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    College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities
    College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities
    College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities
    Ebook196 pages2 hours

    College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities

    By Chris Wise Tiedemann

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "College Success for Students With Physical Disabilities" is a college planning guide for students with physical disabilities and chronic medical conditions. Students will learn about their rights under the laws governing education and disability, self-advocacy, choosing a college, how having a physical disability affects admissions testing, the increased responsibilities in college, and how to make sure they get everything they need. The book contains forms, checklists, interviews with other students, advice from college disability services personnel, and profiles of disability-friendly colleges across the United States.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateFeb 1, 2012
    ISBN9781593639457
    College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities
    Author

    Chris Wise Tiedemann

    Chris Wise Tiedemann's interest in physical disability-friendly colleges was sparked when her son, a student with cerebral palsy, began the college application process. Finding little information available, she created the popular website http://www.disabilityfriendlycolleges.com in 2009. Chris is a freelance writer and editor from Atlanta with 35 years of experience.

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    Reviews for College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      As someone who has a physical disability and had the chance to go to college fresh out of high school, but declined; this book is God send. It has given me the courage that I need to go back to school better prepared for what I have to face and also give me the tools necessary for preparing to face college life. Truly an invaluable source of information that I would recommend to any parents and student who are fearing the daunting task of preparing for college life with physical disability. There is hope out there!
    • 5/5
      My father was one of the early cardiac bypass patients in the US. That operation allowed him to live to be 57 instead of dying by 46, but he was still retired from the Air Force on 100% disability. Dad tried to attend college after he recovered from surgery, but was forced to drop out in his first semester. I'm glad to report that chapter six includes information for the disabled veteran attending college.I have physical disabilities now, so I understand well what it means to have to plan my activities around how I'm feeling and the consequences if I overdo. I also remember what it was like to be on crutches for several weeks while attending a college built on hills, where I had to park at the top of one of them, and to slowly go up and down stairs to my classes because there was no elevator. In short, I have a lot of sympathy for students with physical disabilities who want to attend college. I'm glad they'll have this book to help them.This how-to guide gives the potential college student timelines for what they need to do, sample forms, plenty of advice and tips, references (in print and websites), a glossary of terms, and a list of the most disability-friendly colleges in the USA. I would urge the target audience to follow the advice about managing their time and health. Yes, it is so horribly frustrating when your disabilities get in the way of what you want to do for fun, let alone what you need to get done, but take care of yourself anyway. This is your future you're working toward.This book advises being very truthful about the extent of your disabilities. If they get better or worse, I'd make that clear, too. Sometimes I have no trouble lifting 20 pounds, and sometimes I have trouble lifting a half-gallon of milk. How far and well I can walk changes, too. People used to me at my best don't understand why I can't do more when I'm at my worst. It makes me wish there were some kind of gauge I could wear that would show how much I can do at a time.Don't forget that medicine is such a huge field that no one doctor can know everything. Be sure to have a copy of your medical records with you if they aren' available online. It might not hurt to have your doctors suggest book or article references on your condition in case you normally see a specialist and none will be available at your college.I would definitely recommend this book for students with disabilities who want to go beyond high school for their education.
    • 5/5
      This book is a great step-by-step, easy-to-read guide for anyone who has a physical disability and is thinking about going to college or anyone with a child who has a physical disability and is thinking about going to college. Not only does the book literally take you step-by-step through the process of searching for and finding a college, but it also provides you with helpful resources, websites and forms to use along your way.
    • 5/5
      I wanted to check this book out because I'm a college instructor and want to understand the experience of my students with disabilities a little better. While I am not the intended audience (students with physical disabilities and their parents are), I still found this book incredibly interesting and useful. As other reviewers have mentioned Tiedemann's book is chock full of general information that I would have found helpful as a first generation college student without a physical disability. I can imagine that for some families who already have significant experience in advocating for education rights and accommodations, some of the information here is already familiar, but I think that there is enough here to make this a useful book. I think it's probably most useful for parents of younger teenagers as a great deal of it has to do with planning and preparing for college. There is a ton of information in this slim volume.
