DAIS Online

October, 2006
Volume I, No. 3

(PREFACE: As I sit down to write my newsletter each month, I try to have at least one article that is "ripped from the headlines" – that is, something that has arisen regularly on listservs, through technical assistance questions, or in chats with colleagues in recent weeks. But it is also nice to have something that is seasonal in nature. This month, I found a way to combine the two!
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BUSINESS *NOT* AS USUAL:
Do New Challenges Spur New Responses? Should They?

"TRICK OR TREAT!!!"

It's that time of year, again. In communities all over the country, children will be ringing doorbells, wearing scary masks, and shouting "Trick or Treat!" – and EXPECTING to have their demand met with an encouraging smile and a little something sweet. Yeah, yeah – wholesome treats are OK, if you MUST, but the kids will be happier if you give 'em what they want! Then they'll be free to go blithely on their way.

And how do we respond to these demands? We generally buy some candy (OK, OK – or fruit snacks! Something that we believe is better for them?!?) and have it sitting in a bowl near the door. When the doorbell rings, some folks dole out the candy themselves, and others let the kiddies pick-and-choose from what's available. But they are all getting their candy from the same limited selection that we have determined to be appropriate (that is, whatever WE are willing to provide). Of course, these days the treats have to be pre-wrapped and sealed so that there is no danger of tampering – the children can have their treats and their parents will still sleep well at night! It doesn't matter whether we are giving these treats to toddlers or teens, whether dressed as princesses and pandas, or ghosts and ghouls, and it doesn't matter whether we know who is under that mask or not – we only have a limited variety of treats available.

You see where this is going, right? I wonder if our DSS offices don't celebrate their own version of Halloween on a year round basis! A student with a disability appears before you and says "Trick or Treat" (except it may sound like, "give me accommodations or you'll be sorry!") and we dole out our pre-packaged accommodations (ONLY appropriate ones, of course!) from our list of possibilities, based on the policies and procedures we have worked so hard to develop, and with a sure sense that everyone is protected in this scenario (the students get their accommodations, and the institutional attorney can sleep well at night!). But what if the REAL trick here is that when you lift the student's mask to get a peak at who you are dealing with, you don't find what/who you expected at all?

Lately, I seem to hear a lot of people talking about new situations with/for students with disabilities created by new and exciting opportunities. These are new opportunities for ALL students, and since students with disabilities are a subset of ALL students (!), they should have the chance to consider these options as well. For example:

DUAL CREDIT COURSES – This is actually an umbrella term for a whole variety of options that have students still in high school accessing college-level classes. Such classes are usually taught by college faculty, but there the consistency ends. The classes may be taught on your campus or at the high school. Students may be getting BOTH college and high school credit, or just college credit, or college credit that supplants the need to take a (typical) high school requirement. There are probably other variations on the theme, but you get the idea!

SUMMER/SPECIALTY PROGRAMS FOR NON-STUDENTS – This can range from a two-week summer nature camp for 5th graders, headed up by a faculty member from your Botany department or a six-week intensive college prep program with high school juniors/seniors living in your dormitories, to the Workforce Development or Continuing Education programs, headed up by a separate institutional unit, sometimes operating off-site, but considered a piece of the institutional offerings.

ONLINE EDUCATION – Focusing, this time, specifically on students in online-only classes who never set foot on campus and never see/meet their professors face-to-face. (You knew I'd find a way to get the online stuff in there, right?!?)

SPECIAL EVENTS/Student Life – From the parent in a wheelchair for the Freshman Orientation tour to the grandparents who are deaf at the graduation ceremony, to the blind student serving in Student Government who needs the minutes of the meeting in Braille, to … I'm sure you have more examples than I do!

Back to my Halloween analogy… If, every time a person with a disability contacts our office with a disability-related request, we respond by proffering the same bowl of treats… um… list of accommodations, are we really handling all this as well as we think we are?

"Wait," says the irate service provider reading over my shoulder. "We have worked SO hard to develop (written) policies and procedures that set out the rules and that make sure everyone's roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. We know what the law is and what it requires of us. We have close to 30 years of practice to draw on when it comes to meeting our responsibilities. I know how to do this. Why are you making it seem so complicated? What seems to be your problem? JUST TAKE YOUR CANDY AND GO, BECAUSE THAT IS ALL YOU ARE GOING TO GET!!!"

Here's my problem. We have rules in place that (rightfully) say, "If you want accommodations in classes on this campus, here's what you must do. You must provide legitimate documentation, to an appropriate source, in a timely manner, and request the accommodations that you have demonstrated you need in order to have equal access." But some of the individuals with disabilities involved in those opportunities listed above aren't asking for accommodations in classes, some of the classes aren't on campus, sometimes we don't need documentation, sometimes we don't know what documentation we need, who constitutes an appropriate source may vary with circumstances, no one is sure what "timely" means in some contexts, and the person with a disability may not know what to ask for. OH… and that, of course, all assumes that they can find your doorbell in the dark (in my experience, channels for requesting/accessing services from the DSS office are not quite so clear for these out-of-the-ordinary situations as they are for the student taking Biology 200!).

