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FEMALE NARRATOR: UW-Madison
Disability Resources Training--
Module 3, McBurney Center Programs and Services.
UW-Madison achieves its legal obligation to provide equal
access to students with disabilities through the
McBurney Disability Resource Center.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A student in a wheelchair and her
service dog enter the McBurney center.
FEMALE NARRATOR: The McBurney Center's mission is to help
create an accessible university community for
students with disabilities through a collaborative effort
involving students, faculty, and the McBurney staff.
The center is responsible for determining disability status.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The same student sits at an accessible
table in a classroom.
FEMALE NARRATOR: And making recommendations for
accommodations that provide students with an equal
opportunity to participate in all educational activities.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Scenes of the general student population
on campus and in the classroom.
FEMALE NARRATOR: To be eligible for accommodations
and services through the McBurney Center, students must
have a documented disability legally defined as a physical
or mental impairment substantially limiting one or
more major life activities, such as walking, speaking,
seeing, hearing, learning, or caring for oneself.
The McBurney Center serves students with learning,
psychological, physical, health, and sensory
disabilities.
And the majority of these students have hidden
conditions.
For example, attention deficit disorder,
depression, or diabetes.
Students with learning disorders comprise about half
the population of students served, while the fastest
growing population is students the psychological conditions,
such as anxiety or depression.
The number of students with chronic health conditions,
like Crohn's disease, or type 1 diabetes, continues to grow,
as does, on a smaller scale, the number of students on the
autism spectrum and student veterans.
Accommodation may be physical, electronic, instructional, or
attitudinal.
A reasonable accommodation is a modification or adjustment
to a course, program, service, activity, or facility that
enables a qualified student with a disability an
opportunity to attain the same level of performance or to
enjoy the benefits and privileges as are available to
a similarly qualified student without a disability.
Accommodations are determined on a case by case basis and
may not fundamentally alter the program, service, or
activity, or cause an undue financial or
administrative burden.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Image of McBurney Center VISA.
FEMALE NARRATOR: At UW-Madison, the Verified
Individualized Services and Accommodations plan, or VISA,
is a written record of the accommodations recommended by
the McBurney staff for the student whose name appears on
the document.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A student discusses her VISA with a
woman professor in a classroom.
FEMALE NARRATOR: The VISA facilitates communication
between a student and his or her faculty.
Students are expected to meet privately with faculty to
discuss classroom
accommodations in a timely manner.
Usually, within the first two to three
weeks of each new semester.
The first step for faculty in the accommodation process is
to consider the degree to which the accommodation
changes the nature of the learning or testing process.
When there is no meaningful impact to the standards of the
course or exam, faculty must make suitable arrangements for
accommodations.
Disability or accommodation-related
information must not be shared with anyone who is not
directly assisting with the accommodation process.
Faculty are encouraged to contact the McBurney Center or
their department's Access and Accommodation Resource
Coordinator if they have questions about the provision
or appropriateness of the recommended accommodations.
The VISA includes several important pieces of
information for faculty.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Image of a completed
McBurney Center VISA.
FEMALE NARRATOR: First it shows the date the original
VISA was created, when it was revised, if appropriate, and
when it expires.
Second, the VISA includes the name and contact information
of the McBurney Accommodation Specialist who
works with the student.
Third, level 1 and 2 services and accommodations are shown.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A student in a wheelchair consults with
a McBurney counselor and signs her VISA.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Finally, the student is asked to read a
disclosure statement and then sign the visa to show he or
she understands that McBurney staff may share relevant
disability information with appropriate university
personnel participating in the accommodation process on a
need to know basis.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Student uses speech recognition
software to write a document.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Most often, the accommodations recommended
for students with disabilities involve the provision of
additional time.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Student uses text-to-speech software
to highlight and read a text passage.
FEMALE NARRATOR: A student with a learning disability
often needs additional time to read or write, especially
under timed testing conditions.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Student reads Braille document.
FEMALE NARRATOR: While a student was a visual
impairment may need more time to read text using Braille.
Students with chronic health or psychological disorders may
need flexibility with a due date or a test date if the
symptoms of their disorder cause interference.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Image of an accommodation letter to
faculty for a student with a chronic health condition.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Prior to the semester getting underway, the
student will present faculty with a student accommodation
letter verifying the episodic nature of their disability,
along with suggestions for supporting the student during
times of heightened symptoms.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Four students take an exam in a
small group conference room.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Extended time on tests and testing in a
small group allow students to be evaluated on the basis of
their knowledge of course content without undue
interference from their disability.
The standard recommendation for extended time on tests is
50% additional time.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Student reads passage with a screen
magnification program.