    • 4/5
      As a parent of a child with a physical disability (but not yet old enough to be thinking about college), I read this book with great interest. Not only does the book give good advice for high-school-aged children with disabilities (and their parents) making decisions related to college, but it is written at an appropriate level for that age demographic. The book is short and readable, and the inclusion of student testimonials at the end of each chapter keep it from being too didactic--which would risk alienating the intended audience. As I read this book, I continued to think that despite the disability-specific content necessarily covered in each of the six chapters, the general content of the text would be beneficial for all students considering college after high school. In addition to my daughter who has a disability, I have three other children. The oldest is now fourteen and in 9th grade. I am planning to pass this book along to her this summer because I think it will be helpful as a succinct guide to what every student should know about the choices he or she faces when considering academic life after high school.If I have one criticism of this book, it would be that the author spends very little time talking about educational options outside of a 4-year degree. While the book does mention two-year technical and community colleges as an option, it just scratches the surface of what is offered at those institutions; namely, it discusses only the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees. It does not mention other options such as Associate of Applied Arts/Sciences degrees or the various occupational certifications and other continuing education opportunities offered at these schools.
    • 5/5
      College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities is a great book for anyone with a disability that would like to attend college. Tiedemann offers tips for students beginning with the steps to take while the student is still in high school. The book emphasizes that the family begins planning while the student is in the teen years, and encourages the student to become a self-advocate. Four students offer their own experiences in college planning and attending their college.I wish I had had a handbook like this while I was a student in college. What a great reference for students with disabilities!
    • 3/5
      I was a parent who read just about every book written on colleges, how to apply, how they can change my child's life, ad infinitum. Much of this book is duplicated in those "college search" books. What is addressed differently is that the search for the right fit needs to begin much, much earlier for students with disabilities. No doubt this is true for many other facets of the lives of young people with disabilities.Our nephew lives with us for this, his freshman year at the University. He suffers from a chronic disease--type 1 diabetes--and so I was somewhat disappointed not to have more specific information applicable to him. How silly of me to think that this life-threatening disease (we had to call 911 in the first semester when we found him in a coma), would be addressed in a book about PHYSICAL disabilities. These are considered health-related CONDITIONS. Tiedemann made diabetes sound like a case of acne.All that aside, where I found this book to be helpful were the "disabity services tips" scattered throughout the chapters, and the interviews scattered throughout with 4 students who have first-hand experience negotiating the shoals of independent living.I found the sections dealing with Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) to be interesting and informative. From the student interviews, I take it that they are frequently clueless and mostly overworked. Sections describing "Enabling College Profiles" we're also illuminating.In the end though, I think this book will be most helpful to parents hoping their child will successfully make the transition to adulthood--whether they live at home as they begin their colleges lives or move away. Whether the young people will find it as helpful, I am doubtful.
    • 4/5
      This book is brimming with crucial information for students attempting to maneuver college with a physical disability. It's tough in college; no one holds your hand or steps up to volunteer information that may help you. You have to go out and find what you need yourself. It can be exhausting, confusing, and overwhelming, especially for a freshman or a student just starting out. This book acts as a lighthouse; not only does it help guide a student with physical disabilities, it brings to light the resources that they may not have known were there. I want to thank the author and publishers of this book- you have provided us with an invaluable tool!

    Book preview

    College Success for Students with Physical Disabilities - Chris Wise Tiedemann

    requires.

    FOR the student making the transition from high school, college may represent the first point of passage into the adult world. For those contemplating college following a few years in the workforce or military service, college may be the key to a new occupation or an enhanced quality of life. But whatever their varied and individual reasons for attending college, all students must adjust to a brand-new environment there, according to a 2008 report by the National Council on Disability (NCD).

