At 8:00 a.m. on October 14th the Disability History Display was ready. There were tables filled with posters which depicted moments in history ranging from 3500 BC to the Renaissance to the Holocaust. The posters filled the Avanté hallway with images of people with disabilities living their lives in every way. 

October is Disability Awareness Month. During this time, Harper College promotes their students with disabilities through events and advertising. For example, the library lays out books about disabilities.

While there is a history of disabilities to learn about, there is also a history at Harper College. More specifically, the Access and Disability Services, also known as ADS. 

In 1973 Harper College was providing services mainly for the deaf and hearing impaired because at this time the college was under the section 504 Rehabilitation Act. “The law passed but it was not enacted and put into full force until several years later,” Director of ADS Jason Altman explained. “During that time there was no federal law that required us to provide any accommodations for students with disabilities.” 

Although section 504 was in effect, this only applied to schools that were given federal funding. Institutions not federally funded were not required to follow the Rehabilitation Act. As the population of students with disabilities grew this made it difficult for students to find schools that would be able to accommodate them.

In 1973 Harper College’s deaf program was put in effect to provide interpreting and tutoring services for the students. Five years later the services changed to incorporate students with learning disabilities. 

Then in 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. For colleges this meant that everyone had to provide accommodations for all students with disabilities. However, even today not all students utilize their accommodations.

“We currently have 1,202 students registered with us,” Altmann explains. “So out of the 1,202 students only 413 students are using their accommodations since this past spring semester. And the current semester we have 466 students using their accommodations.”

Altman and the ADS staff think that some students will not use their accommodations do to the amount of comfort on campus and the stigma coming to the ADS office. This bothered Altmann so three years ago he put together a team to rectify the problem to improve the rate of students using their accommodations.

“We sat down and realized that instead of asking the students to come to us, that we needed to go out to them on campus where the students are,” Altmann said. “Through our outreach with faculty members, promoting our student club, creating activities for the students to do and get involved with. We worked with the Center for Student Involvement to make their meetings and events more accessible.”

When asked if Harper College preformed at a high ranking with their disability services, Altmann stated that he does have colleagues that come to him for advice on how to make their disability services better. With that being said, it can be assumed that Harper College is the leader in their disability services among other community college campuses.

With Altmann serving as the director for four and a half years he has been able to overcome milestones and create specific programs for students to be successful with the help of his team. 

Altmann looks for ways for ADS students to improve their experience on campus. He works to make everything at Harper College as accessible as possible. Altmann strives to make changes for students before they come into contact with something that may not be accessible. 

The Transition Autism Program, or TAP, was established to pair incoming college freshman with a mentor to help them become successful in their first semester. There is Academic Coaching Empowering Students which is a program to help students improve on certain skills like self-advocacy or time management. 

“We don’t have to provide the program[s] but our staff here really cares about the students and wants to create opportunities that will lead them to success,” Altmann said. 

The Access and Disability Services has a staff of access advocates who help accommodate the students. April Maman is one of those advocates. She helps her students to find the right accommodations for each class. 

Maman explains that their goal in accommodating students at Harper College is to involve all of Harper College’s faculty. This requires everyone to work as a team. It is not about changing the curriculum but to create an accessible way for the student to learn the material. 

In terms of the teamwork with the staff and instructors, Maman said that everyone has been accommodating when it comes to working with the ADS office. “We do a lot to make accommodations reasonable to the course.”

Maman also encourages her students to be proactive and talk about their accommodations with their instructors. Still, she acknowledges that some students may not talk about their accommodations because of the stigma. This is when Maman gets more involved and advocates for the student.

Maman does see positive students coming into the ADS office who are very proud of their disability. The ADS staff is aware that every student is different and has different needs. The goal for the students is to make coming to ADS comfortable and to let them know that the office is a safe space.

“We try to reframe the thought process for people with disabilities and that disability is not a bad word,” Maman said. 

The ADS team is always looking for events to promote their students with disabilities. Some upcoming events Maman highlighted were the Las Tres Fridas Art Exhibit for ADS Harper alumni and artist Frida Kahlo with art featuring life with a disability. Maman also mentioned the library on campus displaying books on disability.

Jason Altmann is currently working with the Disability Culture Committee.  This team focuses on events, as well as improving life for students around campus. 

Altmann is very excited about the future. He hopes ADS will soon partner with the Center for Student Involvement and the Art History Department to set up a disability art exhibition. In early December Harper College will host an Adaptive Sports Day, where students with all kinds of disabilities can come and play. 

“Were not just focusing on one month in October. We want to make it an ongoing awareness,” Altman said. “Plus, if we don’t maintain with something throughout the year people are going to forget until next year in October. We want it ongoing, an ongoing exposure.”