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[MUSIC PLAYING]
FEMALE NARRATOR: UW-Madison Disability Resources Training.
Module 2, Access and Accommodation at UW-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin's system was required by Federal
law to afford protections to individuals with disabilities
by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act in 1977.
The protections were reaffirmed with the passage of
the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
And the first UW system formal, nondiscrimination
policy was developed in 1988, and rearticulated by the Board
of Regents in 1996.
However, assistance to students with disabilities at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison was provided
prior to any legal mandate to do so.
As early as 1944, veterans with disabilities enrolled at
UW-Madison on the GI Bill and received assistance through
the Dean of Students Office.
Their disabilities were primarily mobility, visual, or
hearing loss.
Early accessibility advocates included Dean of Students,
Paul Ginsberg, Assistant Dean of Students, Blair Matthews,
and James Graaskamp, a world-renowned faculty member
in the School of Business, and founder of the
UW Real Estate Program.
Graaskamp, himself a wheelchair user as a result of
the polio epidemic, was a driving force in creating
opportunities for students with disabilities to be fully
included in campus life.
The McBurney Disability Resource Center is named in
honor of Madisonian Mike McBurney.
As a senior in high school, Mike had a severe spinal cord
injury in a diving accident in Lake Mendota.
Recovering from his injury but left with quadriplegia, Mike
enrolled at UW in the 1950s.
Family and friends helped Mike get into inaccessible
buildings and classrooms, and faculty included Mike in
classes via a telephone connection when necessary.
Mike McBurney graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the College of
Letters and Sciences in 1960.
And completed his Juris Doctorate from the UW School
of Law, graduating third in his class in 1963.
After practicing law for three years, Mike was elected Dane
County District Attorney, but died shortly
after taking office.
Graaskamp approached the McBurney family with the idea
of founding a disability services
office in Mike's memory.
With their support, and through the auspices of the
Dean of Students Office, the McBurney Disability Resource
Center was established in 1977.
Between 1977 and 1990, the campus saw a significant
increase in the number of students registering for
services through the McBurney Center.
While the number of students with mobility, visual, and
hearing loss remained relatively constant,
approximately 100 total, the number of students with hidden
disabilities, including learning disabilities,
attentional disorders and mental health
disorders, rose rapidly.
Requests for classroom accommodations, as opposed to
environmental access and barrier removal, grew
significantly during this period.
Accommodations in test-taking, conversion of printed course
material to audio or electronic format, and
assistance with note-taking also became
increasingly common.
In 1994 and 1995, the Committee on Access and
Accommodation in Instruction facilitated passage of two
significant faculty documents addressing classroom access.
Document 1071 articulates faculty policy on access and
accommodation in instruction.
Document 1143 addresses alternative assessment for
students with disabilities.
The CAAI continues its work today addressing current
issues on campus.
Including, but not limited to, campus climate and the
promotion of universal design principles in instruction
across all academic disciplines.
The CAAI is a shared governance committee and
reports annually to the faculty senate.
After the passage of the Americans with Disabilities
Act, the campus also formed the ADA Task Force to conduct
a campus accessibility audit and monitor compliance with
the provisions of the ADA.
This committee, currently named the Accessibility and
Usability Committee, is advisory to the provost.
Its membership includes representatives from
Administrative Legal Services, Facilities Planning and
Management, the General Library, Division of
Information Technology, Vice Provost Office for Diversity
and Climate, the Office of Equity and Diversity,
Athletics, and the McBurney Disability Resource Center.
As well as faculty and student members from across campus.
The formal committee structures resulted in
campus-wide policies regarding campus access.
UW-Madison also developed a collaborative model for
creating an accessible campus community.
In addition to the McBurney Disability Resource Center
which serves students with disabilities, three other
campus units have employees whose positions are fully or
partially dedicated to accessibility concerns.
The Office of Equity and Diversity coordinates
accommodations for employees with disabilities, the OED
Disability Coordinator, and a network of campus personnel
who primarily work in human resources, work closely with
employees and their supervisors to develop
individual accommodation plans.
The Division of Facilities Planning and Management
employs a Facilities Access Specialist who works at both
the individual and building-level regarding
physical access, transportation, signage, and
other environmental modifications.
FP&M also provides information for visitors, manages
web-based building maps with access information, and
emergency information for campus members with
disabilities.
The Division of Information Technology assists the campus
in maintaining compliance with the University Accessibility
Policy that endorses compliance with Section 508 of
the Federal Rehabilitation Act.
The Web Accessibility Team assists webmasters, course
instructors offering web-based courses, and department
administrators in creating accessible web products.
Other campus partners directly involved in promoting access
and inclusion for people with disabilities include the
General Library System, the Disability Studies Cluster
which is home to a number of the University's research and
teaching activities in the field of disability studies,
and the ADA coordinator, housed in the Office of
Administrative Legal Services.
CATHY TRUEBA: The number of students currently registered
with the McBurney Center is about 1,000, or approximately
2% of the total UW population.
This is consistent with national disability disclosure
data in higher education.
Students with hidden disabilities are now the
majority of students requesting accommodation.
Students with mental health disorders, followed by
students with attentional disorders, are now the largest
group of students seeking assistance through the
McBurney Center.
An emerging population is students living with chronic
health conditions, such as lupus, organ transplant,
Crohn's disease, and childhood diseases such as cystic
fibrosis, juvenile diabetes, and
childhood cancer survivors.
Responding to the dynamic nature of disability and
creating an inclusive higher education environment is a
challenge our campus supports through a committed network of
campus partners and collaborative systems.