“For most of us, technology makes things easier. For a person with a disability, it makes things possible.” - Judy Heumann.

As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the University of Washington must fully embrace its obligations under this critical legislation. This includes renewing the Memorandum of Understanding for Room 327 in Suzzallo Library, providing knowledgeable scribes or technological alternatives, and addressing the shortfall in other reasonable accommodations necessary for students with disabilities.

Areas Requiring Immediate Attention:

1. Renewal of Memorandum of Understanding: Renew the MOU between Disability Resources for Students (DRS) and Suzzallo Library to reaffirm the university's commitment to Room 327 as a critical resource for students with disabilities, ensuring it remains an accessible, technology-equipped space.
2. Scribe Services and Technological Alternatives: Ensure the availability of scribes knowledgeable in course content or provide compliant and effective technological alternatives for students across all academic disciplines, including challenging fields like math and science.
3. Provision of Additional Reasonable Accommodations: Address the university's failure to provide a range of other reasonable accommodations essential for ensuring equal access to education for students with disabilities. This includes, but is not limited to, adequate dictation software licenses, accessible classroom materials, physical accessibility improvements, mental health accommodation, and customized support services tailored to individual needs.
4. Data Transparency: Failure to formally create the proposed data analyst and student data committee promised in January 2023

Our Demands:

1. Immediate Renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between DRS and Suzzallo Library, securing Room 327 as an indispensable accommodation space.
2. Guarantee Access to Knowledgeable Scribes or Suitable Technological Solutions, ensuring students can fully engage with their coursework and academic pursuits.
3. Comprehensively Address the Lack of Other Reasonable Accommodations by expanding the scope of support services to include all necessary tools, resources, and environmental modifications required for students with disabilities to thrive academically. This encompasses ensuring sufficient access to specialized software, making all educational materials available in accessible formats, enhancing physical accessibility on campus, providing mental health accommodation, and providing personalized support that meets the diverse needs of the student body.
4. Formally create the data analyst position and student data committee promised in January 2023

Conclusion:

By endorsing this petition, you advocate for the University of Washington to honor its commitment to Section 504 by significantly improving its support for students with disabilities. This includes a commitment to renew the MOU for Room 327 and provide effective scribe services or technological alternatives and address the comprehensive range of accommodations needed to guarantee equal educational opportunities for all students with disabilities. You also endorse the creation of a data analyst position and student data committee in accordance with the proposal provided to DRS in January 2023 by data analysts and SDC.

People we've already talked to about this to address this issue through typical channels.

• Dean of library
• ADA coordinator Bree Callahan
• DRS director Adiam Tesefay
• DRS Assistant Director Andy Andrews
• DRS assistant director Brad Elmendorf
• D  Center
• Student disability commission
• Adaptive and Assistive Technology Manager Carole Ockerman
• Jay Hager ATT Operations Lead, DRS
• Gaby de Jongh, access technology center director
• Dan Comden, former access technology center director
• Richard Ladner, Professor Emeritus in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science
• Jennifer Mankoff - Computer Accessibility researcher
  
• Solomon Romney, Microsoft inclusive tech lab
• Advisors 
• Professors
• Livewell
• Ombuds
• Many more

Incident reports

1. Gutting of Suzzallo Disability rooms

 Email From the office of the dean of the library:

 

 

"I wanted to give you an update on Suzz 327.  The room will continue to be dedicated as the Adaptive Resource Room.  ATS will manage the equipment.  The tables are staying.  The Libraries is working to find task chairs for the room.

Currently libraries information desks, ATS, DRS (we are told), and D-Center will have the code.

Discussion will take place between ATS and the Libraries on whether the room (with a very specific description of the specific use of the space) will always be unlocked and available for sign-up like the other study rooms in that area or whether the code will be continued.  The idea is that not all users want to identify with DRS, ATS, or D-Center but still need access to the equipment.

Thank you for giving the Libraries the fast forward nudge to work on this.  It was in process as we discussed but your request was heard and that moved the process along.

Hope you are doing well.

Nan" 

- Nan Holmes Assistant to the Senior Associate Dean

 

 

Context: 

Students with disabilities have a hard time acquiring accessible technology at the University of Washington. There are several rooms in Suzzallo Library that should be dedicated for use by students with disabilities. One of those rooms, Room 327 in Suzzallo Library, is supposed to be a room that students with disabilities can use as a part of their DRS accommodation so they can access their education in the event that DRS does not have the resources to accommodate them. 

