Presume Competence! The Disability Resource Center works for better access at PSU.
In the days before Jen Dugger Spalding moved to Portland to lead Portland State’s Disability Resource Center in 2012 she watched a movie called Music Within and got excited.
The 2007 movie stars Ron Livingston as Richard Pimentel, a Vietnam veteran attending PSU whose activism for disability rights contributed to the passing of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2020.
“It’s an amazing movie. It shows these scenes on the Park Blocks and celebrates how PSU got its start serving veterans,” Dugger Spalding says. “I’m surprised we don’t talk about it more.”
Departments like PSU’s Disability Resource Center (DRC) grew up after the ADA was passed in 1990. The ADA prohibits discrimination based on disabilities and requires equal access and equal opportunity for those with disabilities. But the work to support disabled students at PSU has grown considerably in the last 30 years to stretch beyond the idea of just accommodation.
“A lot of the work we do in our office is to reframe that compliance mentality into a social justice framework,” Dugger Spalding says. “The ironic thing is that although the ADA ensures ‘equal access’, the specific regulations and requirements of the ADA don’t go far enough to actually ensure equal access is given to everyone.”
When Dugger Spalding arrived at Portland State, 850 students were registered with the DRC, but there are close to 2,200 students registered today, a trend on par with higher education institutions across the United States.
“At least 11% of students anonymously identify themselves as having disabilities, so here in the DRC, we’re inching our way toward a number that looks similar to that,” Dugger Spalding says.
The work of the DRC can be simply described as removing barriers that individuals face in order to make PSU truly welcoming and inclusive. That includes tasks like advocating for physical access improvements on newer as well as existing structures on campus and working with disabled students to make their courses, field placement, and other experiences more accessible to them.
COVID Impacts
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented huge challenges and opportunities for the DRC and students with disabilities. The staff of eight with about 20 student employees has been making sure a virtual front desk is available via Zoom and that students are supported with everything they need for remote learning.
“It's definitely not been easy. We're working extremely hard to make sure all is going as smoothly as possible for our students,” Dugger Spalding says. “It’s given us a chance to hone our craft, to examine how to make it better for everyone.”
For some, accessibility has been redefined by remote teaching and learning.
Lizzie Allen, a student employee in the DRC and a Masters in Social Work student, welcomes the opportunities that the pandemic has brought for remote work — both for her job and the internship required for her degree.
Allen was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2018 and has learned to be an advocate both for herself and others with chronic illness. She’d been hoping for remote options for internships, something she was told would be impossible. But since the pandemic, it’s become the norm.
“It would be infuriating, frankly, if when this is over we go back to what we were doing before,” Allen says. “I’m more effective at my job when I’m able to work from home. We need to continue to offer more options.”
Flori Tello, who is finishing up her BA in Psychology, is a blind mother of two girls who enjoys baking and going for runs. She credits the DRC and her counselor there with helping her persevere and finish her degree.
But the shift to remote learning?
“It’s been pretty bumpy,” Tello says.
While instructors have been understanding of her disability and she’s grateful to not have to commute, the turnaround time of getting accessible materials has put pressure on her schoolwork and sometimes remote access to services just don’t work for her.
Still, Tello says her existing contacts at the DRC have helped her though.
“For me as a Latina, relationships are really key for me to continue this journey,” she says. “I don’t even know if I’d be here where I am today without the people that I’ve felt that connection with.”
Universal Design
While the pandemic has opened up new conversations about what accessibility means, Dugger Spalding and her team at the DRC, along with others across the university, have been pushing the idea of inclusivity and accessibility as a human right for many years.
“Accessibility is a global responsibility,” says Michele Bromley, IT accessibility coordinator with the Office of Information Technology.
Her position oversees PSU’s Electronic Information Technology Accessibility Policy, which she helped develop alongside Dugger Spalding and others.
“The ADA essentially says, ‘Hey, people need to have equal access,’ but doesn’t say how, in terms of digital content,” Bromley says. “The World Wide Web was only just born at the time, so it wasn't really a consideration."
Bromley has been instrumental in implementing resources, training and design work to make web-based content and the technology procurement process more accessible — things that the authors of the ADA weren’t even considering.
“When we talk about diversity and inclusion we’re talking about everyone,” Bromley says. “So this is not just about accessibility, but about user friendly content for everyone.”
In addition to OIT, partners across the university are working on university accessibility — applying an accessibility lens to everything from Accessibility and Universal Design Standards for building projects to the University Accessibility Committee, a campuswide group that will soon launch an update to the Inclusive Meetings and Events Guide.
Julie Caron, PSU’s ADA Coordinator in the office of Global Diversity and Inclusion oversees compliance with the ADA working with DRC, Human Resources, facilities, and other departments on accommodations and leaves. Caron is excited to see the progress that PSU has made in advancing universal design in all aspects of accessibility, but like Dugger Spalding, knows that there is still a lot of work to be done.
“Let’s just be clear: The only reason the DRC exists, the only reason some disabled students or employees get accommodations is because the environment isn’t already as accessible as it needs to be for everyone to have the same opportunities to do well,” says Dugger Spalding. “The ADA isn’t solely the responsibility of the DRC or HR and until we start doing more as a campus community to proactively address and remove the barriers that affect all students, we will continue to see some students fall through the cracks. We all can be more flexible, compassionate, and creative and that makes a huge difference.”