Christine Wise Tiedmann - College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities

STRATEGIES AND TIPS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

STRATEGIES AND TIPS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

CHRIS WISE TIEDEMANN

First published in 2012 by Prufrock Press Inc.

Published in 2021 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.

Copyright 2012 by Taylor & Francis Group.

Front cover, center image Wright State University. Used with permission.
Back cover image University of Houston. Used with permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tiedemann, Chris Wise, 1953
College success for students with physical disabilities / by Chris Wise Tiedemann.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-59363-861-0 (pbk.)
1. College students with disabilities--United States. 2. College student orientation--United States. I. Title.
LC4231.T54 2012
371.91--dc23
2011045963

ISBN-13:978-1-0321-4247-0 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-5936-3861-0 (pbk)

DOI:10.4324/9781003233756

This book is dedicated to the memory of my best college friend, Rick Whitesell, a college success before the law guaranteed him even a high school education; to all students with disabilities who pursue postsecondary education today; and to the wonderful colleges that go out of their way to help those students succeed.

1. INTRODUCTION:
   Why a Book About College and Physical Disability?
2. CHAPTER 1:
   Planning to Succeed in College
3. CHAPTER 2:
   What You Can Expect From College
4. CHAPTER 3:
   The College Search
5. CHAPTER 4:
   Preparing for College Life
6. CHAPTER 5:
   Academic Success
7. CHAPTER 6:
   Personal Issues and Services

Many people made invaluable contributions to the content of this book. First, I wish to thank the four students who agreed to be interviewed about their experiences attending college with a significant physical disability: Kelly Lynn Berger, Dustin Gilmer, Lindsey Newland, and Tommy Tiedemann. May their openness encourage countless others with physical disabilities to pursue their own college dreams.

Thanks also to the disability services directors and professors from disability-friendly colleges across the country who graciously agreed to be interviewed for their insights into college success: Cheryl Amoruso, University of Houston; Jacob Karnes, University of Kentucky; Larry Markle, Ball State University; Jeffrey Vernooy, Wright State University; and Julie Walton, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. Thanks also to those disability services directors and staffers who contributed suggestions and resources to this project.

I sincerely hope that this effort to illuminate the elements making up a successful college experience for students with physical disabilities will encourage more colleges to offer supports beyond what the law requires.

FOR the student making the transition from high school, college may represent the first point of passage into the adult world. For those contemplating college following a few years in the workforce or military service, college may be the key to a new occupation or an enhanced quality of life. But whatever their varied and individual reasons for attending college, all students must adjust to a brand-new environment there, according to a 2008 report by the National Council on Disability (NCD)

Yet students with disabilities often enter college unprepared for the new responsibilities and challenges they will face, the report noted. This is because they are often poorly informed about the dramatic differences between their prior educational experiences and the realities of college lifehigher academic expectations, greater personal responsibilities, and much different services for people with disabilities, to name a few. Often, too, they have not been prepared to meet the changes they will encounter upon reaching the college campus.

Our family experienced this firsthand when my son Tommy, who has cerebral palsy, began searching for a college in 2003 and eventually attended three very different types of American colleges. We found information about college success for students with physical disabilities remarkably limited. No books, websites, or college guides. We learned, too, that existing college guidebooks and websites were not written specifically to answer the questions of students with physical disabilities, and even school guidance offices had little information relevant to their special needs. Filling this information gap became an urgent priority for us 2 years before Tommy's high school graduation. Tommy did his senior project in high school on "colleges that accommodate people with disabilities." But even when he was accepted at college and began classes, we often found ourselves working out our own solutions "on the fly" to issues we should have been aware of much earlier.

Eventually we learned the questions to ask, the people to see, and the right way to do things in college (and sometimes, the wrong way to do things). So we decided to start a website where families could learn which colleges went beyond the requirements of the law in providing assistance to students with physical disabilities. Our website, http:// www.disabilityfriendlycolleges.com, provided a place for students, families, and professionals to read about and discuss these issues. By then, however, we had learned that finding one's best college was only the first mile marker on the road to success in college. A student with physical disabilities must also learn to make use of the college and its disability services and to advocate for his or her own very individual needs.

The stories of the students you will read about here prove that students with disabilities do experience college success, but they must begin the college search as early as they can, understand how college will be different from high school, learn solid self-determination and self-advocacy skills, and, if possible, plan and prepare for that transition from the early years of high school through the first semester of college.

This book is written for prospective college students, their families, and those who work with them. Its purpose is to provide an introduction to the full range of ingredients in college success, from a students earliest participation in the IEP process to the time when she regularly and easily discusses her accommodations with her colleges disability services office and professors.

Students will learn about their rights under the laws governing education and disability, the meaning and importance of self-advocacy, and perhaps most important, the dramatically different responsibilities and expectations that come along with becoming a college student. They will also learn how having a physical disability affects such college preparation basics as admissions applications, financial aid, and standardized testing. This book will discuss the types of academic and personal accommodations available in college and how to make sure students can get what they need. Finally, each chapter also contains insightful advice from college disability service specialists; resources such as sample forms, planning checklists, and timelines; interviews with college students who have physical disabilities; and profiles of some of the most disability-friendly colleges in the U.S.