Will McElroy began his freshman year at The University of Memphis last fall with more than a little uncertainty. He suffers from cerebral palsy, a neurological condition affecting body movement and muscle coordination.
But McElroy went to Student Disablity Services’ orientation, and he found the answers he needed.
“Student Disability Services was eager to help me, and they set up an orientation for new students,” he said.
Mcelroy, a recording technology major, was one of 182 new students to register with SDS in 2004-2005.
Last year, 785 students at The University of Memphis were registered with Student Disability Services, according to Susan Te Paske. Te Paske, who has directed SDS since July 2003, said many people do not know who is eligible to receive services.
“Students (who are eligible) include those with physical disabilities and those with chronic health problems that you can’t see,” she said.
About 50 percent of the students who receive assistance from SDS have a learning disability, such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), and the other half have chronic health problems, which include visual, hearing and mobility impairment, Te Paske said.
Te Paske said students with disabilities come from many different cultural backgrounds.
“The students’ diversity reflects the general population of the school,” Te Paske said. “They include students of all different majors on the graduate and undergraduate level.”
Te Paske said all students must provide SDS with current and thorough medical or professional documentation and meet with an SDS coordinator for an intake appointment. Ideally, the registering process should take about a week, she said. According to Te Paske, the main goal of the assessment is to determine the functional limitations of the student, so the appropriate accommodations can be made.
“It is important to make sure the disability is not what is graded,” she said.
For example, if someone has a reading disability that requires more time spent on class material, the accommodations might include books on CD or extra time on a test, Te Paske said. Other accommodations include zoom text for visually impaired students, essays on computers for students with writing disabilities and even the removal of a class from one classroom to another that is accessible by wheel chair. She credited the advances in understanding and technology with making students with disabilities more independent.
Te Paske said many students do not register with SDS because they worry about what people will think and that people will think they are less intelligent. According to Te Paske, the faculty at The University does a very good job of serving students and helping them with necessary accommodations.
“We are extremely fortunate that we have faculty who are interested in students with disabilities,” she said. “We get calls from professors who ask how they can better understand and help the students.”
Every semester, students are supposed to meet with SDS and determine functional limitations based on the nature of their classes and decide what accommodations will be necessary. The students then give their professors a memo from SDS.
McElroy said he stops by the SDS office from time to time. He said he can always count on the staff to be friendly and helpful.
For some students, the effect SDS services has on their grades is immediately apparent. McElroy said the calculus tutoring he received helped him show his true potential.
“My grade improved tremendously,” he said. “I got an ‘A’ in the class.”
But not everyone is getting the assistance they need. Te Paske said some very smart people have marginal grades.
“There are students who have an ‘A’ brain but are getting ‘Cs’ and are trying,” Te Paske said.
Students who are registered with SDS decide how much information is revealed to their professors and what accommodations to use. They can use all the resources granted to them or none, according to Te Paske.
“SDS is all about learning,” Te Paske said. “We will make all the reasonable and appropriate measures to make it work.”
