Services available for special needs

• Brittani Lusk / Campus Asst. Editor
• posted: 20 Feb 2007
• scrollcampus@byui.edu

Each student at BYU‑Idaho and schools across the nation needs to be given the equal opportunity for education, according to disability laws. However, some students with special needs may require additional help to accomplish receive equal education.

Richard Taylor of BYU‑Idaho Disability Services said students with disabilities should never be treated as second-class citizens.

Providing access to students is important because this is a civil rights issue, and every student who qualifies to come to this or other colleges must be and should be treated equally and fairly.

Steve Andersen, who advises the Activities program and specializes in special populations at BYU‑I, said students just want to be treated fairly.

Basically, [students with disabilities] are average people who appreciate being treated as ordinary students.

Taylor said the Americans with Disablilites Act requires that students have access to learning opportunities, but have no unfair advantages.

At the post-secondary college level, the law guarantees access [while] at the lower grades it guarantees success. The accommodations we provide do not give an unfair advantage; they allow learning in the way best suited to each student’s disability issues without compromising the academic integrity of this or any other institution, Taylor said.

Taylor said BYU‑I is mostly architecturally barrier free, including facilities like automatic doors and accessible restrooms. The university’s Disability Service Center provides services for classes and learning activities for students who qualify. More information about qualification is available at the Web site, www.byui.edu/Disabilities.

According to this site, accommodations include additional time for testing, preferential seating, volunteer note-takers, oral testing, audio-taped lectures and a distraction-free environment for testing.

Adaptive Services tries to help the Activities Program accommodate students.

Activities is committed to getting our [students with disabilities] involved and keeping them active in the mainstream, Anderson said. We have hi-tech equipment, which enables our students to ski, cycle and become involved in a variety of sports and recreational endeavors. I feel our efforts are better than average. We’re small, which means we can personalize things, which makes us close to the best.

For students who don’t qualify for specific disability help, there are other resourses. Any student, regardless of abilities, can use the Academic Learning Center in the David O. McKay Library.