Can We Improve? How Schools Handle Disabilities: Higher Education Edition

I obtained my bachelor's degree and master’s degree from different universities. Both had different ways of handling my case. This time, Valparaiso University had a better approach than the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. That is not to say that UIUC’s approach was bad at all. I’d argue that it did the best it could given the circumstances.

Before pursuing my undergraduate degree, my family chose to evaluate me one more time. At this time, the standards had changed to the DSM-V, so when I underwent the evaluation, my disability was updated to be autism spectrum disorder. On top of that, this evaluation was done in 2016, so that, assuming I pursued an undergraduate degree, my diagnosis and accommodations would remain unquestioned until I graduated from college. The way I understood it, some institutions want a recent evaluation done to ensure that these accommodations are still relevant and needed, as a student’s needs can change over time. For this reason, I was evaluated once again. This evaluation lasted me through the rest of my academic career.

Once I arrived at Valpo, they took care of me. The Access and Accommodations Resource Center was essential to my success at Valpo. The Director and I met up within the first week of classes starting. Once I provided proof of my disability and the accommodations I received back then, we sat down and talked about my disability, what accommodations I was granted in high school, and what we could do for me at Valpo. The accommodations I requested throughout my time there were extended time (time and a half, as I had been given in high school), a separate testing location for tests, and a single room to myself for my senior year of undergraduate. I could have requested more had I felt that I needed them. The center was willing to do that for me. I did not end up doing this as I didn’t feel I needed it, but the option was there.

These accommodations were written up and sent to all of my professors every semester that I signed up for classes. I did not have to be the one to reach out and tell them about my accommodations. They did this for me. This turned out to be a blessing, as it took the pressure off of me, who was shy during my freshman year of college, from having to approach professors that I did not know and tell them about my accommodations. I still had to ask for them for exams and quizzes, but the initial communication of “Hey, this student has these accommodations, so you’re aware”. They did this for all of my classes, no matter what department they were in.

The way Valpo handled accommodations was pretty good, but I will admit there was always one aspect I did not enjoy: testing in a separate location. For any courses outside of my major, I had to reserve a time in the testing center for a specific date and time when I wanted to start my exam and alert the professor I would be testing in an alternate location. Now, there was nothing physically wrong with the location. It was quiet and rather private. The only issue is that, even though my professors were supposed to be accessible to me from the separate location I was in, which was often in an entirely different building from where the professor would be at the time of taking the exam, I never felt comfortable asking the center’s employees to reach out to my professor to ask a question. I don’t know what can be done to rectify this. Perhaps allowing a student to be able to directly message a professor during an exam using Zoom or something like that would have alleviated this issue for me. The few times I did this, I had to ask the question to employees, and they had to send that question to the professor, and then the employee would give me the answer to the question I had asked based on the professor’s response. I often walked away after asking a question, still not understanding what I was missing in the first place. I think things would get lost in translation.

I was able to alleviate this within my department. Within the meteorology department, they allowed me to take exams within the same building, just in a small room by myself so that I could still approach my professor and ask questions. That was a lot better, and easier, for me since sometimes, I don’t know the question I need to ask until I get the paper in front of the professor. This worked well for me. Valpo, at the time I went there, had a policy of academic integrity. They did not proctor exams unless it was specifically requested or if there had been previous instances of cheating. Given the trust the professors had in the students, this allowed me to remain alone in a testing location, making it easier for them and me to take exams and be able to ask questions. This was a good testing environment for me, and I’m grateful for it.

When I went to graduate school, the way accommodations were handled was different, and a less ideal approach in general, but I can understand why they took that approach. UIUC is much larger than Valpo in every way. Valpo had about 4,000 students total on campus. UIUC’s numbers were around 44,000. That’s quite a size difference. Like Valpo, I supplied documentation to UIUC’s Disability Resource and Education Services (DRES) department about my disability, and accommodations were set. We sat down and had a conversation about what I had been granted previously. I wasn’t granted nearly the same range of accommodations. I was given exactly what I needed and that was it. If I required something else, even if I asked for it, without documentation, it would not happen. Another thing that was different this time was that I had to send professors the details about my accommodations. While this was uncomfortable, given the sheer number of students using the DRES office, it makes sense that they could not handle this for me. It would be far too much for one office to do on their own. I suspect this is also the reason I was given the minimum for accommodations and never offered anything extra to potentially help me. They could not spread resources as easily given the number of students.

Unlike Valpo, any exam I took was taken at the testing center at the DRES office. Similar to Valpo, however, was being able to contact the professor through the employees. This communication, while not ideal, was slightly better than it was at Valpo. They allowed me to write the question, which they copied word for word, and in turn, they’d give me the professor’s response, word for word. It was effective, though I still would have preferred direct communication.

Another difference between DRES and Valpo is that there was more surveillance and stricter policies. One example is that, during exams, I was being monitored by cameras. They could watch me from a live video monitor at the front desk. You also needed explicit permission from your professor to use a calculator if your exam required one. Again, it’s not that these differences were necessarily bad, they just felt weird after coming from a place like Valpo where the culture is different.

I’m not sure where improvements can necessarily be made to the system. Overall, I think things were handled as well as they could be at the time. I suspect that, as time and technology evolve, we’ll find better ways to handle this. For now, I’d argue higher education handles this better than primary and secondary education.