Students, administrators examine  accommodations for the disabled

By Jill Burke
The Metropolitan

Under the federal guidelines established through the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was passed in 1990, public institutions have a broader and clearer outline of their rights and responsibilities in accommodating the disabled.

Since the passage of this law, Metro has grappled with how to accommodate  disabled students. More recently, an advocacy group for the disabled has given a formal voice to studentsā needs and concerns about the collegeās compliance with the ADA.

In the fall of 1996, Metro students formed LEAD, an on-campus advocacy group for students with disabilities. The acronym stands for Leadership, Education and Awareness with Direction.

Brenda Mosby, vice president of LEAD, said there are several accommodation and ADA issues needing to be addressed at the college.

Those issues include developing, printing, and circulating of a quality handbook on ADA policies and procedures to faculty, staff and students and hiring more staff in the Disabilities Services Office, which currently serves over 500 students.

Vernon Haley, Metroās vice president of Student Services, and Percy Morehouse, Metroās director of equal opportunity, said the college has both weak and strong points in accommodating disabled students.
Both, however, stressed that the first step disabled students must take to get the accommodations they need is to identify themselves as disabled.

Morehouse said there is a strong need for students to be identified as individuals with disabilities prior to the start of the semester. 

Morehouse explained that the ADA requires self-identification before accommodations of reasonable requests can be made. Morehouse said that often, students wait until well into the semester to express their needs, at which time it is often too late to assist them. Haley said that as the student population varies from year to year, it is difficult to anticipate what type of accommodations the college will need to make each semester. The best way to manage this, he said, is for students to identify themselves 2 to 4 weeks before a semester begins.

Metro  is also working to educate students, faculty and staff about ADA issues so that there will be increased knowledge, sensitivity, and enforcement of the ADA on campus, Haley said.

Increased awareness will be facilitated through workshops, teleconferences, training, and new faculty orientations.