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Accent the student voice of Austin Community College District - Campuses accommodate all students
Elissa Ray was temporarily disabled when she first started taking American Sign Language (ASL) classes at ACC. Due to a car accident which caused her serious back injuries, she could barely walk. After an arduous yet successful recovery, the experience of being temporarily disabled left her with an insider’s respect for the courage and perseverance of people with disabilities.
Ray is one of many students enrolled in Rio Grande’s Interpreter Preparation Program who is learning to sign and interpret ASL. In addition to promoting deaf culture by offering ASL classes to students like Ray and welcoming deaf students, ACC works with all of its students with disabilities. The school’s Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) helps to provide academic support and physical accommodations to students who are deaf, blind, physically disabled, or have a learning disability.
Judy Hay-Mullen is the Disability Services Coordinator at Rio Grande. She works with ACC students as well as local high schools and Austin’s Texas School for the Blind.
“Riverside has the largest population of deaf students. We have the ASL program here at Rio Grande, but we’re teaching hearing students, for the most part, to sign,” she said in a recent interview. “This campus also has the largest population of blind students.”
ACC is working to make Rio Grande more accessible to everyone. “Rio Grande campus, in particular, is problematic as far as accessibility,” said Hay-Mullen. “For example, we don’t have an elevator in this building. (the Annex) The current remodeling that’s going on will address all that”.
“I had a lot of problems when I started taking classes at Rio Grande. The campus isn’t very accessible, with all the hills and steep ramps. And initially the restroom was inaccessible to me. I came to OSD about that, and since then they’ve converted restrooms on the second floor. I think they’re going to fix some restrooms on the ground floor soon,” Students with Disabilities Senator Anna Aleman said.
Aleman has a mobility disability and uses a wheelchair.
The entire Rio Grande campus remodel, which includes neighboring buildings, is predicted to be completed by 2025.
“We’ve increased disability parking spaces this year,” she said. “Other than that, [at Rio Grande] we have made sure that we have some accessible bathrooms, plus some push-button doors.” When Austin High’s former gym reopens as Rio Grande’s newest office building for the summer 2010 semester, it will bring the campus one step closer to realizing universal access.
Remodeling an older, historic campus like Rio Grande has its challenges. “We have a lot of issues to deal with, plus there’s the Historical Society. We have to make sure we’re following all the rules in that regard.”
ACC’s new Round Rock campus, opening in fall 2010, was built with a universal design in mind, meaning it will be accessible to everyone, including students with disabilities.
Deaf and non-deaf students can get involved by taking ASL classes.
OSD doesn’t just help students reach their goals. “It’s usually the instructors that have more problems,” she said. “A lot of our job is to educate everyone, not just the student, but make sure the instructor knows, no, you really don’t have to spend a whole extra hour helping this student, we’ll provide the accommodations and everything will work out fine, for the most part.”
“Students with disabilities value their independence. Especially if you’re dealing with a disability where you might not be as capable later in life, you want to make the most of things now. Things other people might take for granted are a big deal,” Aleman said.
Students are encouraged to get to know one another. “One of the most common opportunities [for student interaction] is note-sharing in a classroom situation,” says Hay-Mullen. “Students can take notes for another individual in the classroom who may be blind or learning disabled. They’ll be providing a service to that student, plus they get to know them.” Students interested in taking notes for a classmate should contact their campus OSD for more information.
Emily Anderson teaches interpreting classes at Rio Grande. “I first got interested in interpreting at my college,” Anderson said in and e-mail.
“I distinctly remember watching an interpreter in one of my Anatomy and Physiology classes. I almost always paid more attention to what the interpreter was doing instead of the teacher.”
“Later on I took ASL classes and was completely fascinated by ASL and deaf culture,” she recalled. “This led to me entering an interpreting program.”
Terrylene, a renowned poet in the deaf community, will perform at the main stage theater at Rio Grande on Friday, May 14 at 7:00 PM. Advanced tickets are $15 and $20 at the door.
The production, titled “I Wonder Why,” is a fund-raising event for the National ASL and English Bilingual Early Childhood Education and ACC’s Interpreter Program Scholarship.
