Talking Stick - July/August 2017 - 70

 63  COntinueD

COMMUNITy FOR ALL

share feedback regarding human interaction with the campus environment.
In addition, three institutions really
stand out for their educational training
and programs. The University of Connecticut provides best practice training
and networking for disability resource
providers through their online graduate certificate program in postsecondary disability services and through
their Postsecondary Disability Training
Institute (PTI). The Ohio State University and the University of Hawai'i have
also provided best practice guidance,
offered courses, and trained disability
providers for many years.
Disability culture and leadership
programs are important aspects of
community and identity. Both Syracuse
University and the University of IllinoisChicago have disability cultural centers
that expand the campus understanding
of disability resources beyond accommodation to include culture and identity.
All of the institutions we described
are taking different approaches to
set themselves up for success. Common threads on successful campuses
include challenging ableism, building community, fighting stigma, and
focusing on inclusion.
Talking Stick: Where is there room for
improvement?
There are many areas for improvement. In general, higher education
needs to move away from a medical
model of disability and shift towards
socially just concepts. One component
of this shift is to stop viewing people
with disabilities as a large monolithic
group. People with disabilities have
very different lived experiences based
on their type of impairments, the environment in which they live and work,
the recency of onset, if the disability is
apparent to others or not, and intersections with their other social identities.
For example, each of the four authors
of our book is disabled, and we have
vastly different lived experiences.

talking stiCk

In regards to housing-specific topics, training, research, technology, and
universal or human-centered design are
four areas that colleges and universities can develop. First, training for
professional and paraprofessional staff
regarding disability etiquette, language,
inclusive practices, and institutional
policies is vital. Although we typically
think of positions like hall directors and
resident assistants as needing training,
research also indicates that classified
staff, front desk staff, and custodial staff
are vital parts of the residential community and should be included in this process. A strong collaboration with Disability Resources is a great method to
build and develop training. Research on
disability within campus housing is another area for improvement; in writing
this book, we found that there is a huge
gap in our knowledge about students'
experiences of residential inclusion and
accommodations. Although we typically
think of technology as something that
only applies to classroom spaces, assistive technology is also very important
within campus housing. For example,
campus housing websites need to be
WCAG 2.0 AA-compliant, videos must
be captioned, photos need to have
descriptions, and surveys or forms need
to be screen reader-accessible. Campus
housing provides a great opportunity
to develop partnerships focused on
universal or human-centered design.
Institutions that take a proactive design
approach understand that housing
accessibility is not only for the students
who currently live in the building.
Rather, campus housing is a high-traffic
environment that needs to be accessed
by employees with disabilities, students
who live off campus, parents, grandparents, and friends. Employing universal
design in a proactive manner, rather
than reactively trying to accommodate,
is an area for improvement.

this book moved through the publication process, the political climate in
the United States shifted dramatically.
In particular, federal enforcement of
civil rights legislation and new laws
that restrict disability rights, access to
fair and appropriate K-12 education,
and access to affordable health care are
important areas to watch. The law is
continually evolving, and we encourage practitioners to remain current on
Office for Civil Rights letters and case
law. In particular, the topics of technology, mental health, and assistance animals within campus housing are up
and coming issues for practitioners.
In the future, we hope that more
campuses will take a holistic approach
to disability, rather than a siloed one.
Inclusive campuses are everyone's responsibility. Disability Resource Office
staff can provide direction and leadership for institutions as they commit
to a culture shift to facilitate the full
participation of all students, including those with disabilities. However, a
social justice commitment leads to the
recognition that universally designed
and inclusive campuses require the engagement of all members of the community. Like other forms of campus
culture, such an approach works best
when it is supported from both the
bottom up and the top down.
From a social justice perspective,
we are hopeful that focusing on the
ways power and privilege shape the
lives of disabled and nondisabled
people will become increasingly
important. We think colleges and universities are starting to recognize the
dangers of presuming that typical ways
of doing, being, learning, teaching,
thinking, feeling, moving, and communicating are preferable. In the future, we are hopeful that more people
will challenge the ableism prevalent in
society and on our campuses. 

Talking Stick: What's on the horizon?
This is a tough question to answer
without writing a whole chapter, which
is exactly what we did in the book. As

Camille Perlman is the managing editor of
Talking Stick.
 camille@acuho-i.org

Talking Stick - July/August 2017

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