FEMALE NARRATOR: This benefits students, for example, who
process visual information or retrieve information from
memory significantly more slowly than peers due to, for
example, a reading disorder or traumatic brain injury.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Student takes test in
a partitioned space.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Testing in a separate, less distracting
environment is helpful for students who have difficulty
concentrating, such as those with an attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder or severe anxiety.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Professor sends email to student
confirming test accommodations.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Faculty arrange test accommodations by
reserving a room in the department and identifying a
proctor as needed.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Online form for requesting a testing and
evaluation services proctor.
FEMALE NARRATOR: When a separate room is available,
but a proctor is not, faculty can make a request from the
Testing and Evaluation services proctor pool using an
online request form.
Another commonly recommended accommodation is for classroom
notetakers.
Students who are approved for this accommodation ask faculty
to assist them in identifying a classmate the McBurney
center will pay to provide a copy of his or her notes to
the McBurney student.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Student meets with his notetaker after
class to receive class notes.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Students who have difficulty writing
quickly, remembering, or following a classroom lecture
because of a hearing loss or a mood or thought disorder, may
be approved for this accommodation.
The faculty role is primarily to assist with notetaker
recruitment.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: McBurney staff scans pages of a book.
FEMALE NARRATOR: The document conversion accommodation
provides access to written materials.
Students with a reading disorder or visual impairment
may need recorded audio, electronic
text, or Braille documents.
Because it can take several weeks to locate or produce
accessible materials, faculty are asked to select their
course reading materials as far in advance of the start of
class as possible.
Minimally six weeks.
Accommodations for students who are deaf or hard of
hearing include sign language interpreting, real time
captioning, and captioned media.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A sign language interpreter signs in
a discussion group and a captioner types on a
stenography machine, and the words appear on a laptop.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Sign language interpreters translate
everything said and heard in the classroom into sign
language, while captioners convert everything said and
heard in the classroom verbatim into text on a
computer screen.
Interpreters and captioners will accompany students who
are deaf and hard of hearing into the classroom and will
ask faculty to provide materials in order to prepare
for the classes in which they will be interpreting and
captioning.
They may need access to learn@uw in order to review
online course materials.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Online video is shown with closed
captions turned on.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Any media used in the classroom will
need to be captioned in order to be accessible to students
with hearing loss.
Captioned media refers to any type of media that has a text
equivalent for all audio information presented.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: UW web page showing list of AARCs by
department.
FEMALE NARRATOR: Every academic department or unit on
campus has a designated Access and Accommodation Resource
Coordinator, or AARC.
The AARC serves as a resource to faculty, staff, and
students to ensure an accessible learning
environment for students with disabilities.
AARCs may assist in finding resources for faculty to
provide academic accommodations, like quiet
rooms and proctors for test taking.
They may consult with faculty on unusual accommodation
requests, or on complex student issues, such as
extended absences and multiple assignment extension requests.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Cathy Trueba, Assistant Dean of
Student Life and Director of the McBurney Disability
Resource Center.
FEMALE NARRATOR: While traditional classroom
accommodation is the primary manner in which equal access
to learning is achieved, the McBurney Center takes a much
more holistic approach to serving students through our
adaptive technology, psychology,
and transition services.
The McBurney Adaptive Technology Lab has expanded
our ability to demonstrate a variety of adaptive tools, and
train students on their use.
We offer psychology services support to students in the
areas of executive functioning, managing academic
anxiety, and living with a disability.
Our transition programming assists students with
disabilities from admission to the University of Wisconsin
through graduation and entry into employment.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: McBurney Disability Resource Center,
the University Wisconsin-Madison.
Video by Media Plus You, LCC.
Executive producer Cathy Trueba.
Producer Diane Woodbridge.
Voice-over Cathy Trueba.
Additional voice-over and audio
descriptions Debra Claire.
McBurney students and staff appearing in the video, Debra
Claire, Alex Inig, Kyle Loger, Meagan Minster, Branson
Minster, Molly Minster, Terri Oeherlein, Jorge Luis Perez,
Olivia Ramoino, Sam Schmidt, Todd Schwanke, Kate Skarda,
Heather Lipinksi Stelljes, Ben Thomas, Cathy Trueba,
Elizabeth Van Deslunt, Diane Woodbridge, Kris Wurgler,
Zeynep Yilmaz.
Special thanks--
Georgianna McBurney Stebnitz, McBurney Disability Resource
Center, Todd Schwanke, Department of Economics Andres
Aradillas-Lopz, Department of Social Work, Anna Haley-Lock,
UW-Madison Division of Information Technology
Christopher Blair Bundy and John Thompson, UW-Archives
Vicki Tobias, Wisconsin Historical Society, Tom Olin.
This training series was made possible by many generous
contributions made to the McBurney Center Fund through
the UW Foundation.
For more information about the Center and ways you can offer
support, see www.mcburney.wisc.edu,
copyright 2012, UW Board of Regents.