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UCLA

Office for Students with Disabilities

ANNUAL REPORT
2006-2007

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

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.

Program Highlights

Much is made over the differences between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. The OSD has provided GPA comparisons in the Annual Report for many years now which consistently demonstrate that students with disabilities are very similar in achievement to the non-disabled student body at UCLA. Courses of study are similar as well. During the year 2006-07, students registered with this office were enrolled in 98 of the 194 majors offered in 86 of 112 departments in all twelve schools. Below is a comprehensive comparison of Enrollment by Division for students registered with the OSD and all other UCLA students as of Fall, 2004.

*2004 was the most recent information for campus wide enrollment available from the office of Analysis and Information Management website.

Key to divisions:
AA - Arts & Architecture
BB - Basic Biomed
DN - Dentistry
EI - Education & Information Studies
EN - Engineering and Applied Science
GS - General Studies (Undeclared majors primarily)
HU - Humanities
IS - International Institute
LF - Life Sciences
LW - Law
MG - Management
MN - Medical School
NS - Nursing
PA - Public Affairs
PH - Public Health
PS - Physical Sciences
SS - Social Sciences
TF - Theatre, Film and TV

The general pattern shown here is one of similarities. The biggest division on campus is Social Sciences for both the general campus and students with disabilities. Second is Life Sciences for both groups. There are slight differences after that. Enrollment in seven of the eighteen divisions listed is within one percentage point between the two groups.

Services Provided 2006-07

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:

Disability Demographics

During the 2006-07 academic year, a total of 1,422 students with documented disabilities received one or more academic support services and/or parking assistance (a decrease of approximately 6.5% from last year). Of this number, 1,150 students received services other than parking (an increase of 1 student over last year) and were identified in the following categories:

A total of 272 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

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. The LD Program continued its ongoing relationship with Alliant International University by providing supervision and training for an intern who conducted learning disability assessments for UCLA students screened by the office. This has been a mutually-beneficial exchange as students with limited financial resources have the opportunity to undergo a comprehensive evaluation while the intern gains relevant training in the field. Finally, OSD offered two weekly support groups for students with AD/HD (one for graduate students) that were facilitated by an LD Specialist.

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 Braille 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 and information access 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. The College Library Instructional Computing Commons (CLICC) offers a variety of instructional software as well as adaptive software including Kurzweil 3000, IBM Via Voice and ScanSoft OmniPage Pro. Student consultants are available to assist with questions. Contact CLICC at (310) 206-0271 or www.clicc.ucla.edu.

Mobility Assistance

A total of 421 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 272 students who requested no other services from this office; permits were issued to an additional 149 students who received other academic accommodations.

A total of 7,630 on-campus van rides were given to 277 students with documented mobility impairments. This represents a significant increase of 32% in the number of rides and an increase of 20% in the number of riders over last year.

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 (GPA) than differences.

Overall, students with permanent disabilities averaged just .03 grade points below all other UCLA students. The most extreme differences were noted at the freshmen level, where OSD students averaged .34 grade points higher than other UCLA freshmen, and at the professional level (medical, dental and law school), where OSD students averaged .19 grade points below other professional level students.

Students with temporary disabilities had similar comparisons. The overall average was .04 grade points above all other UCLA students with all levels averaging the same or higher than their non-disabled counterparts. The most striking comparison is at the freshman level where students with temporary disabilities averaged .79 grade points higher than other UCLA freshmen.

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

Evaluation

An evaluation of services is sent each year to all students who have received academic support services from the OSD and who have addresses in our database. 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. A total of 800 evaluations were sent out. The survey return rate was approximately 18% (147). A 5-point rating scale is used. 5-Excellent, 4-Good, 3-Acceptable, 2-Fair and 1-Poor.

The comparison to the results from 2005-06 show some areas significantly different but, due to the small number of respondents in any category, even one or two extreme scores could skew the result. All scores indicate a high degree of satisfaction with OSD services.

Several things were noted that could have some affect on these results. At least one respondent completed the survey twice (the student self-identified both times) and several students rated services which they did not receive (they indicated by written comment that they didn't get a particular service but decided to rate it anyway or more people rated a service than we served in that area). Even with these "glitches", we felt that the overall ratings were indicative of student satisfaction levels.

*Indicates fewer than 10 people responded to this item this year.
+No responses were given in this category in 2005-06

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.accessweb.ucla.edu

The UCLA Libraries provide many services to students with disabilities. www2.library.ucla.edu/service/disability.cfm

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

University Committee on Disability (UCOD) 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 http://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 Services Coordinator

Dr. Julie Morris, Coordinator, Learning Disabilities Program

Dr. Sharon Teruya, Learning Disabilities Specialist

Chana Bell, Learning Disabilities Specialist

Ed McCloskey, Mobility Assistance Program/Notetaking Services Coordinator

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

Maria E. Martin, Payroll/Personnel Administrator

George Auletta, Programmer/Analyst

Christian Limon, Administrative Assistant

Tony Buffo, Alternative Format/Assistant Proctor Coordinator

A.J. Mason, Resource Room Assistant

Melodie Gifford, Staff Captionist

Roberta Munsey, Staff Interpreter

Ramon Norod, Staff Interpreter

Student Workers

Angela Barajas, Marisol Lopez, William McCarthy, Josue Montiel, Juan Rodriguez, Carmen Romero, Ed Sandoval, Dalvin Tsay, Andrew Wang and David Wardell