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UCLA

Office for Students with Disabilities

ANNUAL REPORT
2004-2005

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 (tty)
(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 2004-05

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:

*adjusted after publication of 2003-04 report

Highlights This Year

Scholarships Benefited Students with Disabilities

During academic year 2004-05, many students with disabilities applied for and received scholarship awards from scholarships designated specifically for students with disabilities. Many long-standing awards such as the Gordon Hein, Will Rogers, Samuel Oschin, Nancy Orford, and Nadia Powers continued to be available to students. Some newer scholarship awards were the Lemons Scholarship, the Douglas Martin Scholarship and the M. Stuart Lynn Scholarship. Students initiated their requests at the OSD. OSD then worked with the Office of Financial Aid to review applications and to disburse the funds to the recipients. Awards were made for a variety of requests. Students appreciated the generosity of each of these donors whose support was critical to their success.

Disability Demographics

During the 2004-05 academic year, a total of 1,395 students with documented disabilities received one or more academic support services and/or parking assistance (an increase of approximately 3.26% from last year). Of this number, 989 students received services other than parking (a significant increase of 14.34%) and were identified in the following categories:

A total of 406 students requested and received only parking assistance. The next graph 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.

Students continued to meet individually with LD Specialists to review specific skill strategies, most often in the areas of reading, writing and time management. Panel discussions on issues related to disclosure in the work place and in medical/law/graduate school applications were extremely well received and will continue to be offered annually. In addition, several workshops were offered in which guest speakers presented on their specific areas of expertise related to a given disability. OSD offered two weekly support groups, one for students with AD/HD, facilitated by an LD Specialist, and one for students with psychological disabilities, co-facilitated by an LD Specialist and a psychologist from Student Psychological Services.

There was continued interest from campus departments and offices for presentations about the Learning Disabilities Program. These included presentations to departmental teaching assistants, Academic Advancement Program, Athletics, Health Education, Ashe and other offices around campus.

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 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 works closely with the Disabilities and Computing Program (DCP, located in MS 4909). The DCP provides adaptive technology, training, support, and services for students, faculty and staff with disabilities. Web accessibility evaluations and recommendations along with voice synthesis, Braille, large print, and voice recognition technologies are available, as are consulting for individuals and departments. Students can contact the DCP directly at 310-206-7133 or be referred by OSD. Also see the DCP web site at www.dcp.ucla.edu.

Mobility Assistance

A total of 524 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 406 students who requested no other services from this office; permits were issued to an additional 118 students who received other academic accommodations.

A total of 5,975 on-campus van rides were given to 178 students with documented mobility impairments. This represents a decrease of 6% in the number of rides although the number of riders increased by one.

Comparisons to Other Students

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

Overall, students with permanent disabilities averaged just .06 grade points below all other UCLA students. The most differences were noted at the freshmen level, where OSD students averaged .15 higher than other UCLA freshmen, and at the graduate level (excluding medical, dental and law school), where OSD students averaged .17 below other graduate level students.

Students with temporary disabilities had similar comparisons. The overall average was .01 below all other UCLA students. Juniors with temporary disabilities averaged .07 below other UCLA juniors. Professional level students (medical, dental and law school), averaged .45 above other professional level 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.

In addition to these comparisons, Dr. Janina Montero, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, delivered a presentation to the Chancellor's Executive Committee this year. Students with disabilities were included in her presentation. In the course of compiling information for Dr. Montero's presentation, we discovered many interesting comparisons regarding time to degree, quarters registered and units attempted by students entering from high school and transfer students. These comparisons further emphasize the similarities between students with disabilities and all other students at UCLA. For example, following the Fall 2002 cohort of transfer students, OSD students averaged 5.8 quarters to complete their degrees. The entire UCLA cohort for that group also averaged 5.8 quarters. OSD students in this same cohort attempted an average of 13.6 units per quarter. The full cohort averaged 14.1 units per quarter. Students entering from high school were even more similar. OSD students from the Fall 2000 cohort entering from high school averaged 11.4 quarters to their degree while the full cohort averaged 11.5 quarters. OSD students from this cohort attempted an average of 14.4 units per quarter which was exactly the same for the full cohort. At any point in time, students with disabilities account for approximately 2% of the total student population (although this rate is growing fractionally each year).

Growth & Comparisons within the Department

In 1984-85, OSD served 167 students. In 2004-05, OSD served 989. This represents a growth of over 492% over the past 21 years. Over this time period, students with ADHD and psychological disabilities account for the most growth.

Service Costs

The OSD always tries to mitigate service costs wherever possible by the use of technology and networking with other departments to bring the most appropriate and cost effective service delivery to students with disabilities. A perfect example of our use of technology is illustrated in the following chart.

A high speed scanner was purchased during the 2001-02 academic year. During that academic year, the number of students availing themselves of the service increased by 73% while the cost actually decreased by nearly 8%. From the time the high speed scanner was introduced during 2003-04, the number of students receiving reader services (in the form of scanning) increased by 90% while the cost decreased by 37%.

Evaluation

An evaluation of services is sent each year to all students who have received academic support services from the OSD. Based on comments received, changes may be made in the way service is delivered. Students who choose to identify themselves on this evaluation can request a follow-up on their comments. This year, for the first time, these evaluations (a total of 895) were sent out electronically. The return rate was extremely low (61 - less than 7%). Unfortunately, the response was too low to be valid and cannot be included here. Requests for follow-up on comments were honored.

Resources Outside the Classroom

Programmatic access is provided by campus departments for all campus activities including student organizations, sporting events and extracurricular activities. Contact the UCLA Access Web at www.accessweb.ucla.edu/.

• The UCLA Libraries provide many services to students with disabilities. www.ucla.edu/home/lma.html
• A Support Group for students with learning disabilities and another one for students with AD/HD offer 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 Disabled Student Union (DSU) is an Associated Students special interest group. (310) 794-4109 or disunion@ucla.edu
• 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.saonet.ucla.edu/ada.htm
• The Career Center provides career counseling and other services. (310) 825-2981 or www.saonet.ucla.edu/career/

OSD Staff

Kathy Molini, Director
Dan Levitt, Assistant Director/Coordinator of the Program for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students
Linda Stolt, Assistant Director/Proctor Coordinator
Dr. Julie Morris, Coordinator of the Program for Students with Learning Disabilities
Dr. Sharon Teruya, Learning Disabilities Specialist
Chana Bell , Learning Disabilities Specialist
Ed McCloskey , Coordinator - Mobility Assistance and Notetaking
Deb Owen, Budget Analyst/Supervisor of Technology Planning and Training
Maria E. Martin, Payroll/Personnel Administrator
George Auletta, Computer Technologist
Denis Lee, Administrative Assistant
Tony Buffo, Alternative Format/Assistant Proctor Coordinator
A.J. Mason, Resource Room Assistant
Melodie Gifford , Staff Captionist
Roberta Munsey, Staff Interpreter
Ramon Norrod, Staff Interpreter
Lori Smith-Hillman, Staff Interpreter
Robert Sutton, Staff Interpreter

Student Workers

Cody Badger, Hughes Choy, Cathy Cueto, Jay Donnell, Chris Limon, Adriana Lopez, Josue Montiel, Stephen Perisho, Stephen Skinner and Ann Tran.