    Yet students with disabilities often enter college unprepared for the new responsibilities and challenges they will face, the report noted. This is because they are often poorly informed about the dramatic differences between their prior educational experiences and the realities of college life—higher academic expectations, greater personal responsibilities, and much different services for people with disabilities, to name a few. Often, too, they have not been prepared to meet the changes they will encounter upon reaching the college campus.

    OUR FAMILY’S EXPERIENCE

    Our family experienced this firsthand when my son Tommy, who has cerebral palsy, began searching for a college in 2003 and eventually attended three very different types of American colleges. We found information about college success for students with physical disabilities remarkably limited. No books, websites, or college guides. We learned, too, that existing college guidebooks and websites were not written specifically to answer the questions of students with physical disabilities, and even school guidance offices had little information relevant to their special needs. Filling this information gap became an urgent priority for us 2 years before Tommy’s high school graduation. Tommy did his senior project in high school on colleges that accommodate people with disabilities. But even when he was accepted at college and began classes, we often found ourselves working out our own solutions on the fly to issues we should have been aware of much earlier.

    Eventually we learned the questions to ask, the people to see, and the right way to do things in college (and sometimes, the wrong way to do things). So we decided to start a website where families could learn which colleges went beyond the requirements of the law in providing assistance to students with physical disabilities. Our website, http://www.disabilityfriendlycolleges.com, provided a place for students, families, and professionals to read about and discuss these issues. By then, however, we had learned that finding one’s best college was only the first mile marker on the road to success in college. A student with physical disabilities must also learn to make use of the college and its disability services and to advocate for his or her own very individual needs.

    HOW THIS BOOK CAN HELP YOU

    The stories of the students you will read about here prove that students with disabilities do experience college success, but they must begin the college search as early as they can, understand how college will be different from high school, learn solid self-determination and self-advocacy skills, and, if possible, plan and prepare for that transition from the early years of high school through the first semester of college.

    This book is written for prospective college students, their families, and those who work with them. Its purpose is to provide an introduction to the full range of ingredients in college success, from a student’s earliest participation in the IEP process to the time when she regularly and easily discusses her accommodations with her college’s disability services office and professors.

    Students will learn about their rights under the laws governing education and disability, the meaning and importance of self-advocacy, and perhaps most important, the dramatically different responsibilities and expectations that come along with becoming a college student. They will also learn how having a physical disability affects such college preparation basics as admissions applications, financial aid, and standardized testing. This book will discuss the types of academic and personal accommodations available in college and how to make sure students can get what they need. Finally, each chapter also contains insightful advice from college disability service specialists; resources such as sample forms, planning checklists, and timelines; interviews with college students who have physical disabilities; and profiles of some of the most disability-friendly colleges in the U.S.

    Readers who have already completed high school may wish to begin with Chapter 2. Chapter 2–6 cover the college issues mentioned above. Chapter 1 focuses on using the high school years and the IEP process to prepare to go to college with a disability.

    ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

    Students exhibit great variety, and students with physical disabilities are no different. Some students may prefer a college that offers personal services and has hundreds of students with disabilities. Others may prefer to be one of the crowd at their local community college or to pursue an esoteric major at an Ivy League school. All are valid options, and all require that the student understand the college ethic and get ready to meet its requirements for success.

    Along the same lines, this book also recognizes that students with physical disabilities can have very different types and combinations of impairments. There is no one size fits all recommendation, and students will need to select their college and their services with their own specific needs in mind.

    TALKING TO THE EXPERTS

    As well as being the mother of a student with a physical disability, I am a professional writer/editor with experience as a journalist, communications manager, and freelance writer. This book approaches postsecondary education and physical disability from the perspective of the student and her family, but it is supported by extensive research with college students and disability service specialists at colleges across the country.

    Detailed interviews with four wonderful students appear at the end of each chapter. Kelly Lynn Berger, Dustin Gilmer, Lindsey Newland, and Tommy Tiedemann discuss their experiences with everything from taking the SATs to obtaining personal care services on campus.

