SAS Webinar

Basic.

Everyone I see we got a little crowd with us. Today, interested in hearing about some of what Tom's office and student Accessibility services has to offer as usual. Adam keys from the Dean of students office here with you, we got some People logging in but we will get started in just a minute. Just a couple of reminders. We do record this so we will get it out to your social media as well as to the email addresses that have been provided. We post that the links to all of our historical.

Webinars on the family Facebook or family page of the welcome sight as well. We will not record. The moderated chat that doesn't sort of record with us. You just get the slides in our audio, although the answers to the questions generally cover most of what the questions would have visibly bin I put a little reminder in the chat box. But if you have any questions. Feel free to submit them at any point I will get them and get them out there, but also we do sort of catch and release version of the chat so it's moderated.

Which means if you have anything that you want kept private you want us to just cover it or Tom specifically to cover it. Feel free to just write the word private being your question, we will not disclose that it was you that asked it. But just sort of cover that topic so that you're aware of what's going on?

That said, I'll give the floor to Tom and and sort of be here to to help guide the technical process of our weather. Hi everybody, my name is Tom Sawicki. I'm the director for student Accessibility services here at Clark.

The Associate Director Amy current cannot be here tonight, but she is my counterpart, and the person that helps with the majority of.

Testing accommodations and we kind of split the workload for meeting with students during the academic year for a whole bunch of stuff.

The purpose of this web and R will be to give you just a brief overview of some of the things that we offer here at Clark. It's definitely not encompassing of everything we take a individual approach to each student and so that process is very much can be very much different for everybody, So what I'll do is I'll outline some of the general things that most students will encounter and then if you have questions again, said feel free to.

Type them in and I will do my best to answer them.

So as you can see on slide one.

The goal of Student Accessibility Services is.

Really to ensure that students are having equal access to their academic.

Courses we also do housing accommodations and some other pieces of around campus. But the majority of our services are focused on academics and helping People get to the information and the materials that they need.

One of the things that we do is we understand that students are coming to Clark for the first time and they're going to need some help with a bunch of a bunch of different things. So what we try to do is we're trying to meet with students at a fairly regular basis and talk through what strategies look like to address issues that come up and then obviously we want to make sure that we're developing a good community supportive community and we try to assist students with all sorts of.

Different things that they might run into and we try to be a good refer to other areas of campus that could help them as well.

So the main areas that Stern Accessibility's services focuses on are the formal academic accommodations. So those I'll expand on a little bit. But those are going to be things like extended time for testing reduce distraction environment note, taking different things like that.

We do holistic advising and guidance and the way that I explain that to a lot of People is students that are coming to Clark and registering for academic accommodations are just like any other student and what we try to do is we try to provide advising and guidance through the lens of Accessibility and so we meet with students about academic concerns social interpersonal concerns. We meet with students that.

Want to try something new, and don't really know how to do that and we cover a bunch of topics.

We also do housing accommodations.

And so housing accommodations happen when.

A student needs some sort of accommodation to help them access housing in an equitable way. And so some examples of housing accommodations would be emotional support animals medical single requests. If a student has mobility concerns and they need to be on the first floor or in an elevator in a building with an elevator, different things like that, and then we also work closely with the Dean of students office.

And the Dean of college office and we provide referrals to other departments on campus that are there for student support.

The next few slides in the talk a little bit about some of the more specific accommodations. If this is not an exhaustive list. But these are some of the things that we see most frequently.

Couple of those would be test, taking supports notetaking supports and alternative formats for textbooks. There's going to be a few pieces for each of those.

Test taking supports are probably the largest group of accommodations that we see on campus last year. I believe we averaged about 500 exams. Proctor each semester. So we had quite a few students that utilized. Their test accommodations and those include extended time for in class quizzes and exams reduce distraction environment for in class quizzes and exams.

And the way that we do testing accommodations that Clark is that we have a testing room where you can come in and sit down and their space for about 12 to 14 People at a time and what we do is we work with each individual student to schedule. A time and make sure that they are able to take their tests in an appropriate and timely manner.

The testing room that we have is up in the Aisect Building and it's nice quiet spot, but it's also surrounded by a lot of the student support offices, so that you can come up and have access to all of the folks that help students on campus while you're also meeting with us.

And the other things we do, we use computers slash word processors for quizzes and exams. We typically see this with students that have difficulty writing or they have some sort of specific.

Diagnosis that makes having a computer.

Easier for them and also use of a Calculator for basic math if it's not necessarily like a math course.

