Brandon Skaggs

JOUR 271 Sec 7

2/12/13

SDS Story

Online assignments affecting students with disabilities

The internet has taken education to an entirely new level.  From in the classroom to in the home online education is a new frontier.  Most universities use online learning as part of a course, even submitting papers and assignments are done mostly through online means. How does this affect students with disabilities that require special means of education?

Every campus across the nation has a Student Disability Services department, SDS dept.  The SDS is supposed to help students with verified disabilities by accommodating them according to the students’ specific needs.  This applies to students who need alternate work environments, extended times on tests, or reformatting notes and online work. 

The University of Mississippi’s SDS dept’s resources are limited when it comes to accommodating students for the online portion of a class.  Stacey Reycraft, director of Student Disability Services, has been working at UM for 16 years, and believes online education to be the largest obstacle for students with disabilities.

Reformatting and aiding each individual student with specific daily assignments that are online seems to be exhausting the depts.  “Accessibility of online environments is a major nationwide issue for us,” said Reycraft. 

According to Reycraft a policy by the University is supposed to help with the dept. by enforcing regulations for the faculty to follow when divvying out online assignments.  This policy would relieve stress off the dept. and make it simpler for students with disabilities to learn.

On top of this online experience is a large increase of students using the SDS dept.’s services, “it has significantly increased, about 10 percent since fall semester of 2011,” said Reycraft. 

With this increase there is a need for more aid in the dept. itself.  This is where the volunteer students come in.  Students in classes with someone with a disability are contacted by the dept. to take notes.  According to Reycraft there are about 150 volunteer students that take notes.

“I’ve been emailed several times to take notes for the dept,” said Anneliese Abboud, a junior here at UM.  She has not only been emailed, but even received a phone call from the SDS dept.  Abboud yet again refused due to her schedule.

These changes are the primary problems at UM’s SDS dept.  Online classes erupting and an increasing number of students requiring accommodating this is something that deserves attention. 

Link for Ole Miss SDS