    Kelly Lynn Berger is a student at the University of Kentucky. She is a journalism major who has congenital muscular dystrophy. Dustin Gilmer, a telecommunications major, attends Ball State University in Indiana. Dustin has polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, also known as Albright syndrome, a brittle bone disorder that also keeps him from growing normally. Lindsey Newland received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Kentucky following her injury in an auto accident. The accident resulted in traumatic brain injury with partial paralysis on the left side of her body. She studied social work with a focus on gerontology. Tommy Tiedemann (my son) is a student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, where he majors in psychology. As noted, he has cerebral palsy. Tommy has also attended Chattahoochee Technical College and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He has therefore experienced three very different types of campus: a technical college, a school known for its extensive services for students with disabilities, and a large state university. These are four smart, frank, and funny young people who never hold back as they bring to life the issues explored in this book.

    Lastly, I want to thank my family for the warmth of their affection and support during the year I spent writing this book. No one understands better than Joe and Tommy how important it is that college be made accessible, in as many ways as possible, to those who desire a postsecondary education.

    This book was written to help engender in all students the confidence to make good choices and thoroughly enjoy the beauty of the college years. I hope that through reading it, students will recognize that success can come in the form of good grades or a job, but also and more long-lasting, as personal growth, self-knowledge, and an awakened interest in learning.

    By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.—Benjamin Franklin

    AS a student who also has a physical disability, you are already aware of the important role that planning plays in your life. The same is true if you are close to someone who has a physical disability. For example, you know about the importance of parking near curb cuts, giving yourself extra time to get ready for school in the morning, or looking for hotel bathrooms with roll-in showers or grab-bars. Your Individualized Education Program (IEP) at school is, in fact, a plan for your entire K–12 education.

    For students going on to college, however, planning does not stop with high school. There are no IEPs in college, but planning becomes even more important because the laws regarding accessibility and accommodation are much different from those that apply to high schools, with the student as chief advocate. Other changes kick in when you advance to college, as well. Perhaps the most important of these is the degree of maturity and responsibility required of successful college students.

    In this chapter, you will begin to design a process that will prepare you to find your best college—and to succeed there.

    Planning is one of the most important aspects of making a successful transition from high school to college—and the student should always be at the center of that planning process.

    COLLEGE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

    My high school was very supportive and expected nothing less of me than to go to college, said Dustin Gilmer, a Ball State University student interviewed for this book. Every one of the students whom you will meet in this book was encouraged to attend college. If you are reading this book, we assume that you, too, are considering college, or that you have made the decision to attend college.

    A 2009 U.S. Government Accountability Office study found that 11% of postsecondary students in the U.S. were students with disabilities, and research suggests that this number is growing all of the time. Recent legislation, like the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, contains provisions that assist people with disabilities and may also increase the number of college students with disabilities. So college is indeed a very realistic option.

    In terms of college itself, your options include 2-year colleges, 4-year colleges, community and technical colleges, and certificate programs. Your choices are already accumulating.

    WHY CHOOSE TO ATTEND COLLEGE

    For many people, higher education is fulfilling simply for its own sake and they attend college because they have an intense interest in a particular field or enjoy the academic environment. But for most students, and even for the academically inclined, economics enters the picture as well. People simply need to earn a living.

    Students graduating from high school today are entering an economy that is increasingly knowledge based. For example, in 1959, only 20% of workers required some college education for their jobs. Today 56% require college, according to the most recent National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) of students with disabilities (Newman, 2005). You can see that attending college and earning a degree can make a big difference in your future.

    EXPECTATIONS VERSUS PREPARATION

    Statistics support the idea that young people with disabilities have more college options today and also attend college in larger numbers than ever before. But there are some less heartening statistics, too. The same NLTS study (Newman, 2005) found, for example, that 77% of young people with disabilities in the study had a goal of attending postsecondary school. However, within 2 years of leaving high school, only 31% of youth with disabilities had actually continued on to postsecondary education. The study also noted that similar-aged youth in the general population who do not have disabilities are more than 4 1/2 times as likely to be enrolled in a 4-year college as youth with disabilities. Why is college attendance so

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