Policy language instructional materials?:

All materials provided or required as part of academic instruction will be equally accessible to college community members. Faculty and staff will use principles of universal design to maximize the accessiblity of instructional materials for curricular instruction and delivery.

Faculty resolution language – for procedures or processes?:

November 19, 2008

Members of the summer institute for Disability & Diversity ask the faculty to consider this resolution:

Whereas,

Each year, roughly 9% of Evergreen students identify themselves to Access Services as a person with a disability related to mobility, dexterity, hearing, vision, learning, cognition, chronic disease, or psychological condition,

Roughly 60% of those students document their disabilities and receive legally mandated accommodations through Access Services.

Those legal mandates rest on civil rights laws won through the social protest and political action of people with disabilities,

And, the Strategic Plan commits the college to fully recognize and support inclusion and equal opportunities for all forms of diversity within the college community,

Whereas,

Improving adaptive and assistive computer technologies are enabling increasing numbers of students with disabilities to come to Evergreen each year,

Population changes related to age distributions and military service are bringing increasing numbers of students with disabilities to Evergreen every year,

The majority of our students with disabilities, when asked, attribute their choice to come, to Evergreen’s commitment to alternative and flexible teaching methods and learning styles,

Evergreen’s Five Foci and Expectations of a Graduate commit the college to promote and support student learning and academic achievements in every way possible,

Whereas,

A vital momentum is currently building in the college’s disability community through the work of standing committees, student organizing, and program development,

Through the Library’s recent creation of the Assistive Technology Lab as a peer to peer learning environment and gathering place for students with disabilities,

And, through the Campus Master Plan’s recent adoption of the design principle of universal access into its long-term architectural improvement policy for pathways connecting upper and lower campus,

Whereas,

There are no administrative structures or governance assignments within the Academic Division to specifically address pedagogical issues or opportunities related to teaching students with disabilities,

Evergreen currently budgets no funds and assigns no staff specifically for the purchasing, technical support of, or user instruction and support in, academic computing technologies designed to assist students with disabilities,

And, Disability Studies is an important and emerging international field of critical identity theory and minority studies that is underrepresented in the academic curriculum,

We request the faculty to resolve along with us the following:

To commit ourselves as a faculty to increased awareness and consideration of students with disabilities at Evergreen, and the field of Disability Studies, as we make teaching decisions and plan curriculum and events.

To support students with disabilities at the college as they organize in support of their civil rights at every Evergreen campus and in the Olympia community.

To support the President’s Diversity Fund Committee, and the Diversity and Equity Standing Committee, in their current initiatives to raise consciousness and educate the college community with respect to the many diverse identities, presences, and absences of people with disabilities in our community.

To support Access Services and other Student and Academic Support Services offices in their work with students with disabilities by utilizing their services whenever appropriate.

We also request the faculty to resolve with us:

To encourage the Administration to budget funds permanently for the acquisition and maintenance of adaptive and assistive technologies equal in quality and scope to academic computing and electronic media resources offered to the general population.

To encourage the Administration to do the same with respect to expert staffing to provide acquisitions recommendations, technical support services, user instruction, and user support to students, faculty and staff in their use.

To encourage the Administration to widen the Campus Master Plan’s commitment to universal access design principles to all areas of the college’s physical plant and student services.

To encourage the Administration to provide equal services and resources to all students with all types of disabilities.

We also request the faculty to resolve with us:

To encourage the deans to add regular, substantive discussion of the academic rights, responsibilities, and potential needs of students with disabilities to our organized curriculum planning activities.

To encourage the deans to do the same with respect to Access Services procedures for ADA accommodations and possibilities for curriculum design to minimize the need for accommodations.

To encourage the Hiring office to include ongoing discussion and awareness of disability issues at the college in the annual program of new and nearly new faculty meetings.

To encourage the Hiring office to encourage and support an annual summer professional development institute focused on Disability Studies, adaptive and assistive technology use, and community life for Evergreen students with disabilities.

Members of the institute:

Shawn Donnelly, Chico Herbison, Glenn Landrum, Lester Krupp, Ernestine Kimbro, Tracy Tuzzolino (Alumna), Jules Unsel, Rob Workman