Students with disabilities forced to wait for textbooks

The Disability Resource Center has a backlog of requests from students with disabilities asking to reformat their textbooks, a buildup that the center says delays the students’ timely access to required readings for classes.

Students with disabilities can visit the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to request that their textbooks or academic packets be transferred to a digital format that translates text to voice or alters the size of words. This service gives students with visual disabilities and others who have difficulty with reading comprehension access to required academic texts.

DRC staff members say they cannot supply the service in a timely fashion to students because of trouble funding necessary staff positions, and because they do not have enough equipment.

Because of these difficulties, Darcy Kramer, accommodations coordinator for the DRC, and other staff say that 27 blind and print disabled students will not receive the translation accommodations as quickly as necessary this term.

“I get concerned when the students at PSU are not getting the services they require in a timely manner,” said Polly Livingston, DRC assistant director. “Because timely service is legally mandated, the university could be at risk.”

Many people, including Kramer, referenced section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits the denial, exclusion of participation and all forms of discrimination against people with disabilities in a program that receives federal assistance. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 extended the coverage of the Rehabilitation Act by protecting people with disabilities from discriminatory practices in public accommodations, including universities.

Kramer said she requested new text formatting equipment in January, but has not heard any response from her superiors. She also said that the DRC was told they could not hire new intake counselors–the staff who change formats from text to digital. She added that two new academic advisors are being hired for the University Academic Advising Student Center (UASC), which also runs the DRC.

“We have limited resources,” said Mary Ann Barham, interim director of the UASC and the DRC.

According to Kramer, the DRC has five computers that she called outdated and eight graduate-level students trained to use the Optical Character Recognition Software, the program that formats text to digital. They would need twice that amount to operate fully, she said.

Reformatting text can take as long as 10 hours per chapter, she said, and there is no way for all of the students to get their formats as soon as they need them.

The DRC is funded by the Office of Student Affairs and it is supposed to be able to tap into an endless amount of funding from the Oregon University System’s Chancellor’s Office to format texts, Kramer said. Text formatting is a legally mandated service, she added.

“While the Chancellor has approved our accommodations overages in the past, he always wants to know why we keep asking for more,” said Dan Fortmiller, interim vice provost of Student Affairs. “With over 24,000 students on campus, my concern is for the whole student body, including the approximately 900 disabled students.”

Students have expressed concerns with the DRC’s funding difficulties and its backlog of texts that need to be reformatted.

“Maybe if they personally were more connected to the problem, their priorities would change,” said Jay Johnston, a student senator who sits on the PSU President’s ADA/Physical Access Committee.

“I have been denied and excluded from true participation at this university, time and time again, ” said David Chittenden, a graduate student in the Counseling Department who is blind. “How can I be expected to talk intelligently about a subject when I cannot have a chance to read the text?”

“This school prides itself on diversity, but disability is the unwanted stepchild of the diversity movement. They would rather look away,” he added.

“It is a question of priorities,” said Hannah Fisher, outreach and advocacy coordinator of the PSU Disabilities Advocacy Cultural Association. “If it is a complaint-driven system, then who is going to complain when all over campus people use words like ‘retard’ in their sentences.”