Access Services

By Chloe Knehans Staff Writer

Your first day of college can be scary, but especially scary or seen very hard if you have special needs or require a little extra help no matter how big or small. East Central College has a department called Access/ Disability Services for its students. You might be wondering what Access Services is well according to Jessica Robart an Access counselor at East Central College as well as the mission statement on the Access/Disability Services page defines access services as “The Access Services Department at East Central College strives to provide an equal opportunity to learning by implementing appropriate accommodations. These accommodations may include but is not necessarily limited to, the use of adaptive technology, environmental modifications, alternative testing arrangements, notetakers, and the use of prerecorded media. Our Staff is here to help students grow personally and assist them in assuming individual responsibility for their academic, career, and life goals, we firmly believe that everyone deserves equal opportunity to higher education.” Jessica Robart has said that in August 2024, Access Services served 50 students and that they would get 2-3 applications a day. “In College, you have to advocate for yourself a lot more, you are responsible for giving the documentation to instructors, setting up appointments, following through with the Access counselor if accommodations are not going well, in High school lot more frequent check-ins and different levels of accommodations, in college we can’t change course objectives or waver a class, in high school you might be able to take away some answers or have word banks and different things.” Jessica Robart discusses the differences between services in high school and college. If you are a brand new student at East Central College, you will apply online and the length of getting approved is based on as soon as they get your documentation. There are multiple types of documentation you can give them From IEP or 504 Plan from k-12 grades, a statement of diagnosis, You can apply for Access Services at any time during the semester but the best time to apply for Access Services is either in August or January depending on what semester, before classes start is the best time. You might think about how the school determines eligibility for Access Services and it comes down to “some type of documentation stating what your disability is and how it impacts your learning environment.” East Central College provides a good amount of services, some of which were mentioned earlier. Still, for classroom accommodations, they offer Braille which may require a 6-month prior notification, Alternative Text, Large Print Copies, Notetaker which is your instructor’s responsibility to find an anonymous student volunteer, Recorded Lectures which is your responsibility but it is for personal study only and can’t be shared with other students without instructor’s consent, And an Interpreter; Alternative Testing accommodations are Interpreter, Assistive Computer, Extended Time 200%, a Non- Distractive Environment which is the testing center, Reader, Scribe, Private Testing; Physical Environment accommodations are Adjustable Seating, Alternate Seating, and Preferential Seating. They also have Adaptive Technology accommodations such as an Assistive Listening Device, Closed Caption, Screen Enlarger, Text-to-Speech, Speech-to-Text, and a Reading Pen. I’ve mentioned the testing center now they will have certain hours on Mondays and Thursdays the hours are from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Tuesdays and Wednesdays the hours are from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM, and on Fridays, the hours are from 7:30 AM to 2:00 PM. The Professors at East Central College are very knowledgeable and good with working with students with Access Services but if there is ever a time when a professor maybe doesn’t understand fully or is not following the paperwork “you guys have a lot of rights as Access students they do have a lot of rights so they can file a complaint with us on the website there is the form the complaint form if it’s not on there its getting ready to be up on there you can document that and reach out to your access counselor either myself or Heather who is you Access Counselor and let us know so we can advocate for you and make sure instructor has the form and instructor know what the accommodations are so I always try to do let’s have a conversation with the student and the instructor and me or Heather so we can all get on the same page and if that doesn’t work we can go up grievance policy forms.” The Access counselors are there to help you. The classes Jessica Robart thinks are the most difficult for people with Access Services is “stuff with lab can be very tricky especially with double time to find time and space in the lab can be very challenging, online classes have their own set of challenges.” Jessica Robart says “Yes I absolutely hope so” and “Hopes it’s never a barrier why someone doesn’t give college a try” when asked about if she thinks Access Services has helped more people feel better and more confident in applying for college. There are no scholarships for access services but there are additional funding sources like vocal rehab that will help you out. A cool fact to know is after we graduate, we can get our documentation back 

I asked Jessica if she had any tips or advice for future students relating to Access Services and her response was to “advocate for yourself if you’re not getting the accommodations that you need or you think you need additional ones or having trouble staying motivated or organized or on task reach out there are a 1000 people that want to help you  so reach out and don’t be afraid to ask for help.” There are so many people here at East Central College who want to help students, not just the people in Access Services but also the advisors, instructors, even fellow students, etc. As a student at East Central College who uses the Access Services program, it is very useful and has helped me succeed in many different ways. When I first started at East Central College, I remember feeling many emotions excited, scared, and nervous for many reasons. Now that I am almost done with my degree, if I could give you all advice is that if you are struggling no matter how big or little, even if you are struggling with getting motivated or having trouble starting an assignment or any struggles reach out! Make sure you use all the resources you can because they are there to help you!