In the grocery store, yesterday, I noted that they sell dog food for puppies who are teething, something different for adult dogs, and something different, still, for older dogs. In the "rice" aisle I found pilaf, and "dirty rice," and white rice, and wild rice – you have to choose the right side dish to complement the main course you are serving. Over in the electronics department they have 40 watt decorative bulbs, on up to 500 watt bulbs for flood-lamps. The deli counter displays half a dozen kinds of salami, knowing that not everyone wants the same kind, and you can buy it by the slice or by the pound. All these choices are available in one store, and which one winds up in your shopping cart depends on who you are and what you are going to use it for. Why, then, do we assume that one size (shape, accommodation, policy, procedure, amount, delivery system) is adequate in providing services to all the different people with disabilities who have different contacts with our institution?

"Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

[No,.. that isn't an insult. It just lets me draw out the Halloween motif a little longer! ]

I looked up the word "hobgoblin" in the dictionary and found that it generally applies "to a friendly or amusing goblin" and "has grown to mean a superficial object that is a source of fear or trouble." And just for the record, I am not suggesting that DSS providers have small minds, just tired ones!

Being CONSISTENT in the way you deliver services to people with disabilities seems straightforward in the world of higher education. Once you have fought all the battles to get your policies and procedures approved by the appropriate stakeholders, and in place, why fiddle with them, right? Being CONSISTENT in the way you deliver services to people with disabilities seems easier. Most DSS providers I know are overwhelmed (or soon will be!), with too few hours in the day. As much as we are committed to a case-by-case approach, we can't always make time to operationalize it (think about alligators and draining the swamp!). If we are consistent in our application of existing policies and procedures and plans for service, it allows us to shortcut both the decision-making and service delivery. Being CONSISTENT in the way you deliver services seems safer, from a legal perspective. No one wants to be accused of being "arbitrary and capricious." If you can show you made the same decision here that you made yesterday and will make tomorrow, you're off the hook, right? AND BEING *CONSISTENT* MAKES NO SENSE TO ME in providing services to people with disabilities in situations and under circumstances that are anything BUT consistent!

Our irate service provider (above) said, " We have close to 30 years of practice to draw on when it comes to meeting our responsibilities." That's true – IF you are talking about the provision of accommodations in traditional classroom settings. But some of the settings we are discussing here weren't even imagined 30 years ago. You say you've taken the time to get buy-in from all the appropriate stakeholders, but as the setting and circumstances change, so do the stakeholders! As the numbers grow (and these ancillary programs will make the numbers swell faster!) we NEED to have efficient service delivery mechanisms in place. Why fiddle with a service delivery mechanism that has been honed over time and works just fine in delivering support to students with disabilities in the classroom?

This summer, I had to change my cell phone coverage for the first time in 10 years. Why? Because while I had a system in place that worked just fine for me in the way I have used my cell phone for all that time, this summer my kid discovered text messaging, and it was costing me a fortune to cover the cost. By switching to a new cell phone company, taking a family plan, and buying her unlimited text messaging, I saved at least $50/month. I am not using my cell phone any differently than the way I have used it for the last 10 years – but I found that it made great sense to arrange for that coverage to be provided in a wider context. I still get everything I need out of it, but what SHE needs is different, and by switching delivery systems, I could cover us both.

So how do you go about figuring out what to do in all these new and unusual contexts? That will be the topic (topics?) of discussion for some upcoming newsletters. For now, I just want to plant the seed of doubt. I want to shake people out of their complacency regarding a "business as usual" approach to old delivery methods in new environments.

October provided another seasonal milestone… the World Series. In respect to that time-honored activity, I looked up the definition of a "change-up" pitch in baseball:

" The changeup is thrown with the same arm action as a fastball, but at a lower … less velocity on it in addition to a change in grips. This difference from what is expected by the arm action and the velocity can confuse the batter into swinging the bat far too early and thus receiving a strike, or not swinging at all. Should a batter be fooled timing wise on the pitch, and still make contact, the batter will be early, causing foul balls and/or putting the ball into play, usually resulting in an out, so long as the batter was fooled significantly. In addition to the unexpectedly slow velocity, the changeup can also possess a significant amount of movement, which can bewilder the batter even further. The very best changeups utilize both deception and movement."

How about THAT for an interesting metaphor?!? Just remember that, just as in baseball, when it comes to delivering services, you don't want to be faked out by that change-up pitch from a new pitcher. You don't want to proceed (swing) too early, and you don't want to fail to respond (not swing), either. And you SURE don't want to strike out by swinging wildly or sending a foul ball down the sidelines. If you really want to score, you need to be prepared to alter your response so that you can hit anything that's thrown at you.

OK… I'm done… for now!
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