When we're looking at exam accommodations. We have a pretty basic setup that we use requesting your testing accommodations is fairly easy. We try to make it as simple as possible, and that starts out when you get to campus you will fill out an accommodation and academic accommodation consent form and basically what that allows us to do is it allows us to email your professors and just say.

This student has an academic accommodation, you should be aware of it. And if they decide to come. Talk to you about it. Please just understand that it's something that we provide and so you would fill that out, once per semester and then every time that you're going to have a quiz test exam. You'll fill out the test relocation form and that form is the form that allows us to schedule each students exam it's pretty easy.

It's about a one page, Google form. It's iaccessible right on the web page and it takes about 2 minutes to fellow pretty pretty simple.

The for the testing accommodations. There's two ways that we typically see students complete that and one is either with their professor in the Department and that could look like a biology student taking a mid term might want to take the exam in the biology Department because there might be technical questions that myself and Amy can't answer. We typically see that is a fairly common reason that students would decide to take it.

With the professor in the Department and the student would really be in charge of scheduling that with the professor and making sure that they are communicating their neat there if they student decides to schedule the exam with our office and SAS they would fill up the form. We would schedule the exam and we would reach out to the professor to get the exam from them so that you could come to our office and take him.

No taking supports or something that we also provide at Clark and note taking supports can look like a few different things. Some students use their laptop or computer or tablet for in class note taking.

And I would say it at the college University level. A lot of students use their laptops, in class. If there is an issue with the professor that doesn't allow that but you have the accommodation. We would just reach out to the professor and let them know the specifics, and then that would be all set.

And some of the informal supports that we also kind of talk students through our ways to talk to your TAS your professors and your classmates so that if you are feeling like you're missing something in class. You can also create a support network for yourself, but we kind of help. Students navigate that and figure out the best way to speak to other students and their professors.

We also provide the?

Recording the audio recording of lectures and we see that happen in a few different ways, most students will use their laptop.

Because.

There is a feature on your laptop to record and they'll use that in conjunction with things like one note or Evernote.

Sanisette occurs while if they if they use that?

Uhm the other piece that we have available in our office is smart pen and we have probably about 1/2 a dozen smart pens from Livescribe and those pens use a special notebook and they record the lecture. While you also write your notes and then what it does is it creates a PDF that you can load onto your computer and you can actually search through your PDF.

Notes and click on.

The words that you're writing down and it will time stamp the lecture and it will play the lecture from the point that you were writing the notes. So it's it's a neat tool. We've seen a lot of students start using different pieces of technology like this and then we also have volunteer notetakers, so that would be students in your class that volunteer to take notes and we try to get that sorted out in the 1st or 2nd week of classes once we know that the roster is.

Finalized and People are going to add and draw them leave.

Alternative text in formatting our it's a group of accommodations that we typically see with students that have sorts of processing disorders dyslexia. Nonverbal learning disorder and things like that, and basically what that looks like is.

We try to provide students access to audio books to books in a iaccessible electronic format. Whether that is a searchable PDF or a Microsoft Word document that works in conjunction with a screen reader and we assist students in formatting those items. We have access to book share accounts for individual students, or you can go on and request electronic copies or formats for those.

Textbooks.

One of the other things that we do is we scan items that may not be available, so typically what we see that being.

Where we see that is in older articles that are used in things like history or sociology or even psychology where there's just there a little bit older, but still relevant articles and what we do is we scan those and we put it through our software system that recognizes the words and we format it for you so that it's available to you using a screen reader or just to have an electronic copy.

Some of the other sorts of supports that we do, or a little bit more informal.

It's kind of like the second layer to our office and those are the types of SAS supports that we look at things like executive functioning skills. So we would be scheduling meetings with students. Some students meet with us biweekly or once a month or once a semester to check in talk about progress in their courses. You talk about How do I organize my workload? How do I prioritize and plan my assignments out.

You know How do I build a calendar so that I have study time and then what we do is we also provide check in an follow through so that we can kinda help with accountability and I guess a little bit.

About that would be looking at assignments looking at projects, helping you break them up into more manageable chunks, helping you with getting over a difficult section by no means or we experts in every single subject, but between me and I we have a pretty good understanding of most of the general level courses that are offered at Clark and kind of how to prioritize the material we might not know.

Specific things about a sociology class, but we know how to organize and how to prioritize different things.

One of the other types of meetings that we do is with study skills. You know, we do. Talk to students about how to develop better reading skills or comprehension skills? How to write one of the things that we have here at Clark as well as the writing center and they do a lot of really awesome work. So often times will provide a little bit of basic assistance with that and then refer out to the Writing Center.

