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UCLA

Office for Students with Disabilities

ANNUAL REPORT
2007-2008

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)
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.

Services Provided 2007-08

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 - showing the number of hours of service:

The Learning Disabilities Program

Students continued to meet individually with LD Specialists, most often in the areas of reading, writing and time management. A new LD Specialist joined our staff. She received supervision in order to fulfill her licensure requirements and provided extensive knowledge related to mental health issues based on her prior training. She continued the AD/HD Support Group throughout the year in addition to co-facilitating a Finding Focus Group that was offered through Student Psychological Services (which has since become Counseling and Psychological Services). 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 OSD. 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. 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 and departments.

Technology Resources

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. There are several computer workstations with adaptive software that are used for scanning, reading, converting materials to Braille and other activities. There are general computer labs on campus available to students who do not need specialized adaptive software.

The OSD works closely with the Disabilities and Computing Program in MS 4909. The DCP provides adaptive technology, information, training, support, and services for students, faculty and staff with disabilities. They provide web accessibility evaluations, recommendations, voice synthesis, Braille, large print, voice recognition technologies and consulting for individuals and departments. Students can contact the DCP directly at 310-206-7133 or by referral from OSD. 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.

OSD Staff "Out and About"

Staff of the OSD attended conferences and made presentations throughout Southern California this year. They included attendance at the:

• UCLA Black Convocation (October, 2007)
• CSUN Technology Conference (March, 2008)
• Front Line Staff Preparedness Training (April, 2008)
• A Day with Paul Grossman - Disability Law (May, 2008)
• Returning Military Veterans (May, 2008)

Presentations were made or information disseminated to the following groups:

• Family Orientation (August, 2007)
• Transfer Achievement Program Fair (August, 2007)
• Graduate Students Fair (September, 2007)
• Parents Weekend (October, 2007)
• Adaptive Recreation Fair (October, 2007)
• Transportation Fair (October, 2007)
• Asian Language Teaching Assistants (October, 2007)
• Student Affairs - Western Conference (October, 2007)
• Linguistics - American Sign Language (October, 2007)
• Dialog on Disabilities Studies (October, 2007)
• School of Nursing Panel on Disability (October, 2007)
• World Arts and Cultures TAs (November, 2007)
• Social Welfare Students (December, 2007)
• High School College Night, Calabasas (March, 2008)
• Student Transfer Opportunity and Mentor Program Fair (STOMP) (April, 2008)
• Malaysian Educators (April, 2008)
• Medical Conference, Monterey, CA (April, 2008)
• Ethiopian Educator (May, 2008)
• Santa Monica College - Sign Language Interpreters and Proctoring Services (May, 2008)
• Faculty Diversity Panel Member (May, 2008)
• Foundation for the Junior Blind (July, 2007, November, 2007 and June, 2008)
• Community College Partnership (June, 2008)

The OSD director has established on-going participation through-out the year as part of the University of California Office of the President E-Text Advisory Committee, hosting the UC Directors Meeting.

OSD has participated with Student Affairs Departments and Academic entities regarding student issues

Disability Demographics

During the 2007-08 academic year, a total of 1,592 students with documented disabilities received one or more academic support services and/or parking assistance (an increase of approximately 12% from last year). Of this number, 1,298 students received services other than parking (an increase of approximately 13% over last year):

Mobility Assistance

A total of 438 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 294 students who requested no other services from this office; per-mits were issued to an additional 144 students who received other academic accommodations.

A total of 7,068 on-campus van rides were given to 273 students with documented mobility impairments. This represents a decrease of 8% in the number of rides and a decrease of over 1% in the number of riders over last year.

A total of 294 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.

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.

Students with permanent disabilities, overall, averaged just .04 grade points below all other UCLA students. The largest differences noted were at the freshmen level, where OSD students averaged .2 grade points higher than other UCLA freshmen, and at the professional level (medical, dental and law schools), where OSD students averaged .17 grade points below their non-disabled counterparts.

Students with temporary disabilities had similar comparisons. The overall average was .02 grade points above all other UCLA students with all levels averaging the same or higher than their non-disabled counter-parts, except for professional students. The most striking comparison is at the freshman level where students with temporary disabilities averaged .45 grade points higher than other UCLA freshmen and at the professional level where students with temporary disabilities averaged .42 below their non-disabled counterparts.

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 ser-vice is delivered. Students who choose to identify them-selves 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 ratings are indicated below:

*Indicates fewer than 10 people responded to this item this year.

All scores indicate a high degree of satisfaction with OSD services. The comparison of the results from 2006-07 show some areas significantly different but, due to the small number of respondents in any category, even one or two ex-treme scores could skew the result. 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.

Resources outside the Classroom

UCLA Access Web is a complete listing of disability-related offices at UCLA. 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 one for AD/HD. (310) 825-1501.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) co-facilitate with OSD a support group for students with psychological disabilities. Contact the OSD.

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 com-pliance issues. (310) 825-2242 or www.ada.ucla.edu

The Career Center provides career counseling and other services. www.career.ucla.edu or (310) 825-2981

Cultural & Recreational Affairs - provides therapeutically-based recreation programs for people with cognitive and physical disabilities promoting physical fitness, health and wellness, increased self esteem, and greater functional independence. John Wooden Center, (310)825-1059 (voice), email: jhoffman@recreation.ucla.edu, Website: www.recreation.ucla.eduwww.recreation.ucla.edu

OSD Staff

• Kathy Molini, Director
• Dr. Halle Aten, Learning Disabilities Specialist
• George Auletta, Programmer/Analyst
• Chana Bell, Learning Disabilities Specialist
• Tony Buffo, Alternative Format/Assistant Proctor Coordinator
• Melodie Gifford, Staff Captionist
• Dan Levitt, Assistant Director/Coordinator Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students Program
• Christian Limon, Notetaker Services Assistant
• Maria E. Martin, Payroll/Personnel Administrator
• A.J. Mason, Resource Room Assistant
• Ed McCloskey, Assistant Director, Relations and Services
• Dr. Julie Morris, Coordinator, Learning Disabilities Program
• Deb Owen, Budget Analyst/Supervisor of Technology Planning and Training
• Linda Stolt, Assistant Director/Proctor Services Coordinator
• Dr. Sharon Teruya, Learning Disabilities Specialist

Student Workers

• Angela Barajas
• Sue-Lan Chene
• Iris Garcia
• An Le
• Christina Lopez
• Brad Munns
• Kelli O'Dell
• Thomas Post
• Carmen Romero
• Andrew Wang
• David Wardell
• Lisette Williford
• Katie Wolfe