Research:
During college, there are many struggles that students with disabilities encounter on a daily or weekly basis. Some of the main struggles include transitioning and adjusting into college, falling behind in classes from not receiving accessible texts on time, not getting as much assistive help when it comes to classroom environments, getting around campus, dealing with people who do not understand their hardships, and more.
By facing these many struggles, students with disabilities could have the possibility of not being as successful as they could be during their academic years. According to Joanne Jacobs, a freelance writer for Education Next, other publications, and foundations, she shared that, “...while 94 percent of high school students with learning disabilities get some kind of help, just 17 percent of learning-disabled college students do.” This shows that many students with disabilities are not getting the right amount of help that they need in college. One of the main reasons as to why this could happen could possibly be from the fact that once students enter college, they automatically become more independent. For some students with disabilities, being independent can be difficult. Some students may not know how to find the help that they need by themselves or even get around campus. Due to these problems, many students end up becoming very frustrated, and oftentimes, not much could be done for them because of how much college emphasizes independence.
Another major problem for students with disabilities is getting accessible texts to study for class. Textbooks are one of the biggest studying tools for all students in education. However for students with disabilities, getting accessible textbooks on time is a major issue. One of the main reasons as to why students do not get accessible textbooks on time is explained by Joy Resmovits. According to Resmovits, a journalist for the HuffPost, she stated that, “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) [once] worked as a special-needs teacher before winding up in law school — ‘a long time ago.’ She asked why colleges are ‘failing to offer accessible materials, even though [that] is what the law [required].’ Myers replied that colleges are moving toward digital textbooks, which are sometimes harder to make accessible than traditional texts.” Because accessible texts take make longer to produce, many students end up falling behind in their classes. This definitely makes studying harder by the time midterms or finals come around. Despite the inconvenience, some professors are understanding of the issue and do try to accommodate students as much as possible. However for other professors, they may not accommodate students as much as they should.
Besides the struggles of independence and not receiving accessible texts on time, DO-IT, a center dedicated to promoting awareness and accessibility for people with disabilities, further shared more examples of struggles that students with disabilities may go through. According to DO-IT, they stated that even though students have some resources of help on campus, they could still face challenges in the following areas:
Besides the struggles of independence and not receiving accessible texts on time, DO-IT, a center dedicated to promoting awareness and accessibility for people with disabilities, further shared more examples of struggles that students with disabilities may go through. According to DO-IT, they stated that even though students have some resources of help on campus, they could still face challenges in the following areas:
- Differences in academic requirements
- Poor study skills
- Inadequate self-advocacy skills
- Inadequate academic preparation
- Financial support
- Lack of mentors with disabilities
- Differences in disabled student services
Personal:
Being more aware of the struggles of students with disabilities on campus affects me because I work with these students everyday. I am a student assistant at the computer lab for CSULA’s Office for Students with Disabilities or also known as the OSD Office. Here at the computer lab, I listen and help different students all the time. I assist students as much as possible and also hear their concerns, frustrations, joys, and anything else that they want to share with me. Oftentimes, students share their frustrations to me about classwork, tests, professors, getting ready for the next semester, and more. Many students in my experience worry that their grades will not be as great as they should be due to not getting accessible texts on time. Many students ask me all the time “Are my books ready?”, and as protocol, I have to respond with “No, they are not. Please wait for the email from the OSD office”. To me, I definitely understand the frustration when it comes to not getting textbooks. Without textbooks, how are students supposed to be successful and keep up in class? I also find it frustrating when students are not getting accommodated as much as they should be in classrooms. I hear many stories about professors who do not try to accommodate which makes studying even harder for students with disabilities. Many low-vision students, for example, ask for assistance in converting PDFs from Moodle to an accessible form because the computer screen reading program installed in the OSD lab’s computers does not read PDFs. In my experience, many of the PDFs from professors end up being inaccessible. They lock the PDFs with a password so it prevents students from “editing” them. Therefore due to this, students with disabilities get stuck. The only option then is to contact the professors and ask them to unlock it, but a response could take a long time. It is really disappointing that although we have an OSD office that tries to accommodate all their students with disabilities, many students still struggle greatly.
I believe in order to help our students with disabilities more, our campus should come together and advocate for more resources for the OSD office, offer suggestions to help improve accessible texts so that they may be produced sooner, get to know our students with disabilities so their concerns could be heard, participate in Disability Awareness week to learn more about what our students go through, volunteer as note-takers to help students in their studying, and more. I believe if our campus comes together to show their support and effort in these goals to help, students with disabilities would be able to achieve much more in their academic years.
I believe in order to help our students with disabilities more, our campus should come together and advocate for more resources for the OSD office, offer suggestions to help improve accessible texts so that they may be produced sooner, get to know our students with disabilities so their concerns could be heard, participate in Disability Awareness week to learn more about what our students go through, volunteer as note-takers to help students in their studying, and more. I believe if our campus comes together to show their support and effort in these goals to help, students with disabilities would be able to achieve much more in their academic years.
The following students shown are students with disabilities here on campus. While I was interviewing them, these students shared with me some of the struggles that they were facing throughout their semester.
Ruben Lara
“As a student who has visual impairment, it’s hard to get around campus. For example, the room number for my classes. It takes me a really long time because I have to get close to the doors in order to try and see what numbers are on it. It also becomes a hassle for me when I have to come to school because my transportation is Uber. It’s really hard to explain where the Student Union is for the driver to drop me off so that gets frustrating too.”
Fatima Alvarado
“The OSD office is great with helping me with my text accommodations, providing me with connections to a note-taker, having the computer lab be set with assistive programs to help students right away when they want to use computers, and helping other students with different needs. The only bad thing is when I go around campus. Some people aren’t courteous since I am in a wheelchair. Like they don’t move around me so it makes it hard to pass through hallways. I say excuse me a lot, and they don’t move. Some people also don’t let me enter the elevators. It’s very rude. There’s usually a sign like in King Hall where it says that wheelchair use or other disabled students are given priority to get into the elevators because that is our only way of getting to our classes. Also classrooms need adjustable tables for wheelchair users like me. I can’t write or type notes with the tables that classrooms have right now. I can’t reach or the chair that is usually attached to them gets in the way.”
Rosario Rodriguez
“At first, being a student was difficult. Learning new stuff like navigating computers, communicating with professors, making friends, moving around campus, finding classrooms and buildings, and more were hard things to do for me. I also have a lot to study, and being a student with low-vision, it makes it hard to learn. I have been trying to deal with it, but sometimes, it does get too much. It is also lonely. Some classmates of mine do not wish to converse with me because I am different. Everyone seems distant. I guess some people don’t really know how to approach students with disabilities because I like to talk, but not everyone gives me a chance.”
Shirley Carrillo
“For me being a student with vision impairment, studying is hard because most of my classes require a lot of reading, and that makes things inconvenient for me. It takes me much longer than students without disabilities, and with the pace of certain schedules, it could get overwhelming sometimes. I also noticed that for other students with disabilities, professors don’t really understand how long it takes for textbooks to be produced for us. Therefore most of the time, many students like me fall behind. I think having a professor who really understands and is willing to accommodate makes the experience so much better.”
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