As appropriate.

Note taking skills or another thing that you know is.

Very common I think when you get to Clark, a lot of Clark.

Courses are discussion based and research based and it might not necessarily just be a professor talking at you, there's going to be a lot of content. There's going to be a lot of different information to gather and use. And so we talk about different ways to take notes and again. We also place referrals out to a couple different academic support Department says well that also have skews me that also have grad assistants and pure tutors and.

Folks that help with those different types of note, taking and study skills and test taking strategies folks just as a reminder if you've got any questions that are popping in your head that Tom hasn't covered or have some things that are interesting to your knowledge that you're looking to know feel free to submit questions here in the chat and again as a reminder if any of that is something that you don't want folks to see is your specific question. You can just write private before the question, we will cover the topic without displaying your question to the group.

Nothing.

And some of the other things that we do our interpersonal skill building. So we understand that for first year students, especially you know this is the first time that they're navigating a lot of these different.

Situations and

At the college and University level. Sometimes the supports that you need are decentralized. So instead of going to a resource room or a guidance counselor. You might have to pop around to a couple different departments to get the assistance. You need and So what we try to help students that maybe don't have a lot of experience with that, we try to help them talk about what is self advocacy look like? How can you speak up and talk about what you need in a appropriate and constructive way so that you get the needs net.

We talk about how to have difficult conversations with professors. Maybe your maybe a student's not doing well and they want to ask for support. But they don't know how to initiate that conversation between me and myself. We interact with a lot of the faculty members on campus and chances are we know them. At some level. So we're able to offer some pointers may be different ways to approach that conversation so that you can be successful.

And then as I kind of alluded to before we try to really make sure that we're connecting students with the appropriate offices. If we can't assist them in the moment and things offices like that would be the Writing Center. Academic supports academic advising study abroad community engagement enough students office as a whole, which next bullet point down includes health services counseling services residence life and Housing Campus Life, which also includes.

Student leadership in programming and SLP is in charge of student clubs and organizations and we're a firm believer in the thought that students that are involved on campus are going to be more successful so we always try to get students connected with activities with People on campus, so that you have as many resources as possible to help you out throughout the

Academic here folks I think that's an important point here that I'm speaking about sort of the intent versus impact of the law when it comes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Right so charms office is sort of our space on campus. That is Privy to this information about whether it be your diagnosis or recommendations for accommodations that are specific to you in the world of keeping things private and making sure that your confidentiality is kept to the level of?

Only those who need to know.

Many of these recommendations from from Tom Ramey are going to come to you, but can't necessarily come to our offices to do that outreach to you right so it's going to be really important that if if folks from student Accessibility services.

Guide you tored one of these offices that you take just sort of an initial self advocacy step to just even a quick email or Phone call to that office, saying I think you might be able to help me? Can I set up a meeting and that's all most of those offices are going to need to sort of get you in the door and you then disclose and talk about whatever it is that you want to. But, Unfortunately, Toms Office is not a space that can simply send me a list of People saying Hey. These are students. I'm working with that could benefit for meeting with you right so when you have those connections in those conversations.

Guided into those resource areas. This is the space where as much as we wished. It was as simple as Hey. Give me a list. I'm happy to reach out.

It puts us in a dangerous space where we're starting to put your confidentiality at your privacy in jeopardy. So, just so a word to the wise for both families and students that might hear this those are going to be initial steps that you have to take and we will pick you up from there, yeah, and one of the reasons that I didn't include a specific slide on documentation and registering is one because we have a really comprehensive page on our website that covers that.

But also it's really different for everybody and one of the things that we try to do is we try to get to know the students individually through meetings and we did have a question come in and when I talk about meetings with both myself and Amy.

The amount of meetings or the types of meetings can vary from student to student. I would say typically we see our students meet either biweekly or once a month with us. We do not have mandatory meetings. We don't have if you don't come to our office. You're never allowed to talk to us again. We will meet with you when you want to meet with us.

We.

Also see a lot of students so it's not something that we can meet with everybody every week. But we do our best to really prioritize the student issues and what's going on and how we can help. I think one of the other pieces to consider it. I can speak to it a little bit more in the next slide. It's designed a little bit more for students and families, but

If the students not doing well, or they need help or there, they feel like they're struggling.

It's really, really important that the student talks to us and comes and identifies the fact that they might need some assistance because we are not always going to know there are a few spaces.

And meeting.

Meetings on campus where select administrators that need to know information meet and talk about certain things, but by and large a student really needs to come knock on our door and say, Hey, I need help.