Ray is nearing the end of her ASL degree program at ACC. She recently attended a state certification workshop for ASL interpreters at Rio Grande. The classroom where the workshop was held was almost full with prospective interpreters. Aleman was just re-elected to her position as OSD senator for the spring 2010 semester
Elissa Ray was temporarily disabled when she first started taking American Sign Language (ASL) classes at ACC. Due to a car accident which caused her serious back injuries, she could barely walk. After an arduous yet successful recovery, the experience of being temporarily disabled left her with an insider’s respect for the courage and perseverance of people with disabilities.
Ray is one of many students enrolled in Rio Grande’s Interpreter Preparation Program who is learning to sign and interpret ASL. In addition to promoting deaf culture by offering ASL classes to students like Ray and welcoming deaf students, ACC works with all of its students with disabilities. The school’s Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) helps to provide academic support and physical accommodations to students who are deaf, blind, physically disabled, or have a learning disability.
Judy Hay-Mullen is the Disability Services Coordinator at Rio Grande. She works with ACC students as well as local high schools and Austin’s Texas School for the Blind.
“Riverside has the largest population of deaf students. We have the ASL program here at Rio Grande, but we’re teaching hearing students, for the most part, to sign,” she said in a recent interview. “This campus also has the largest population of blind students.”
ACC is working to make Rio Grande more accessible to everyone. “Rio Grande campus, in particular, is problematic as far as accessibility,” said Hay-Mullen. “For example, we don’t have an elevator in this building. (the Annex) The current remodeling that’s going on will address all that”.
“I had a lot of problems when I started taking classes at Rio Grande. The campus isn’t very accessible, with all the hills and steep ramps. And initially the restroom was inaccessible to me. I came to OSD about that, and since then they’ve converted restrooms on the second floor. I think they’re going to fix some restrooms on the ground floor soon,” Students with Disabilities Senator Anna Aleman said.
Aleman has a mobility disability and uses a wheelchair.
The entire Rio Grande campus remodel, which includes neighboring buildings, is predicted to be completed by 2025.
“We’ve increased disability parking spaces this year,” she said. “Other than that, [at Rio Grande] we have made sure that we have some accessible bathrooms, plus some push-button doors.” When Austin High’s former gym reopens as Rio Grande’s newest office building for the summer 2010 semester, it will bring the campus one step closer to realizing universal access.
Remodeling an older, historic campus like Rio Grande has its challenges. “We have a lot of issues to deal with, plus there’s the Historical Society. We have to make sure we’re following all the rules in that regard.”
ACC’s new Round Rock campus, opening in fall 2010, was built with a universal design in mind, meaning it will be accessible to everyone, including students with disabilities.
Deaf and non-deaf students can get involved by taking ASL classes.
OSD doesn’t just help students reach their goals. “It’s usually the instructors that have more problems,” she said. “A lot of our job is to educate everyone, not just the student, but make sure the instructor knows, no, you really don’t have to spend a whole extra hour helping this student, we’ll provide the accommodations and everything will work out fine, for the most part.”
“Students with disabilities value their independence. Especially if you’re dealing with a disability where you might not be as capable later in life, you want to make the most of things now. Things other people might take for granted are a big deal,” Aleman said.
Students are encouraged to get to know one another. “One of the most common opportunities [for student interaction] is note-sharing in a classroom situation,” says Hay-Mullen. “Students can take notes for another individual in the classroom who may be blind or learning disabled. They’ll be providing a service to that student, plus they get to know them.” Students interested in taking notes for a classmate should contact their campus OSD for more information.
Emily Anderson teaches interpreting classes at Rio Grande. “I first got interested in interpreting at my college,” Anderson said in and e-mail.
“I distinctly remember watching an interpreter in one of my Anatomy and Physiology classes. I almost always paid more attention to what the interpreter was doing instead of the teacher.”
“Later on I took ASL classes and was completely fascinated by ASL and deaf culture,” she recalled. “This led to me entering an interpreting program.”
Terrylene, a renowned poet in the deaf community, will perform at the main stage theater at Rio Grande on Friday, May 14 at 7:00 PM. Advanced tickets are $15 and $20 at the door.
The production, titled “I Wonder Why,” is a fund-raising event for the National ASL and English Bilingual Early Childhood Education and ACC’s Interpreter Program Scholarship.
Ray is nearing the end of her ASL degree program at ACC. She recently attended a state certification workshop for ASL interpreters at Rio Grande. The classroom where the workshop was held was almost full with prospective interpreters. Aleman was just re-elected to her position as OSD senator for the spring 2010 semester