Possibilities – Volume 2, Issue 1 – Fall 2024
Volume 2, Issue 1 – Fall 2024
PNW Accessibility Center
Success starts with Access
Welcome to the PAC’s third issue of Possibilities. Possibilities highlight students, faculty, and staff that help make PNW an accessible and inclusive environment for all.
Volume 2, Issue 1 includes the following stories:
- PAC Building Bridges to Increase Retention
- Tech Talk
- A Dream Redefined: Student Pivots to New Major and Finds Success
- Equality and Equity: What’s the Difference?
- Ask the PAC – Why do students receive accommodations?
- How are you?
- What is the PAC?
PAC Building Bridges to Increase Retention
The national graduation rate from a four-year university for students living with disabilities has traditionally been low at only 21 to 34 percent (Herbert et al, 2014). Not only does the student suffer, but the financial losses to the university and society at large are profound.
However, something noteworthy has been happening at the PNW Accessibility Center (PAC). The retention rates for students registered with the PAC are impressive not only compared to national statistics but also to the retention rates of PNW students not registered with the PAC.
For example, the retention rate of undergraduate PAC students was at 92.66 percent in the Fall 2021 semester, compared to the 88.17 percent retention rate of PNW students not registered with the PAC during the same period. In the Spring 2022 semester, PNW saw retention rates of 87.03 percent for PAC students, and 84.6 percent for non-PAC students. In Spring 2023, the retention rate for PAC students was at 85.38 percent and non-PAC students had a retention rate of 84.28 percent.
Being referred to the PAC was one of the best things to happen to me at PNW. Utilizing their services not only helped me succeed in my course work, but also assisted in creating positive work habits that will benefit me in my future career.
The mission of the PAC is to provide equal access and equal opportunity so students can show their true abilities. The PAC never lowers academic standards, and PAC students meet the same academic standards as all other PNW students according to PAC Director Debra Wysong.
“Accommodations such as giving students a quiet place to test, or an extended time to take the test show what they know,” said Wysong. “Ultimately, our goal is to create a bridge to access college.”
Persistence and Graduation of College Students Seeking Disability Support Services. (January 2014). Journal of Rehabilitation. Retrieved Feb. 2, 2024, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279529697_Persistence_and_Graduation_of_College_Students_Seeking_Disability_Support_Services
Tech Talk
Assistive technology can be any tool that a person with a disability uses in order to perform functions that may otherwise be difficult or impossible to accomplish due to a diagnosis. It can be anything from low-tech technologies such as canes, wheelchairs, pencil grips, and daily planners, to high-tech technologies such as text-to-speech software, speech-to-text software, and augmentative and alternative communication devices (AAC). The following are apps the PAC makes available to everyone at no additional costs.
- Dragon Naturally Speaking – Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech-to-text program that allows students to dictate commands to open programs, surf the web, and to write papers without having to touch the keyboard. This can be helpful for students with mobility issues or those who have limited typing skills to be able to write papers with their voice.
- JAWS – Job Access With Speech or JAWS, is a text-to-speech software that speaks aloud the items on the computer screen that allows a student who is blind or low-vision to be able to navigate a PC.
- Fusion – Fusion is a combination of JAWS and ZoomText that work in tandem with each other.
Have any questions? PAC Technology Specialist Anthony Marszalek is here to help. You can contact him at pac@pnw.edu, or (219) 989-2455
A Dream Redefined: Student Pivots to New Majorand Finds Success
Katie Beverly says she had it all figured out at 18 years old. She had long dreamed of becoming a nurse and was ready to start her studies as a freshman at a small private university in Illinois. College, though, was not going as planned.
Katie was struggling with classes and was trying to get used to managing her new ADHD diagnosis. Katie had accommodations at her first university but said the lack of support there made her feel bad about herself. After almost four years, the college asked her to leave due to failing out of their Nursing program in 2021. This was definitely not in Katie’s plan, but she still dreamed of becoming a nurse when she was accepted into PNW in 2022.
Katie started PNW as an undeclared major, and she wanted to be accepted into the PNW College of Nursing after taking a few prerequisite courses. However, after three denied applications, Katie said she realized it was not meant to be. “I was not in a good state of mind. I had lost my dream,” she said. “What was I going to do now? I failed.”
Katie registered with the PNW Accessibility Center (PAC) shortly after starting PNW and began working with Lauren Blue, a PAC Access Coordinator and Academic Coach. “I could see that Katie was a hard worker, and had the drive to start Nursing, but she just couldn’t achieve the grades needed to start the program,” according to Lauren. “We talked about how another health-related major may be a better fit for her.”
This was a particularly hard time for Katie, but she eventually “talked myself out of this mindset,” and decided to pivot to a different, but similar field – psychology. Katie had previously taken psych classes, and many of these credits transferred to her new major at PNW. On this new track, Katie thrived! She enjoyed the Psychology program at PNW and was doing well in her psychology classes, and as an undergraduate, she became a teaching assistant to Robert Hallock and Carly Baetz.