There's not really minimum criteria for that it could be. Hey, I bombed the quiz and I need help talking about that or it could be. I'm having trouble at home and then we would refer that student to the appropriate person on campus to talk to we really try to take each student as they come in individually.

I think I covered that question.

So.

I guess that's a good segue into interventions and assistance. So you know, we understand that our office is Privy to a lot of information and so when it is appropriate. And when it's required. We will reach out to other folks on campus like the Dean of students the counseling center in the Health Center.

And we will connect students with the spaces and places, that they need to be connected to.

Again, you know it's a student's responsibility to really check in with us and let us know what's going on. That is probably the main way that we hear about that. There is a resource on campus for faculty, staff and administrators to use called care and basically that's where folks can put in a note and say for instance, a faculty member says I've noticed student a has been having trouble in my class lately.

Can somebody check in with them and see what's going on and the care team which is a bunch of administrators on campus and other resources. They'll identify who is the most appropriate to reach out to that student and if it's me, they'll send me a quick email and say, Hey, Tom, I don't know if you know this student, but can you check in with them and myself Miami will do that, so that's one of the other ways that we could.

Be informed of a need to reach out to students.

And then you know just some closing thoughts. You know, one of the things that we really want to be cognizant of is that Clark Surreally, inclusive and great space for students and we want to make sure that we are challenging everybody to practice thinking from different points of views in the student services bubble. We see students at their worst at their best we see students with a wide range of skills and things that they bring to the table.

And we want to encourage other People that aren't necessarily seeing that take a look and recognize. We also really, really, really, really, really can't stress this enough. We want students to stay engaged with resources.

That is how you will be successful if you show up to class if you show up to a meeting if you show up to something that you're supposed to show up to that is 90% of the battle fought and if you are showing up and you're willing to take advice or follow directions. It will be very hard for you to not do well. That is something that I think I can't stress enough.

And then we you know, we really encourage students to find your comfort zone. Find the place that you do well practiced good boundaries around that don't over. Exert yourself challenge yourself as appropriate an really make sure that you're making the most of your opportunities here, Clark.

And then you know, obviously be creative build interpersonal relationships. I think when we see students that.

Encounter, a barrier the students that are more successful in navigating that and finding a solution to ever issue. They have are the students that have built really good relationships on campus and work with our office closely to.

To learn about the things that are offered in the ways to.

To be creative and in solution finding?

I think that's a pretty general overview of the services that we offer there is a lot of very specific questions that students have and we encourage students to reach out to us via email, which I didn't put on the slide. I apologize but the email is accessibilityservices@clarku.edu so that would be Clark the letter u.edu.

And we will respond to your email fairly promptly usually within 1 or 2 days and let you.

Let you know what our answer is or if we can provide assistance great, so I'm going to leave this slide up here for a minute. While we close. I'm not seeing any other questions come in over the last 10 minutes. Even so, it will probably be a short night for us. Here couple updates. We are expecting our first group of students on campus this Sunday. That's our ASP reorientation program so we are in the 1st week of school officially here at the University.

For administrators and even some faculty.

We are next week, we will advertise early for early next week, so late this week will get it out to you web and R where you will meet the orientation coordinators who are students that help organize the orientation program and galvanizing train their their other peer mentors known as peer advisors or piets.

And then move in date for those of you who might be here already registered with student Accessibility services and participating in early orientation is August 20th and we will then transition into our general opening day of August, 22nd for all first year. Students followed by our first day of classes on August 26, 2019. Old circa so feel free if you've got any last minute questions to get those in to various offices.

I'm going to host alive text session sometime next week as well, where you can live text in for about 2 hours. All of your questions and I will respond to as many of them as I have my knowledge base for in my 5 years here at Clark if I don't know the answer I will first feel the shame of not knowing that answer and then secondarily make sure that I get you to the right office or let you know that I'll follow up with you via personal email after that, but as always, thanks for those who chose to join us.

Again, this is recorded so we will get it out to the social media platforms. In other spaces that you can access.

For listening to it again 1 final question coming in do you have to move in on the 20th of your registers to disability services? Absolutely not you could not need that at all. You might need a note taker and one class and that does not mean in any way, shape or form, that you have to be here 2 days early. It is just an opportunity to Toms Office provides with the rest of the University for students who is a combination tends to be a lot more around transition. Another maybe even physical.

Accommodations that allow the person to set up quickly, so again thanks everybody for joining us and we will certainly be in further touch with you in the near future. Any final questions or comments that might have feel free to give us a call or email us and we're happy to get back to you thanks everyone.