Before I begin with my academic aspects of this past winter quarter, I wanted to give an update on the walkway near Arntzen Hall. When I returned from Winter Break, the large light pole base had been removed; however, there was now a hole encompassed with cones and caution tape. This hole took about two weeks to be filled and then ready to travel over. I am now able to drive up and down this pathway hassle-free!
I was so relieved when this past winter quarter finally came to an end; I was so thankful to be on spring break and to finally write down all my thoughts that were swimming through my head. This past winter quarter was the most challenging, but the most rewarding quarter that I have experienced. Academically I have never had a quarter so rapid and crammed pack with papers; however, it was not just school work that stretched me, but milestones that stretched my abilities as an advocate for WWU students with disabilities as well.
For the previous seven quarters (before winter quarter), I had encountered so many problems with the DisAbility Resources for Students (DRS), that I believed should be changed and updated. At the end of fall quarter, I felt like I was not getting anywhere, and I this made me super frustrated. I could not get through to the DRS, and meeting with the lady from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and the head of the DRS did not do me any good. I finally came to the point that I decided that I would be just as well off to not even utilize the DRS anymore, as I felt as if I was pulling teeth in order to get my requested accommodations to equalize my learning experience.
My mom decided that it was necessary for her to step in, and she wrote a detailed letter to the president of the college; I was not impressed with what came to follow. My mom sent her letter at the end of fall quarter; fall quarter finished up and then break came and went. She finally got a response about a month later, but it was not from the president. He passed the letter onto the vice president. She wrote a nice, but very politically correct letter back to my mom informing her that they were addressing many of the points that my mom had addressed in her letter. The vice president also indicated that she wanted to meet with me.
A couple of weeks later, I met with the vice president and the lady from the OCR. We discussed all the issues that I had faced during my time at Western and how I strongly believe there to be a lacking of communication between entities on campus; the DRS should not communicate with professors through students; professors should know the expectations of the DRS, so that accommodations can be met in a timely manner; students should not have to be passed around in order for a broken access button or elevator to be reported; and, the DRS needs to be up to date on ALL equipment and safety plans available to persons with disabilities, as they are the disability RESOURCES for students.
After meeting with the vice president and the lady from the OCR, I was given the opportunity to meet with my DRS counselor; the lady from the OCR offered to sit in with me and take notes. This was a positive step in the right direction, as I could freely express my needs and the DRS also became aware that superior entities of the college had been introduced to their poor behavior and lack of accommodations. During the meeting, I gained a personal notetaker, the reassurance that the accessible table in the testing room would always be available to me, that they would change any unaccessible classroom, they would provide me with textbooks that would work with a text to speech program that would read my textbooks to me, that I could always come in and brainstorm ideas if a new needed accommodation ever was to arise in the future, and that they would purchase a devise to help me be able to read the board on my own.
All these accommodations do sound awesome, and they are for me, but what I am doing is not with the intention of being just for me. My hope is that the DRS is now treating EVERY student with the same respect that they now are giving me (ever since I reported their poor behavior). After my meeting with the vice president, I started to receive e-mails from my DRS counselor. "Just checking in to see how you are…", and "Let me know if you need anything…" She had only done this once before; the last time she "checked in" was right after I had met with the lady from the OCR and the head of the DRS (spring quarter of 2013). To me, it seems like a huge coincidence if these e-mails were not prompted by my meeting with the vice president. I am thankful that I been given the accommodations that I have requested, but I do not want them just for myself. I hope that all students with disabilities can receive their accommodations without having to pull teeth or having to complain to the "big whigs" on campus. One day, my dream would be to see universal design on every campus, so that all people, including those of us with disabilities, feel welcome to learn, study and grow, just like anyone else.
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