Due to resource shortages and an unprecedented case count of disability caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, DRS has been unable to accommodate many students' accessibility needs. Yet, they refused to grant access to the room and backed out of the memorandum of understanding with Suzzallo Library allegedly out of a liability concern. The room was equipped with technology such as dictation software, screen readers, and screen enlargement. But recently all of the IT and every chair was removed except two dated computers and a text enlargement tool.

DRS should ensure the room is exclusively for students with disabilities, not a regular study space. However, when disabled DRS students with 504 accommodations needed access but couldn't get it, the administration removed the door code without consulting with students trying to access the room.

Removing the door code will lead to the room becoming a regular study room and will make it impossible for students to use it as a part of a DRS accommodation. If students don't collectively take action now, the door code will be removed, and it will no longer be a room for students with disabilities. 

Please sign this petition to get DRS to renew the memorandum of understanding with Suzzallo Library and to ensure there is a system in place that ensures DRS grants access to the room and educates DRS students about the resource so they can have it as a part of their DRS accommodations if suitable to their specific disability needs. 

This is important because students need assistive technology in the absence of scribes and other reasonable accommodations students are not receiving. There currently are not enough scribes students and dictation software licenses for the amount of students who need them, and students are dropping out. DRS is also having a problem finding scribes knowledgeable in the course material and can thus not do their job effectively.

Visual evidence:

•  DRS postings from a student who managed to get the door code before they wiped everything. 

 

 

• Scars from where the DRS postings used to be

 

 

• Inaccessible wooden chairs replaced the ergonomic chairs that were there before. Update: the library has since found some chairs to put in the room, but they are nothing special. There still aren’t enough chairs for the space, and the wooden chairs remain.

 

 

Update: It's working. They added ergonomic chairs and got rid of the wooden ones!

 

 

2. Students not receiving Scribes knowledgeable in course material or compliant adequate dictation software.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• DRS Director claims scribes do not have to be knowledgeable in course material.

"An email from Adiam Tesfay, Director of Disability Resources for Students (DRS), outlining that a scribe's duty is only to follow dictation from the student, which only requires the ability to hear and type as instructed, with an understanding of letters and symbols, without needing knowledge of the course material."

 

 

• Adaptive and assistive technology manager Carole Ockerman admits to assigning scribes not knowledgeable in course material to students' when fulfilling their 504 accommodations. She also admitted to not having enough compliant dictation software licenses for student need and having to go back into her back stock of licenses.

This is understandable; per DRS internal policy, scribes typically are only allowed to be used for notetaking during class hours, i.e., taking notes from the professor. However, the Director of DRS Believes that scribes should only be taking dictation from the Student, which isn’t possible if the professor is teaching. On top of this, the way the Director describes the student talking to the scribe is not the way the professor talks to the class. This Absurd understanding of student needs results in scribes Not being knowledgeable enough to scribe for courses.

3. Inadequate mental health support services:

• Coming soon. If you'd like to help us with this, reach out using our contact information at the bottom of the page.

4. Insane DRS response times - experiences registering for DRS accommodations during the pandemic

•  “I have tried but was not successful. They never got back to me.“
• “I have been trying to get accommodated all year, but the first time my application wouldn’t go through, and I’ve now been waiting to hear back from them about my current request for over a month with absolutely no effort by them to contact me so far.”
• ” I think I'm in a good place now. did take a year and a half, and I've faced a lot of backlash because of that.”
• ”I’ve been here three years, and I still have accommodations on my 504 plan that aren’t being fulfilled…”
• More Coming soon. If you'd like to help us with this, reach out using our contact information at the bottom of the page.

5. IT failing to follow UW IT policy, federal and state law for accessibility 

• UW's own IT policy states that UW must conform to WCAG 2.1 level AA. The page in which its policy is posted does not conform to the standard it encapsulates on the page. 
• Compliance check of the UW IT policy web page.

 

 

• Referenced Section of IT Policy

 

 

Excerpts from students and faculty

• More Coming soon. If you'd like to help us with this, reach out using our contact information at the bottom of the page. 

Data obtained via the August 2022 external data report with Toby Galant, ASUW, and student disability commission

• Students

 

 

• Faculty

 

 

Interviews/ responses  

Coming soon. If you'd like to help us with this, reach out using our contact information at the bottom of the page. 

• Anonymous DRS employee and Disabilities Anonymous
• ATS - Gaby de Jongh, new Director of the UW Access Technology Center

Note: I’m aware ALT text and other accessibility features need to be added. We will get to this as soon as possible! We need support. Unfortunately, we have way more to add to this in terms of content as well. This is a rough draft.

We are short-staffed. If you would like to help with this, please email us @ disabilitiesanonymousuw@gmail.com