UT Named One of America’s Most Disability-Friendly Colleges
Best value, best business professors, best for public service—UT regularly lands on dozens of best-of lists. Now we have another accolade to celebrate: being named one of America’s best colleges for physically disabled students.
College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities, released this month by Austin’s Prufrock Press, was written by a mother-and-son team who knows what they’re talking about. Tommy Tiedemann is a college student with cerebral palsy who worked with his mother, Chris, to research the range of disability services at colleges across the country.
Their book names UT as one of 70 colleges that goes beyond legal requirements to make accommodations for physically disabled students. The list is not ranked.
According to the Tiedemanns’ book, only five colleges provide outstanding full services for disabled students (the book adds the University of Houston to the four listed on their website).
UT’s Services for Students with Disabilities program serves 1,600 students per year. The majority of students the office serves have learning disabilities or psychological disabilities, while a smaller group has mobility or physical disabilities.
Kelli Bradley, a disability services coordinator at the office, says she sees students decide on UT for its disability services “all the time.”
“We get phone calls and visits on a near-daily basis from prospective students wanting to know if they’ll be accommodated here,” Bradley says. “Since UT is such a huge school, it’s a challenge to serve everyone, but we rise to that challenge.”
While smaller schools may offer more one-on-one attention, Bradley says, UT has the resources to provide an ample range of accommodations—from an Alternative Technology Lab that converts textbooks into audiobooks for the blind to special services for students with anxiety or depression.
UT is also one of just 67 colleges nationwide to have a Center for Disability Studies, which offers classes and an academic portfolio (much like a minor) for both undergrads and grad students. The center also conducts policy research and community education.
Not to mention our killer Texas Murderball team (pictured above).
Photo courtesy Emily Shryock.
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3 Comments
Great work by the facilities and planning divisions of The University.
When I started at the Forty Acres in 1973, it was obvious that UT cares about its disabled students. From campus maps in braille to curb cuts (LA was arguing about curb cuts when I was there in the 1990s). Though if you have a roommate who is blind, he really doesn’t care what color you paint your room in Jester. Besides that, when my wife who is on faculty at another school talks about working with disability services there, its nice to know Longhorns led the way.
As a parent of a third generation Longhorn, I am pleased that my alma mater leads the way in serving students with disabilities. Having recently traversed the campus in my wheelchair, I know first-hand the progress that has been made to provide access to the mobility impaired population. It is especially challenging to provide access on a campus with such variation of terrain and slope. One suggestion I would make is to improve signage that directs visitors to accessible routes and building entrances. Kudos for the availability of disabled parking; as well as for the well-informed student guides who directed us to accessible routes during orientation and CNS visits. Hook ‘em Horns!