Across the country college university's have programs for students with disabilities. I have recently visited the Office of Disabilities Services on my own campus to see what accommodations the CUNY College of Staten Island has to offer its students. The office was full of all kinds of students, some with clearly visible impairments and others with what I later learned are called "invisible disabilities." It was there where I spoke to Interim Director Christopher Cruz Cullari. He began our meeting by telling me a little bit of background information about their program.
C.C.- We have, over 500 students registered for services, which is approximately 5% of the undergraduate population. The vast majority of students who are registered in our office have what's called invisible disabilities or what's commonly referred to as an invisible disabilit[y]. The largest group of which are students with learning disabilities, which is approximately 70% of our total population. The other 15%, would be students with psychological or psychiatric disabilities. The remaining 15%, would include a range of other kinds of disabilities, invisible or not. It could be students who are blind or visually impaired - students who are deaf or hard of hearing, students with Aspergers Syndrome - students with chronic medical conditions - students who may be users of wheel chairs for a variety of reasons.
C.H.- Do you feel that people on campus are more or less aware of the other people with disabilities or do you feel that they kind of tend to fall more into the stereotypical type?
C.C.- People when they think of our office, I think tend to think of the visible disabilities that they themselves identify in people. So that may be a person who uses a wheel chair, or a person who is blind, or visually impaired, or a person who is deaf or hard of hearing. They can tell those things sometimes by the equipment they use or just you know through observation. People tend to identify us mostly with those kinds of disability issues, and although we do work with students with those issues. They're not by far our majority. There's a need there to educate the college community and the community at large more about these issues. So I guess the answer is yes if I remember your exact question.
C.H.- So you feel that the students here are more or less educated- they need to be more educated in your opinion or?
C.C.- The-General-College-Student body . . . I would say they would benefit from more education about the work that we do. Definitely. Yeah.
C.H.- Here in CSI do you feel that the students are more understanding when they see someone with a disability. . . are they more inclined to help them or do you feel that they fall into the category of . . "You fear what you don't know," and so they tend to shy away from student with disabilities?
C.C.- Generally speaking I found the students at CSI, now I have been here three years and I have also been at other college's and universities but, I found the students at CSI pretty accepting of their peers with disabilities. Yea, I have encountered sometimes people avoiding, maybe a certain kind of disability issue or noted maybe a lack of understanding or even a fear [from] people who might not have a disability, but overall I felt that the students at CSI are pretty comfortable with it. Pretty cool with it. Pretty accepting in general. (Slightly smiles)
C.H. What type of programs or services do you offer?
C.C.- Our biggest function is to provide accommodations that are mandated by law for students with disabilities. So, I guess that's our first and biggest charge and those accommodations can range from extended time on a test to . . . possibly looking at a particular assignment in a class, or in a course and looking at how can we modify this assignment because of a disability related issue. [Yet] still maintain the key learning outcomes that the faculty member you know wants all students to be able to learn.
An example of one of those kinds of accommodations -- lets say a student has a very serious anxiety disorder. A diagnosed anxiety disorder and they're in a particular class that's asking students to do a class presentation. The student generally is doing well in the class. Is testing well -- is attending class regularly and doing appropriate participation in the class. But that the idea of this, very formal presentation is a really difficult hurdle to jump -- we might suggest that the student . . .video tape his presentation and show it to the class; as opposed to doing the presentation in front of the whole class. . . in real time. So, that might be an example of an accommodation that we would use that might be a little more complicated, and involve some more deeper dialogue with the faculty member. To make sure that we are not compromising the key learning outcomes of that activity.
C.H.- In the past I had a professor who was not very understanding of a fellow disabled classmate. Do you feel that the Professors are more understanding and that this was just a glitch in the teacher faculty here in CSI?
C.C.- While issues come up related to sensitivity or faculty understanding, I would say the majority of faculty "are" understanding and we try to do a lot of education with the faculty; although it is very difficult to reach all of them at any given time. With so many here as adjuncts and just with everyone being really really busy. But we try to visit every department at least once per academic year to kind of talk with the faculty. . . about disability related issues as they relate to higher education in college students. We feel that this is helpful. Will there be examples of faculty who maybe are less sensitive, sure, but if a student brings that to our attention we would be happy to have a [talk] with the faculty and sometimes they do. Regarding this issue that you bring up, if the student felt the need he could have come to me or another professional staff person and talked about it and we could have tried to address it.
