Disabled Students Critique Program

In recent years, students with disabilities have pointed to dense bureaucracy and policy changes in the campus’s Disabled Students’ Program, which they say sometimes leave them with inadequate accommodations.

Alex Ghenis, president of the Disabled Students’ Union, said there are many ongoing concerns expressed by users of the program’s services and that he has observed that the number of complaints is on the rise this year.

“I think there are more people with disabilities and more people that rely on DSP than most Cal students realize,” he said.

More than 700 students who have physical, mental or learning disabilities use the program. Various services geared toward ensuring equal access to opportunities in classrooms and on campus are available, said Connie Chiba, a specialist for the program.

“The accommodations (are) established for students on an individual basis,” Chiba said.

But some students say the program does not focus enough on individual conditions, instead providing a general set of services to respond to certain disabilities.

As a blind student, senior Bruce Sexton said his specific requests for a reader were ignored and he instead received improperly scanned books and chapters out of order until he brought the problem to the attention of officials.

“I asked for someone to read to me for a few hours a week. They said OK, but instead of even telling me anything, they would order books on tape (and) scanned books and said ‘we accommodated you’,” he said.

But program director Ed Rogers said funds for additional services are made available if necessary.

“(There is) no bureacracy if they’re talking about the funds that are there,” he said. “If they need more requests, we give them funds for the initial (instance) and then yes, we can make another allocation.”

Aside from going to the program’s compliance officers, students can file grievances through the ASUC Student Advocate’s Office, which acts as a mediator if issues cannot be solved internally, said junior Leah Rabkin, who works in the office.

“We really get a range of cases. I wouldn’t say there’s one common one, there hasn’t been a pattern,” she said. “It’s really just students will misunderstand the process or students don’t know what kind of accommodations are possible.”

Many students agreed, saying concerns arise from the fact that they are unaware of available accommodations, especially coming from schools with different services.

“For new students and students who haven’t been (claiming services) for themselves, they don’t know what’s available, what’s better (for them),” said Kendra Scalia, Berkeley alumna and former president of the Disabled Students’ Union.

Nicole Sels, who graduated last year, said it was not a lack of knowledge of the available services that made her rely on a specialist outside the program to devise a plan for her learning disability.

She said she went outside the program because her test results, which indicated a learning disability, were not appropriately interpreted and translated into learning accommodations by officials at the UC Berkeley program.

“I had to go back to Los Angeles for another person to look at my testing so he can suggest appropriate accommodations to my specialist,” she said.

Rogers, however, said specialists are well-versed in what accommodations need to be given to the students.

“I think the specialists do a very good job of meeting students’ needs,” he said. “Sometimes, what students want isn’t necessarily what they need.”

Ghenis said that overall, the program at UC Berkeley is better than at other schools because of its broad range of services, but the amount of bureaucracy, budget cuts and policy changes cloud the campus’s notable past.

“It comes down to the fact that Berkeley is known for its disability rights movement, but we risk losing it if we don’t stay on top of it and listen to the disabled students,” he said.

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