2008 Woodie Awards
ADHD, Disabilities, and Help: Lisa Marsh's Mission at Rollins
Nicole Fluet
Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: Life & Times
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The Thomas P. Johnson Resource Center in Mills holds the Tutoring Center and the Writing Center. It also holds Disability Services, a program run this year by the new coordinator Lisa Marsh.
The Disability Services Center helps students with various disabilities be able to have accommodations made for testing, note taking, and other learned techniques that may be difficult for them. Disability Services is part of TJs and is available to any student with disabilities in Arts and Sciences, Crummer, or Holt schools.
Examples of accommodations include assistive technologies for those with learning disabilities, hearing problems, and low vision. Marsh, can grant, if needed, extended test time, hire a student note taker, loan out tape recorders, or secure preferential seating in classrooms.
ADD and ADHD students make up about 75% of disability cases addressed to Marsh, she says. In the case of someone with one of these disabilities, they would come up to her office in TJ's and make an appointment with her.
Later they would discuss the disability, which is kept completely confidential and the accommodations that need to be made for the student.
In order to prove the student has the disability they claim to have, a psychological evaluation is presented and examined, usually stating the problem and the means suggested to help the student in the best way.
Usually, students with disabilities already have documented paperwork from high school and can bring it to her when asked. The professor is sent the list of accommodations that may suit the student's needs but the disability is never mentioned. Each student with a disability must register with her at the beginning of every semester since they will be taking new classes and working with new professors who are unaware of their needed accommodations.
Marsh then instructs students to talk with their professor, since the professor must make the necessary arrangements with TJ's approval. "There has to be some dialogue between the student and the professor," Marsh says.
The Disability Services Center helps students with various disabilities be able to have accommodations made for testing, note taking, and other learned techniques that may be difficult for them. Disability Services is part of TJs and is available to any student with disabilities in Arts and Sciences, Crummer, or Holt schools.
Examples of accommodations include assistive technologies for those with learning disabilities, hearing problems, and low vision. Marsh, can grant, if needed, extended test time, hire a student note taker, loan out tape recorders, or secure preferential seating in classrooms.
ADD and ADHD students make up about 75% of disability cases addressed to Marsh, she says. In the case of someone with one of these disabilities, they would come up to her office in TJ's and make an appointment with her.
Later they would discuss the disability, which is kept completely confidential and the accommodations that need to be made for the student.
In order to prove the student has the disability they claim to have, a psychological evaluation is presented and examined, usually stating the problem and the means suggested to help the student in the best way.
Usually, students with disabilities already have documented paperwork from high school and can bring it to her when asked. The professor is sent the list of accommodations that may suit the student's needs but the disability is never mentioned. Each student with a disability must register with her at the beginning of every semester since they will be taking new classes and working with new professors who are unaware of their needed accommodations.
Marsh then instructs students to talk with their professor, since the professor must make the necessary arrangements with TJ's approval. "There has to be some dialogue between the student and the professor," Marsh says.