Community College Disability Resource Center Informational Interview
10:07PM Jan 20, 2022
Speakers:
Joslynn
Felicia
Keywords:
accommodations
drc
modification
disability
felicia
services
access
disabilities
call
college
disability resource center
esd
universities
preferred seating
temporary accommodation
contact
credit
campus
class
talk
Hello everyone, welcome. My name is Joslynn Bigelow. I'm a behavior specialist and teacher on special assignment for the Clackamas ESD bringing to today the college university Disability Services interview with Miss Felicia Arce. Felicia, how you doing?
Good. Thank you.
Brilliant. We are so excited to have you today. Are you ready to talk about DRCs?
Yep.
Awesome. Well, let's start with what is the DRC, or a disability resource center.
So Disability Resource Center, or sometimes in colleges and universities, they may call us disability access centers, Disability Resource Centers, but really, it's the department that helps you access services, access your accommodation, that's where people like me, a disabilities coordinator, that's where I'll have my office. And that's where you'll, you might check out some assistive technology, and where you'll request your accommodations.
Wonderful. So the DRC is a place to go on the campus or calm email, who am I calling and going to see.
So you'll probably see an access or disability coordinator or someone similar to that to request your accommodation. So that's who the person that you'll meet with, you'll have your initial meeting with to link you to services.
Awesome. Now you're talking about services? I'm curious, what are some of those services that could be available to a person with a disability?
So we support people with disabilities have equal access to higher education? So that's through accommodations, advocacy, and resources, campus trainings.
Excellent. Now those are all some pretty big words. Let's unpack that a little bit. Before we unpack it, though, how do I know that I can access all these services? How am I eligible?
So this eligible, your... it's free, it's a free service. And you have to have documentation that says your diagnosis. If you're having trouble with that, always contact the Disability Resource Center. Sometimes they can provide temporary accommodation, sometimes you may might already have the documentation, they might be calling it something different, though.
Alrighty. So get some documentation in but it is free. Now, once I get my eligibility straightened out, I heard when you were talking about services, that there are accommodations, but in high school as a student with a disability, I may have received modifications and or accommodations. So what's the difference there? And what does that mean for me in college?
So in high school, they can provide a modification. But in college, we cannot provide that, unless you're taking you know that you could take the class for non credit, then you can do a modification, because then you would just be doing as much as the courses you can, and maybe in your pace, because you're not getting your grade, you're not doing it for credit. An accommodation, you'd be taking that class for a grade or for credit. And then you would get stuff like for example, say your peers are doing, you're taking a math class and you're doing 20 math problems, a modification, you're just trying to test it out, you might be doing five math problems. In accommodation, we would just give you extra time to do those math problems. We would give you extra time for your tests, text to speech, so it'd be read to you, your preferred, you would have preferred seating. So those are accommodations that you would receive.
Okay, so modifications change how much of the work I'm doing so I wouldn't be able to earn a full credit, accommodations help me meet the level of expectation of the class.
Yes.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks for clarifying. So, these services sound really great, great way for people with disabilities to access higher levels of education. How do they get started?
So you first can check out our website or call us and ask her what ask us. What are the first steps? Then you'll ask about the process. You'll schedule a meeting, then we'll go over accommodations, you'll fill out our application to get into our system.
Yeah. Alrighty, sounds great. Well, thank you, Miss Felicia, this has been an excellent opportunity to learn a little bit about DRC is and what's available to students with disabilities in college and universities.
Yeah, thank you and feel free to call us if you want to call our DRC to ask about another DRC we can generally talk to you about DRC but if you want how the DRC is look at like PCC or Mount Hood, I would strongly encourage you to contact those Disability Resource Centers.