Systemic Changes at Partner Institutions

The following institutional changes have been reported by institutions with which the DO-IT Center has partnered. They provide evidence that faculty and administrator training, materials distribution, support for making campus websites and distance learning programs more accessible, and engagement of communities of practice lead to campus programs and resources that are more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities. 

Arizona State University

  • The university has adopted the 11 Campus Accessibility Indicators developed by AccessCollege on all four of their campuses. 
  • The university is working to develop and implement a policy that mandates universally designed and captioned video/web content on their campuses. 

Des Moines Area Community College

  • All syllabi now contain an accommodation statement for students with disabilities. 
  • The college has implemented a scheduled universal design and accommodations training for all faculty and adjunct faculty on their campus. 
  • The college has developed a diversity commission that is tasked with looking at all issues relating to access and non-discrimination. The commission works directly with the Vice-President of Academic Affairs. 
  • The Disability Services Office staff have developed a student club: DisAdversity Club. The club is providing workshops and learning opportunities that address disability issues. The club also plans an orientation for students with disabilities and is involved in community service. 
  • The college is using Kurzweil software to read exams to students in place of staff readers. The students now have greater control over the testing situation. 
  • The college has a website for students who receive scanned texts. The students can access the scanned texts from any computer at DMACC or any location with web access.
  • The college has a new interpreter training program. The program chair was instrumental in working with the 4-year colleges/universities in Iowa to recognize sign language as a language credit. 
  • The college has put together a program on non-discrimination training that is required for all staff and faculty at DMACC. 
  • The college has developed a "Tapestry Award" that recognizes staff/faculty who have made significant contributions to accepting and promoting diversity within DMACC and the community.

Florida State University

  • The Director of Disability Services is now part of the regular teaching assistant trainings in four major university departments. 
  • Every academic department uses a campus-tailored DO-IT publication Working Together: Faculty and Students with Disabilities (for an example of the template for this brochure see www.washington.edu/doit/working-together-faculty-and-students-disabilities) to promote accessibility for students. 

Georgia State University

  • The ADA Committee name changed to the Disability Initiatives Committee (DIC) and named a subcommittee of the Faculty Senate's Cultural Diversity Committee giving it more influence on campus ADA policies and initiatives. 
  • Two members of the Disability Initiatives Committee (DIC) were appointed to the Major Repairs & Renovations Fund Committee (MRRF). This committee determines how millions of dollars will be expended for campus improvements to buildings etc. and has been successful in procuring $500,000 for ADA improvements to campus restrooms and the installation of additional automatic doors. 
  • One of the faculty members who is part of the Disability Initiatives Committee (DIC) was instrumental in getting her physical therapy students to develop a campus accessibility map of campus buildings. The next goal is to make it interactive with the user.
  • The DIC made recommendations to the chair of the Faculty Senate for improvement of services (e.g. additional staff, funding) for students with disabilities served by the Office of Disability Services. The chair then took the recommendations to the President. A committee has now been formed to draft a campus-wide policy regarding students with disabilities and to address funding & resource issues for the office. 
  • New ADA signage has been installed throughout the university. 
  • A student technology fee RFP was approved and funded $143,000 to purchase assistive technology (e.g. computers, software, touch screen monitors, scanners) for students with disabilities. 
  • The Disability Initiatives Committee was instrumental in making sure that the Faculty Handbook had a recommended syllabus statement for all faculty members to use in their course syllabi. 
  • The university successfully completed three annual Disability Awareness Day (DaD) events (2007-8, 2008-9, 2009-10).

Green River Community College

  • An AccessCollege team member was asked to chair the President's Commission on Diversity. 
  • Campus maps are currently being redeveloped to show accessible routes and buildings. 
  • The Capital Improvement Planning Team  now includes the Disabled Student Services Director and an AccessCollege team member (Dean of Student Services) and is incorporating universal design and accessibility into short- and long-term planning. 
  • AccessCollege team member was appointed to the President's Executive Team and is bringing issues of universal design and accessibility to policy and practice discussions and development. 
  • Critical Incidents teams have been developed to address incidents of bias or harassment in the areas of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and disability on campus. 
  • The Disabled Support Services office was awarded at $2,500 grant from the Vice President of Instruction to work with faculty to create alternative/universally designed teaching strategies. 
  • Universal design processes have been implemented for all student service offices through intensive 3-stage staff workshops. 