Lauren continued to work with Katie on sharpening her organizational and study skills, but she said it was Katie’s determination that made the difference. “Katie found the strength to move beyond her disappointments, while examining and relying on her strengths,” she said. “This can be an extremely hard step for students to take when they encounter a major letdown. But Katie turned the corner, and I’m so proud of her. She’s now living her dream, helping others.”
Katie graduated from PNW with a B.S. in Psychology this past May, but she’s not done with school quite yet. Her next dream is to get a Master’s in Applied Behavior Analysis, which will broaden her behavioral therapy skills with autistic children – a job she’s had at ASD Life, a therapy center in Illinois, since ending her internship during her last semester. “I see the day-to-day benefit of working with my clients,” she said. “I’m in a good place now because of the PAC and Lauren Blue, and it brings me joy to offer hope to other people.”
Equality and Equity: What’s the Difference?
Equality
Everyone receives the same thing. Most class curricula are typically designed in this format.
Equity
Additional supports in the form of accommodations and services are added by the PNW Accessibility Center.
Universal Design for Learning – Accessible for Most
A class curriculum is designed to meet the needs of most students. Faculty offer students different ways to meet the same academic standards.
Ask the PAC
Why do students receive accommodations?
It wasn’t that long ago that students with documented disabilities were first granted the right to an education under federal law. In 1973, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act made this a reality for millions of Americans who attended federally-funded schools. The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 was another watershed moment in the civil rights movement, expanding rights for the disabled community to all facets of American life – education, housing, employment and communication. The law broadened in 2008, when the definition of disability was clarified and expanded.
This federal law, known as the ADA, “prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in everyday activities …. just as other civil rights laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age and religion.
“The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else.”
So, what does the law look like at the university level?
At PNW, the PNW Accessibility Center, or the PAC, puts accommodations into place for students who provide documentation of their diagnoses. For example:
- A student diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or an anxiety disorder may receive extended time to take an exam.
- A student living with sickle cell disease may have the accommodation of occasionally missing class.
- A student suffering from Crohn’s disease may have the accommodation of using the bathroom during exam times.
Other examples could be giving a student with a concussion extended time to finish a semester while her brain heals, or providing an alternative seat for a student with mobility issues.
These are but a few examples of how the 504/ADA works for students in an educational setting.
While accommodations vary, two factors are constant. Academic standards are never lowered, and every student who receives continuing accommodations from the PAC must have documentation of their diagnosis from a qualified medical provider, such as a medical doctor, audiologist, psychologist, counselor, or physical therapist.
But is this fair to other students who don’t have a disability?
PAC Director Debra Wysong explains that looking at the difference between equality and equity is a helpful way to answer this question.
“Students diagnosed with a physical disability, a psychological disability, or a learning difference have built-in obstacles compared to other students,” Wysong says. “So while the entire class is equal in getting the same amount of time to take an exam, this time may not be appropriate to the student whose brain processes information differently, or to the student who cannot physically type as fast on a keyboard. Providing accommodations for these students is a way to even the playing field, and ensures that students with disabilities are graded on their true abilities.
“The amazing thing with the ADA is that its benefits extend far beyond the community it directly impacts,” said Wysong, an attorney who has practiced in the intersection of disability and education law for more than 20 years. “By adhering to the federal law, the university is creating a community that’s enriched and strengthened by students of all abilities.”
How are you?
Imagine.
That feeling you get in high-stress situations – the nausea, sharp stomach pains, obsessive focus on one thing, chest tightness, sweating, fatigue, and/or an overall sense of doom and loss of control. However, instead of these feelings lasting for a few moments, you may endure them for hours or sometimes days.
Or, imagine you’re extremely impatient most of the time and for the life of you, you cannot shake the feelings of brain fog and restlessness.
Or, imagine finding yourself in a place where sound and light are exponentially amplified and everyone but you understands the meaning in a smile, a look, or someone’s tone of voice.
Each of these groups of symptoms can be part of what people living with anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorder can experience daily. They are a part of a group of conditions known as “invisible disabilities.”
PAC staff are well versed in helping students with these diagnoses learn compensatory strategies to overcome these obstacles. What does this help look like? It depends, since the PAC creates an Access Plan (a set of accommodations) that is customized to the individual student. Some of these accommodations include extended time on exams and/or individual out of class assignments, a private room to test, and one-on-one academic coaching with a PAC staff person.
“Accommodations give students with disabilities the support they need to not only successfully complete a class or a semester, but to then graduate and find meaningful employment,” said Kristen Efantis, a staff psychologist at PNW’s Counseling Center. “The work being done by the PAC has had a lasting impact on many students.”
What is the PAC?
The PNW Accessibility Center empowers college-ready students with medical, mental health, physical, and learning concerns to participate fully in PNW by providing equal access and opportunity.
PAC Team
PAC Full-Time Staff
- Debra Wysong, J.D., Director
- Anthony Marszalek, M.S., Assistive Technology Studies and Human Services, Tech Specialist
- Lauren Blue, Access Coordinator/Academic Coach
- Laura Reiniche, Access Coordinator/Academic Coach
- Susie Zajakowski, Access Coordinator/Academic Coach
- Marylu Marrufo, Office Manager