The following is a letter to the editor from Becky Weimer, Dean of Academic Services and Registrar.
I am writing in response to the news article published by the Three-Fold Advocate on January 27 entitled “Student Expresses Rising Frustration, Says Accommodations Office Falls Short.” While I appreciate that the writer was wanting to help a fellow student who is frustrated with the Office of Disability and Testing Services, I believe the article presented only one viewpoint and did not delve into important aspects of the laws that govern how disability accommodations are determined and implemented. That would have been fine had the article been an opinion piece, but the article was a news piece, and as such, it should have been well-researched and should have been a more balanced presentation of facts.
The author makes some sweeping statements like “many students have voiced concern with the office’s operations” and “for many of the students, the whole process is demeaning,” but only offers the direct experience of one student and what that same student has heard from one of his friends. The author did not share information from any other students about their direct experience with the office. The author also quotes a student learning coach who says that most institutions the size of JBU would have 2 or 3 people working in their Office of Disability Services, but with no evidence from that student to back up that claim or to show that the author even tried to verify that information.
Nowhere in the article does the author speak of the expectations of the laws that govern the Office of Disability and Testing Services, what the law defines as a disability (not all medical or mental health conditions are considered disabilities under the law), and how accommodations are determined. Some of this information would have explained why students must have documentation of their disability and how that documentation is used to determine what accommodations can be provided.
The author asked two questions via email of Mr. Heathcote, the Coordinator of Disability and Testing Services. She made no attempt to follow up with him to get clarification or comment on the statements made by the student or the learning coach who were interviewed.
The Office of Disability Services has a long-standing reputation of assisting students with disabilities to get the accommodations needed to provide them access to educational opportunities at JBU, which is what the law requires in higher education. I am disappointed that the Three-Fold Advocate published this news article without requiring that the author present more balanced and well-researched information.
In the spirit of full disclosure, the Office of Disability Services is an office that I supervise as part of my duties as Dean of Academic Services, and earlier in my career at JBU, I served as the Coordinator of Disability Services. Because of this, the services of this office are important to me, and I would not want this article to discourage students from using the Office of Disability and Testing Services.