Highline and Seattle School Districts

  • Institutionalized annual transition events. 

Johnson and Wales University - Rhode Island

  • The university is in the process of making all textbooks on campus available through e-text. Many of their texts are available only through their campus and were written by their faculty. They procured hardware and software to convert all of these textbooks to electronic format themselves. 
  • It is mandated that syllabi at the university use inclusive language and provide information about services for students with disabilities. 
  • The Multi-cultural Center and Women's Center now includes disability in their diversity programming. 
  • Accessible equipment has been purchased for computer labs. 
  • There has been an increase in accessible housing for students with disabilities and campus signage is now universally designed. 
  • Content on the university website now includes inclusive people-first language. 
  • The Student Veterans Support Committee is being established to focus on supporting, retaining and attracting student veterans both with and without self disclose disabilities. Campus departments on the committee include Student Academic Services, Student Financial Services, Student Counseling, Disability Services, etc. 
  • The Disability Service office has conducted training with summer orientation leaders on both academic accommodations and accessibility with regard to students with disabilities. 
  • Online courses were launched. All classes have been developed with universal design and accessibility as priorities. 

Spokane Community College

  • Institutionalized annual transition events. 

Southwestern Oregon Community College

  • The college re-designed their campus map to reflect all accessible routes and doors. 
  • The college is developing an accessible web portal for student, staff, and faculty access to all services online that is currently being beta tested. 

University of Florida

  • The university is implementing a technology fee of which part will be used to buy accessible computer software and hardware on campus. 
  • The university has begun to video caption all pre-recorded materials for classes and campus presentations. 

University of Minnesota - Duluth

  • The university is working to redesign structural barriers to make their campus more accessible. 
  • The university adopted a statement for course syllabi related to accommodations for students with disabilities. 
  • The university is developing a campus policy and implementation plan on accessibility. 
  • The university is developing a Faculty Mentorship Group to train faculty on universal design and accommodations and pair them with students with disabilities on campus and to educate faculty peers. 

University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • The Provost will be placing a statement addressing compliance with the campus policy on accessibility on all Technology Enhanced Licensing grants.
  • The university is currently working on a new procurement policy that addresses accessibility.
  • An engineering graduate student is working on making all campus student websites accessible.
  • Grant certification and travel applications at the are now online.
  • All project managers for web-based applications are now required to assess accessibility early on in project design, including registrar applications for students.
  • The Campus Accessibility/Usability Committee was formed and was instrumental in the development and hiring of a new provost position for equity and diversity that now includes disability as part of diversity.
  • The new faculty orientation now includes information on the campus policy on web accessibility and information on Disabled Student Services and Do-It UW-Madison.

University of Washington

  • The ACDI committee at the University of Washington is working to establish disability as an integral aspect of diversity within the campus community.
  • The university is working to incorporate Universal Design (UD) principles in all aspects of campus operations and activities in order to promote access, equity, and the full inclusion of people with disabilities. A proposal is underway to have a subgroup work with the Standing Committee on Accessibility, Capital Projects leaders, and ADA Coordinator to explore opportunities to advance UD in all upcoming capital projects.
  • The university is working to establish a framework for ongoing review of policies, procedures, and practices to ensure alliance with principles of UD and the Social Model of Disability.
  • The university is actively engaging and targeting recruitment and retention activities to increase numbers and retain students, faculty, and staff with disabilities. This involves a subgroup connected with other members of the campus community engaging with Human Resources, Disability Services Office, Disability Resources for Students, and Academic Human Resources to review and provide input into outreach in targeted or general recruitments.
  • The university is working to train, encourage, and empower administrators, staff, and student leaders to be proactive and take action regarding disability, UD, and accommodation issues. Groups are confering with staff Organizational Development and Training units to identify courses where these issues should be addressed, including the strategic leadership program, supervisory training, and new employee orientations. The same process will occur for student and faculty/RA/TA orientations.
  • The university will continue to work to ensure that internal and external communications for and by the university are accessible and always inclusive of disability representation. Surveying, collecting, and reviewing examples of communications, in order to provide input about the presence or absence of disability representation, will accomplish this. The need to identify model/good examples and urge others to address this in their diversity plans will also be included, as well as working with webmasters for the university to advocate for the web and other communications to be inclusive of disability representation.