At Dartmouth, elevators, automatic doors and dorms with ground floor access are some of the more clearly visible signs of accommodations for individuals with disabilities. The new residential housing system was designed with the way they would accommodate those with physical disabilities on campus, director of education Michael Wooten said.
“The reality of a campus like ours is that it’s a mixture of very old and new, which comes with a considerable challenge for certain disabilities,” Wooten said. “That’s a reality to the housing system and one that the accessibility services office thinks a lot about, as does residential services.”
Physical and mental disabilities transcend simple mobility issues, however — they affect how students learn, live and contribute to the dialogue that involves the increasingly diverse community on campus.
In 2013, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that roughly 11.1 percent of all undergraduates in the United States had a disability in the 2011-2012 school year. Disability, as defined by the 1990 American with Disabilities Act, is a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activity, such as seeing, hearing, sleeping, learning, concentrating, caring for oneself or thinking.
Ward Newmeyer, director of Student Accessibility Services, said that the office serves three main groups: students with disabilities who are aware of their conditions and the support they need on campus, students who are exploring if they may have a disability that they were not aware of previously and the campus at large.
This idea of “universal design,” which Newmeyer said is making sure campus life works for as many people as possible without tweaks or exceptions, is the underpinning of his work. One aspect of this includes the new residential housing system.
Any student who believes they need accommodations can reach out to specify their needs, which could include ground access, a private bathroom and even a room with a special type of soundless fire alarm for those who are unable to hear. The College is also willing to undergo renovations if needed, Wooten said. The housing office was also intentional about placing the majority of Living Learning Centers in McLaughlin Cluster, he added, a newer residential space and one of the most accessible, because they did not want the space to limit who could apply to a program.
“It might not be apparent, but [accessibility] is something we think a lot about,” Wooten said. “We want to be erratically hospitable, for all social identities, race, gender and ability.”
Beth Haller, journalism professor at Towson University and author of “Representing Disability in an Ableist World” (2010), spoke to challenges disabled individuals face in general. While many universities promote their accommodations, Haller said they do not offer any more information to possible applicants.
“Universities might actually be afraid of students with disabilities because services are underfunded and understaffed,” Haller said. “They pretend that they want to encourage people to apply but they actually do not because they’re afraid they don’t have the services.”
In a workplace environment, many individuals are advised not to disclose their ability until after employment, she said. A joint Rutgers University and Syracuse University study conducted last November indicated a level of discrimination against qualified workers with disabilities.
Students recently criticized services at schools including Georgetown University for being understaffed and unable to meet the needs of some at the school. In contrast, Haller pointed to the University of Texas at Arlington as one example of a school that supports students with disabilities more than adequately.
Penny Acrey, director of the Office for Students with Disabilities at UTA, said that the school provides service such programs that will read text aloud, sign language interpreters, assisted listening devices and in-house conversion of print materials to Braille.
At Dartmouth, the accessibility office lists many similar services on its website. However, rather than actively reaching out to students, the office works mainly through direct contact from students or through referral from the housing office, professors, counselors and other mentors whom the student may consult, Newmeyer said.
Compared to the schools he worked at prior to the College, Newmeyer said that there is more of a stigma surrounding disabilities at Dartmouth.
“A student could be put off by an advisor telling them to go to the accessibility office, so the advisor has to do a good job of gauging,” he said. “However, they are very good at directing students to us.”
Newmeyer said that students often voice concerns about how they might be perceived by their peers if it is revealed they have a disability, and said that he senses there is more wariness to students at Dartmouth than when he worked at University of California at Berkeley.
“Students tend to present that they can handle a lot of things, and they want to be seen as not struggling too much here, and that’s true whether or not of a disability related circumstance,” Newmeyer said.
The office also attempts to aid students who may be discovering their disabilities for the first time. Newmeyer said that students may not realize they have cognitive disabilities until arriving at Dartmouth, where the pace can be faster with more competition.
“When people on the street hear the phrase ‘learning disabilities’ [instead of cognitive], it’s natural to assume that it affects whether they learn,” Newmeyer said. “That’s not what it is — it affects how we learn; it can add challenges but also add insights.”
Such issues often come up in language courses, Newmeyer said, due to the complexities of learning a new language and the inability to rely on a primary language. Smaller class sizes and the language requirement at Dartmouth may also make such issues more apparent, he said.
Newmeyer described “disability pride,” which he promotes in his work by helping disabled students understand that there are many things about their experiences to be proud of. As an advocate of individuals with disabilities, he deals with the balance of confidentiality and discretion of an individual’s disability while also providing the resources needed available to them.
“I’m only joking in a small way when I say my job is to put myself out of a job, because if we can influence an academic institution into being truly universally designed, then the less students will need to go to some office,” Newmeyer said. “If we really want a variety of thinkers in the student body and different styles of not just thinking but doing, but if our teaching methods are so narrow we make it tougher for people who don’t fit into one mold, we run the risk of making our own student body more insular.”