C.H.- Do you feel that the programs could be improved or are they good the way they are?
C.C.- Well you know jumping back to some of the things our office does for a second and that might include what you are asking now- the first big thing we do is provide accommodations. The second thing we do, is try to have support services available for students - that go beyond what the law requires. We try to have tutoring particularly for first and second year students in the general education classes which is mostly reading writing and math. So, we have things like that.
We have a program particularly for our freshman where we try to teach them about who they are as college students. Who they are as college students with disabilities. What the differences are between high school and college and what are some specific skills that . . . all college students should have to be successful. We do some technology training and we have a student organization that we sponsor that is open to students with, and without disabilities that's related to community service. We think that's good for a variety of reasons, but one of the reasons why we think it is particularly good -- is to kind of challenge the stereotypical thinking that students with disabilities or people with disabilities are going to accomplish less -- than people without. So, we have some really good key things regarding our program.
Do I think things can be better regarding our program? I mean yea, I do, and most of it would be related to resources. You know there is a limited number of resources so once we fulfill our mandated accommodation requirements that are essentially mandated by state and federal law. . .and also college policy-- certainly we have ideas for a more robust programing if we had the resources.
C.H.- When you talk about resources, what type of resources? Is it getting the authority to do it? or is it something the student body would be able to help aid in these programs?
C.C.- Probably not. I mean in a general way I would always say that I would be interested in working with students. Inside and out side the office, to see how we could collaborate to make life better on campus. Most of the issues really come down to funding and that's an issue that public colleges and universities across the state and really the country are limited by. So I would say even a fund raiser wouldn't necessarily be a fix to some of the systemic budget issues that colleges and universities have.
C.H.- In the time you have been here, has there been an increase of students with disabilities or an decrease?
C.C.- There has been an increase actually.
C.H.- There has been an increase?
C.C.- Yeah there has been an increase. We were in the mid 4's in 2007 and now we are in the mid 5's in 2010. So we have gone up considerably.
C.H.- Do you have any opinions on why that might be?
C.C.- There are a couple of things. I think one is that the K-12 system is probably doing a better job this generation of helping students with disabilities, be eligible for college. So there are more college ready students with disabilities in their senior year of high school, than maybe there was a generation ago. I also think that because of some programing changes that we've made through the years. I think, has helped us retain some of our students at higher numbers and increase student achievement . . . it's a combination of things.
C.H.- Do you think that people here (with the rate of disabilities rising,) do you feel it is coming out more because people are not afraid to allow everyone to know, that they have a disability. Do you feel they are more comfortable? allowing people to know they have a disability and getting the help that they need.?
C.C.- I think overall people are becoming more and more comfortable with those kinds of issues within themselves. I think some of it goes back to society getting more comfortable with those kinds of issues. Families addressing the . . . needs of their children more comprehensively and holistically including as it relates to self acceptance. So we are seeing a shift in that regard. Also the K-12 system is helping with that. There are still I think a critical mass of students with invisible disabilities though, who won't self identify with the office and will miss out on the accommodations that they could get.
C.H.- Do you feel some people with disabilities, some with less severe disabilities tend to abuse their privileges? (ex. parking and transportation)
C.C.- That is not the majority by far I mean are their instances where there are students abusing some of their rights and privileges? Yeah. But, that is true in our office and that's true outside of the office. I would not say that happens at a higher rate here. But it does happen and when it does happen and we are made aware of it, we will confront the student on what we perceive is an appropriate use of the rights that come with having a diagnosed disability at the college level. So we will address it when we are aware of it.
**Remember a disabled person has feelings just like a non-disabled. If they need help they will ask. If you want to help them. . .ask. Sometimes being too over helpful may make them feel as though others do not believe they can do it themselves.**
**A special thanks to Christopher Cruz Cullari and the Office of Disability Services for being so kind and helping.**
Christopher Cruz Cullari, Director (Interim)
Joanne D’Onofrio, LEADS Counselor
Gloria Alfano, Office Assistant
Location: Center for the Arts (1P), Room 101
Phone: (718) 982.2510
Fax: (718) 982.2117
Email: ODS@csi.cuny.edu
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