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UCLA

Office for Students with Disabilities

ANNUAL REPORT
1999-2000

University of California, Los Angeles
P.O. Box 951426
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1426
A-255 Murphy Hall
(310) 825-1501 (voice)
(310) 206-6083 (TDD)
(310) 825-9656 (Fax)
http://www.osd.ucla.edu (Website address updated 05/29/2007)

The Office for Students with Disabilities

The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) is a campus resource that assists the faculty and the University in meeting the mandates of Federal and State law and University Policy to provide academic support services and programmatic access to students with disabilities. The OSD also provides information to faculty about academic accommodations for students with disabilities. The philosophy and mission of the office focuses on encouraging independence, assisting students in realizing their academic potential and facilitating the elimination of physical, programmatic and attitudinal barriers.

Services Provided 1999-2000

The OSD provides a variety of services including registration assistance, disability parking, on-campus van transportation, campus accessibility, assistance with housing appeals, tutorial referrals, adaptive equipment loan and the following:

Highlights This Year

Two new Learning Disabilities (LD) Specialists joined the OSD staff. Dr. Julie Morris is a clinical psychologist who has made a whirlwind tour of local college and university campuses. She has worked at Pasadena City College, Loyola Marymount University and California State University, Northridge in the areas of disabilities and general psychological counseling.

Dr. Sharon Teruya has returned to Los Angeles after twelve years in the Napa Valley area working as an associate professor of psychology and director of a program she started for students with learning disabilities and ADHD.

Dr. Arline Halper, LD Program Coordinator and Chana Bell, LD specialist, are thrilled to welcome Julie and Sharon to the LD Professional Team.

After much planning, preparation and anticipation, OSD received a facelift! The minute Spring finals were over, OSD went under the paint brush. We also have new carpeting, new work stations and, most importantly, new modules. These modules not only provide individual offices for many of our staff, but increased privacy for students who visit the OSD.

Disability Demographics

During the 1999-00 academic year, a total of 1,292 students with documented disabilities received one or more academic support services and/or parking assistance (a decrease of approximately 7% from last year). Of this number, 730 students received services other than parking and were identified in the following categories:

A total of 562 students requested and received only parking assistance. The graph below demonstrates our overall distribution between parking only and academic service users over a five year period.

The Learning Disabilities Program

Support services were provided for students with specific Learning Disabilities (LD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), and students with psychological disabilities.

The Peer-Mentor Program matched new students with continuing students in our program. The mentors stayed in touch throughout the year to provide support and to answer questions. Workshops this year included: reading, writing, and notetaking strategies. Monthly support groups addressed issues such as disclosure to faculty, career exploration, memory techniques, time management, learning style assessment, stress reduction, and essay writing.

The "Working Together Orientation Workshop" was led by continuing students to address issues such as: "making it" in the quarter system, interactions with professors, and selection of classes. A "Survival Tips" Peer-Mentor Newsletter written by students in our program was distributed to all new students. An integral part of our program continues to be the screening of students for suspected learning disabilities, counseling on specific strategies, and disability-management counseling by our four learning disabilities specialists.

Students with psychological disabilities were served through a weekly support group co-facilitated by the LD Coordinator and a psychologist from Student Psychological Services as well other OSD services.

Technology Resources for Students with Disabilities

The Office for Students with Disabilities maintains a Resource Room at Powell Library that is used by students for distraction-free testing and for use of special adaptive equipment and devices. There are several computer workstations with adaptive software that are used for scanning, reading, converting materials to large print, voice recognition and other activities. In addition, there are computer labs throughout the campus available to students who do not need adaptive software.

The Office for Students with Disabilities maintains a close working relationship with the Disabilities and Computing Program (located in MSA 4909) which researches and field tests software as it becomes available and makes recommendations to students and campus departments. Students can receive training and advice on the most useful software for their individual needs. Students may contact this program on their own or be referred by the Office for Students with Disabilities. Their website is: http://www.dcp.ucla.edu/.

