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Issue: 12/06/06
New center's goal: create 'welcoming culture' for disabled students, staff
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12/06/06
Sabryna Cornish
Roxana Stupp, new director of the Disability Resource Center, was coordinator of disabilities services at the University of Costa Rica.
Photo: Kathryn Marchetti
A new campus resource center will offer services to students, faculty, staff and visitors who have disabilities.
The Disability Resource Center replaces the Office of Disability Services, which worked only with students.
“This is a center that will serve all individuals at the university,” said Peter Berg, co-chair of the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
“We want to create a welcoming culture at the university,” added Berg, technical assistance coordinator at the Institute on Disability and Human Development.
“The center will become what the people at UIC really want it to be,” said new director Roxana Stupp, who joined UIC in September.
Berg said one of the center’s first efforts will be to survey people with disabilities on campus to determine their primary needs.
The survey, planned for spring semester, will be funded by the chancellor’s committee and the Office of the Provost.
The center will focus on students’ needs until it is fully staffed. The center has five employees and is looking to fill two more positions. In the meantime, the Office for Access and Equity will continue to handle employee inquiries.
Berg said the center will expand its staffing as UIC’s reputation as a disability-friendly campus spreads.
“Recruitment and retention of quality students, staff and faculty will increase as the quality of services provided to individuals with disabilities increases,” he said.
Stupp was coordinator of student disabilities services at the University of Costa Rica, considered a leader among Latin American universities for improvements in access. She established the program and helped write a law in Costa Rica for equal opportunity for people with disabilities.
UIC’s resource center offers a variety of services, including document interpreting and note-taking, advising and tutoring. Staff members provide help with paperwork, technology, testing and captioning.
The center works closely with other departments, including Facilities Management, Registration and Records and the UIC Library.
The chancellor’s committee wants UIC to be known as a disability-friendly campus, one that serves every member of its community, Berg said.
The center is located at 1190 Student Services Building. Call 413-2183 or TTY 413-0123.
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