly a statement of the deaf culture. The underlying argument, no matter how else it is presented, is that the incoming president is not deaf enough.

Unrest at Gallaudet and the deaf culture

Have you been following the news about the unrest at Gallaudet University? If not, read how the intensity of student unrest has
surprised the incoming Gallaudet leader.

This is a strong example of how the deaf culture is so unique among the world of people with disabilities. If you have not spent time with either your students or the interpreters at your school, sit down and do so to gain some valuable insight to a world beyond that which you know. I can personally attest to the awakening I experienced when I did just that. I must add that learning about the interpreters’ education and training experiences were a big cultural lesson for me.

Managing suicide risks: What about your school?

Last week, I posted about 1 in 5 students self mutilating at two Ivy League schools. In that post I mentioned that I was doing research, but never said what I was researching.

The research topic was suicide at college. My line of thinking was trying to understand if those students who commit suicide are living with a diagnosis and possibly receiving services from their DSS office for Depression or Bipolar disorder. I’m still looking at information I have been gathering.

Directly related to this subject, just yesterday, I didn’t have to look far to find the latest news story about college suicides. The Associated Press had one plastered on the site of my local paper, announcing
Colleges Grapple with student suicides
for all the world to see.
The deeper issue at the heart of that story is that the female student profiled had attempted suicide and was kicked out of her dorm for violating the school’s policy against suicide. Pop quiz…isn’t it depressed people that attempt suicide? Isn’t depression covered under the ADA?

Apparently Hunter College finally saw the error in that line of thinking and settled with the student, allowing her to continue classes and paid her a financial settlement as well. Additionally, the college is abandoning its suicide policy, but may still temporarily remove troubled students from residence halls. However, a spokesperson said that evictions will not be automatic.

The supporting information in that article suggests that schools may be held liable if a student commits suicide in his or her dorm room. Two judges have ruled that a school may have a duty to act in a preventive capacity if the student’s risk of suicide was foreseeable. As a result, some schools have tried to act in a more aggressive manner and sent students home when this risk became apparent.

Interesting thought provokers here, don’t you think?

How about your school, does it have a policy banning suicide? If so, how does this impact your students with psychological disorders? Is this legal? Is this ethical? Is it the right thing to do?

One out of five college students self mutilate

Can you imagine the number of students on your caseload if that figure were almost one fifth of your school’s entire population?

Its possible.

It would be a reality if the number of students in a recent study of self mutilation rates among college students are accurate, and that entire group came to you with a proper diagnosis.

Let me explain.
I was doing some web research this morning when I came across an article from Fox News. The article actually ran in early June and is about
self mutilation rates among college students
at two Ivy League universities, Cornell and Princeton. The frequency rate at these two colleges is nearly twenty percent. That’s one out of every five students.

The scope of this study includes not only cutting, but also burning and other methods of self injurious behavior.

According to the article, the frequency rates are similar to those reported at colleges, high schools, and middle schools across the nationn. It also reported more than 400 web sites dedicated to the subject of self mutilation.

After the earlier post here about cutting rates among young people on the wholeI felt compelled to provide additional information on this subject, as it is particular to college students.

In this Fox article, not only was this survey conducted with actual college students, but at two of the supposedly more elite universities of our country. If it is happening at this frequency there, there is a strong likelihood that it is happening at your school at similar rates.

These students have a noticeable psychological condition due to the dysfunction their behavior is causing in their daily living. The same question that was raised in the previous post on cutting can be raised again. If a student self identifies about the underlying psychological condition at the root of their cutting, what accommodations do DSS professionals make?

Just food for thought.