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UCLA

Office for Students with Disabilities

ANNUAL REPORT
2010-2011

Office for Students with Disabilities

A Department of Student Affairs

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)

www.osd.ucla.edu

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 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.

Disability Demographics

During the 2010-11 academic year, a total of 1,873 students with documented disabilities received one or more academic support services and/or parking assistance (an increase of approximately 10.4% from last year). Of this number, 1,733 students received services other than parking (an increase of approximately 13.3% over last year) and were identified in the following categories:

Services Provided 2010-11

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:

A total of 140 students requested and received only parking assistance. The graph on the next page demonstrates our overall distribution between parking only and academic service users over a five-year period.

OSD Staff "Out and About"

Staff of the OSD attended conferences, workshops and seminars throughout Southern California this year including:

• Apple Accessibility Seminar, August, '10
• EM System Training, August, '10
• Campus Human Resources Workshops, Aug/Sept/Oct, '10
• ADA Webinar, New Campus Regs 2010 and Beyond, September, '10
• Webinar: Service Animals in Public Places, September, '10
• Help Group Summit 2010, October, '10
• Student Affairs Emergency Preparedness Planning, October, '10
• Work-Life Program, January, '11
• Learn at Lunch Series, February, '11
• UC Ready Workshop, February, '11
• Housing Allocation Luncheon, March, '11
• Bruin E-Bill Presentation, April, '11
• Students with Psychological Disabilities Audio Conference, April, '11
• Severe Allergy Discussion Luncheon, May, '11
• Sign Language Interpreting Conference, May, '11

Presentations were made or information was disseminated to the following groups:

• TA Workshop for Asian Languages & Cultures, October, '10
• CAPS Training, October, '10
• Residence Halls Presentation, October/April, '11
• Note Taker Orientations, October/January/April, '11
• TA Workshop for Applied Linguistics, November, '10
• Veteran's Reception, November, '10
• College of the Canyons Interpreter Advisory Board, Dec. '10
• Training to Athletics Mentors, January, '11
• Interpreter Evaluations - Santa Monica College, January, '11
• Transitioning Students with IEPs and 504 Plans, February, '11
• Disclosure Pane, April, '11
• Bruin Day, April, '11
• Think Tank, April, '11
• Career Center In-service, May, '11
• Student Affairs Diversity Panel on Disabilities, May, '11
• Administrative Management Group Panel, June, '11
• University Committee on Disability, Year 'round
• Council on Diversity and Inclusion, Year 'round

The Learning Disabilities Program

Students continued to meet with LD Specialists regarding accommodations, screenings and to review specific skill strategies, most often in the areas of reading, writing, and time management. We have a new full-time LD Specialist and will be hiring a new half-time LD Specialist to replace long-time staff who said good bye to us in 2010-11. Chana Bell retired after more than 14 years at the OSD and Dr. Halle Aten transferred to another department on campus to pursue new career goals. 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.

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 around campus.

Proctoring Center – New Location

In November 2010, the OSD moved its Proctoring Center from Powell Library to Murphy Hall A242. Now, it is across the hall from the Learning Disabilities Program and a few doors down from the OSD Main Office. Being so close, it is convenient for students as well as staff. We were able to design the space to include seven areas for proctoring, space for alternative format activities and offices for staff.

Technology Resources

The Proctoring Center 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 Math Science 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 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 261 students with documented disabilities affecting their mobility were issued disability parking permits. Placards from the Department of Motor Vehicles or letters from physicians were accepted forms of verification. Permits were issued to 140 students who requested no other services from this office; permits were issued to an additional 121 students who received other academic accommodations.

A total of 8,366 on-campus van rides were given to 268 students with documented mobility impairments. This represents an increase of 3% in the number of rides and a decrease of approximately 7% in the number of riders over last year. This is the second year in a row that has seen this phenomenon of increasing rides and decreasing riders.

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.

Overall, students with permanent disabilities averaged just .05 grade points below all other UCLA students. The greatest differences were noted at the freshmen level, where OSD students averaged .17 grade points higher than other UCLA freshmen, and at the professional level (medical, dental and law school), where OSD students averaged .14 grade points below other professional level students.

Students with temporary disabilities had similar comparisons. The overall average was .11 grade points above all other UCLA students with most levels averaging within 0.1 of their non-disabled counterparts. The exception was sophomore students who ranked .12 below their counterparts.

All ten UC campuses are tracking graduation and retention rates for students with disabilities.

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 1,287 evaluations were sent out. The survey return rate was just over 11% (142). A 5-point rating scale is used. 5-Excellent, 4-Good, 3-Acceptable, 2-Fair and 1-Poor. With that in mind, the ratings are indicated below:

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

Overall scores indicate a high degree of satisfaction with OSD services. Several things were noted that could have some affect on these results. Due to the small number of respondents in any category, even one or two extreme scores could skew the result. Several students rated services which they did not receive (several students rated every service 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

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 www.ucla.edu.

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

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the OSD co-facilitate a support group for students with psychological disabilities. Contact the OSD for more information on this group or www.counseling.ucla.edu.

University Committee on Disability (UCOD) is made up of students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members. (310) 825-1514 www.ucod.ucla.edu.

Chancellor's ADA/504 Compliance Office assists the University in recognizing and acting upon access and compliance issues. (310) 825-1514 www.ada.ucla.edu.

The Career Center provides career counseling and other services. (310) 206-1025 www.career.ucla.edu.

Cultural & Recreational Affairs - Adaptive Recreation provides therapeutically-based recreation programs for people with cognitive and physical disabilities. www.recreation.ucla.edu.

OSD Staff

• Kathy Molini, Director
• Dan Levitt, Associate Director & Coordinator Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students Program
• Ed McCloskey, Assistant Director Relations and Services & ADA/504 Coordinator
• Deb Owen, Budget Analyst/Supervisor of Technology Planning and Training
• Linda Stolt, Assistant Director/Proctor Services Coordinator
• Dr. Julie Morris, Coordinator, Learning Disabilities Program
• Dr. Halle Aten, Learning Disabilities Specialist
• Dr. Leah Silverman, Learning Disabilities Specialist
• George Auletta, Programmer/Analyst
• Tony Buffo, Alternative Format/Assistant Proctor Coordinator
• Jessica Downey, Learning Disabilities Specialist
• Christian Limon, Notetaker Services Assistant
• Maria E. Martin, Payroll/Personnel Administrator
• A.J. Mason, Resource Room Assistant
• Melodie Stuart, Staff Captionist

Student Workers:

• James Bennett
• Kasey Calahane
• Abbas Charlie
• Cassandra Chavez
• Jasmine Goindi
• Kelci Hahn
• Marlen Huante
• Alex Kiperman
• Brandon Lanthier
• Christina Lopez
• Tania Lopez
• Stephen Nakada
• Amanda Selnick