TWU provides equity of access
December 9, 2005
Alison Madden
In the last year, Trinity Western University has made a concerted effort to provide students who have academic and physical disabilities with the tools they need to have a barrier-free education.
The Equity of Access Office, directed by David Stinson, helps to accommodate students by providing the services students need to have a normal university experience. Stinson’s efforts are concentrated on accommodating students with physical disabilities. He aids students who have problems with campus facilities through such measures as making buildings wheelchair accessible.
In her new position as Academic Disabilities Liaison (ADL), Marjorie Drury, a former TWU nursing teacher, aids students with academic disabilities by helping them with their course work and acting as link between students and faculty.
“The academic success of the students is the prime focus,” she said.
Drury also helps students reach their full academic potential by providing note-takers, and by revising and reformatting print material into an audio machine for the blind.
The ADL centre also provides a quiet and stress-free zone for students to write exams. Students have the option to write exams in the portable adjacent to the gym, where the ADL center is located. To ensure the academic standards of the university are not compromised, Drury distributes the exams and returns them to the professors as soon as the student completes the examination.
Drury is clear about the fact that the Equity of Access services are not a homework help program.
“We are here to accommodate the student’s needs, if they choose to use our services,” she said. Students need to provide documentation such as confirmation from a doctor, or the results of specialized testing, to show that they have a disability.
Currently, there are 35 students on file with a documented disability who have chosen to use the Equity Access services. These students include those that are confined to a wheelchair, those with sight and hearing problems, those with psychological disabilities, and those with disabilities such as ADD.
As one blind graduate student states, “I wouldn’t have made it through my academic program without the ADL assistance.”
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