Mobility Assistance

A total of 671 students with documented disabilities affecting their mobility were issued disability parking permits. Placards from the Department of Motor Vehicles and letters from physicians were accepted forms of verification. Permits were issued to 562 students who requested no other services from this office; permits were issued to an additional 109 students who received other academic accommodations.

A total of 6,094 on-campus van rides were given to 246 students with documented mobility impairments. This represents no change in the number of riders and a slight increase in the number of rides (3%).

Comparisons to Other Students

The OSD worked with the Registrar's Office to compare the academic progress of students who received services from this office with all other UCLA students. The results indicate more similarities in grade point average (GPA) than differences.

Overall, students with permanent disabilities averaged just .04 grade points below all other UCLA students. The most extreme differences were noted at the freshmen level, where OSD students averaged .21 higher than other UCLA freshmen, and at the professional level (medical, dental and law school), where OSD students averaged .22 below other professional students.

Students with temporary disabilities had similar comparisons. The overall average was .03 above all other UCLA students. Freshmen with temporary disabilities averaged .40 higher than other UCLA freshmen and graduate students averaged .30 below other graduate students.

The Office of the President is currently tracking graduation and retention rates for UC students who have received academic support services at all nine campuses.

Evaluation

The OSD did not send our usual evaluation form to students this year because, last Spring, the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Disability (CACD) conducted a needs assessment. The mission of the CACD is to identify problems, propose solutions and make recommendations to the Chancellor on matters that concern individuals with disabilities at UCLA. Students who were registered with the OSD were sent this questionnaire and asked to complete it. They were also invited to attend focus group discussions. The Student Affairs Information and Research Office (SAIRO) and the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) assisted with the project. With the permission of the CACD, we were able to obtain the following information. A total of 579 surveys were sent out and 179 were returned (31%). Students rated each item on a scale from "very satisfied" to "very dissatisfied." We believe that the survey results will support feedback received from students last year and throughout this year that OSD is generally meeting their needs. The CACD will make the results of the entire needs assessment available during the 2000-2001 academic year.

Resources Outside the Classroom

• Programmatic access is provided by campus departments for all campus activities including student organizations, sporting events and extra-curricular activities. Contact the UCLA Access Web at www.ucla.edu.
• The UCLA Libraries provide many services to students with disabilities. www.library.ucla.edu/service/disability.cfm
• A Support Group for students with learning disabilities offers opportunities for personal growth. (310) 825-1501.
• Student Psychological Services and the OSD co-facilitate a support group for students with psychological disabilities. Contact the OSD for more information on this group.
• The Union of Students with Disabilities is an Associated Students special interest group. (310) 206-0926.
• Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Disability is made up of students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members. (310) 825-2242.
• The Chancellor's ADA/504 Compliance Office assists the University in recognizing and acting upon access and compliance issues. (310) 825-2242 or www.ada.ucla.edu.
• The Career Center provides career counseling and other services. (310) 825-2981 or www.career.ucla.edu.

OSD Staff

Kathy Molini, Director

Dan Levitt, Assistant Director of Operations/Coordinator of the Program for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students

Linda Stolt, Assistant Director of Academic Services/Proctor Coordinator

Ed McCloskey, Coordinator of the Mobility Assistance Program

Doug Gerow, Coordinator of Notetaking, Reading & Transcription Services

Dr. Arline Halper, Coordinator of the Program for Students with Learning Disabilities

Chana Bell, Learning Disabilities Specialist

Dr. Julie Morris, Learning Disabilities Specialist

Dr. Sharon Teruya, Learning Disabilities Specialist

Deb Owen, Budget Analyst/Supervisor of Technology Planning and Training

Maria E. Martin, Payroll/Personnel Administrator

George Auletta, Computer Technologist

Ariel Smith, Resource Room Assistant

Tony Buffo, Resource Room Assistant

Student Workers
Ninve Adams, Luis Aguilar, Oliver Drozdowicz, Donny Dumani, Joshua Hamilton, Gabriella Hernandez, Alejandro Ibarra, Cheryl Mercado, Edgardo Montoya, Erin Rech, Erin Renna, Ria Sengupta and Cori Wapnowski.