Glen W. White, Ph.D., Yen T.H. Vo, and Nicole Denney AHEAD Conference

1. Requesting Accommodations to Increase Full Participation in Higher Education: Self-Advocacy Training for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities Glen W. White, Ph.D., Yen T.H. Vo, and Nicole Denney AHEAD Conference

2. Participatory Action Research • As a NIDRR Scholar, I helped shape this project’s goals, procedures and helped review outcomes • I was in my freshman and sophomore years at the University of Kansas during this study period. • Served as a “reality check” to ensure that the project addressed needs of students with disabilities.

3. PAR Tasks • Went through pilot training of the advocacy program • Provided feedback on the training materials • Reviewed practice and testing scenarios for realism • Assisted with recruiting students for the training • Involved with focus groups with students with disabilities from other universities

4. Pre-Study Social Validation of Goals • Researchers met with groups of students with disabilities from: • Emporia State University • Washburn University

6. Employers are seeking more qualified and educated personnel; thus, access to post secondary education becomes even more critical to the pursuit of well paid employment (OSERS & USDOE, 2000; Harris eSurvey, 2000; & HEATH Survey, 1998;as cited inFrieden, 2003)

7. Strong positive correlation between: • Level of education • Rate of employment (Benz, Doren & Yovanoff, 1998; Blackorky & Wagner, 1996; Stodden & Dowrick, 2001)

8. Participation Rate in The Labor Force (Yelin & Katz, 1994)

9. College graduation is much lower for students with disabilities vs. those students without disabilities (National Organization on Disability, 2003)

10. Many factors prevent students with disabilities from completing postsecondary degrees (Burgstahler, 2001; Izzo, Hertzfeld, Simmons-Reed, & Aaron, 2001)

11. Lack of adequate support systems that can provide: • Information about differences in legal requirements for accommodations between secondary education and postsecondary education • Assistance to help students choose appropriate fields of study • Services associated with disability type

12. Faculty, staff, and administrators have: • Limited knowledge of • Disability rights laws • Appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities • Negative attitudes and low expectations about students’ abilities

13. Students with disabilities lack: • Access to successful role models • Awareness of and access to technology that can increase independence and productivity

14. Knowledge about their legal rights and effective personal accommodations • Self-advocacy skills

15. Importance of Self-Advocacy To succeed in a postsecondary school environment, students with disabilities need self-advocacy and self-determination skills to: • Understand their rights and responsibilities • Understand their disability-related needs • Be able to advocate for needed supports and accommodations The National Center for the Study of Postsecondary Education Supports, a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) at the University of Hawaii

16. Self-advocacy Definitions: • Ability to communicate with others to acquire information and recruit help in meeting personal needs and goals (Balcazar, Fawcett & Seekins, 1991) • Ability to effectively communicate, convey, negotiate, or assert their own interests, desires, needs and rights (VanReusen, Bos, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1994)

17. Purpose of This Study • Develop a training package to help enhance and assess students’ accommodation-requesting skills • Assess students’ knowledge of their rights and responsibilities under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

18. Research Question What are the effects of a self-advocacy training package in improving students with disabilities’ accommodation-requesting skills?

19. Method

20. Participants • 3 KU students with the following disabilities were participants: • Cerebral palsy and a learning disability • Cerebral palsy • Legal blindness • One participant had obtained previous training regarding leadership and advocacy

21. Setting • Training was conducted in a typical university office with the trainer and each participant sitting face-to-face across a desk • A small tape recorder with a microphone placed on the desk to record the interactions

22. Materials • A training manual on how to request accommodations • ADA-related documents • KU Disability Policy • Accommodations list • Helpful resources

23. Materials • A total of 38 different scenarios: • Practice scenarios • Testing scenarios • 10 request-accepted • 28 request-denied • Personal disability concern scenarios • Covered various disabilities and situations

24. Knowledge assessment form Participants’ evaluation form Expert judges’ rating form Dependent variable reliability checklist Independent variable reliability checklist Instructions for observers Instructions for role-play partners Materials (con’t)

25. Example You are a student with paraplegia, using a wheelchair and having limited use of your hands. You are taking a class that includes doing rat experiments. Although independent in your daily activities, it is difficult for you to hold the rat while also trying to wheel your manual wheelchair. You need assistance, so you talked to a counselor from the Services for Students with Disabilities, Ms. Mercer, who advised you to talk to your professor. You make an appointment with your professor, Dr. Herrman, and talk with him about your challenge. It is the first time you meet him, and you really want to do the experiments because you were informed that these experiments would help you master the principles of behavior modification.

26. Design Multiple-baseline design across behaviors and participants was used to test participants’ accommodation-requesting skills across 38 different scenarios

27. Dependent Variables The study examined seven classes of behaviors: • Opening the meeting • Making the request • Asking for suggestions • Asking for referrals • Planning future actions • Summarizing the meeting • Closing the meeting

28. OPENING THE MEETING MAKING THE ACCOMMODATION REQUEST Yes No ASKING FOR SUGGESTIONS No Yes ASKING FOR REFERRALS PLANNING FUTURE ACTIONS SUMMARIZING THE MEETING CLOSING THE MEETING

29. 1. Opening the meeting • Greeting the university staff member • Introducing one’s self • Stating appreciation in meeting with the university staff member • Mentioning the referring person • Asking the university staff member’s permission to take notes or tape-record

30. 2. Making the request • Stating one’s personal situation • Describing the challenge • Making a specific request for the accommodation • Stating the potential benefits of the accommodation required

31. 3. Asking for suggestions • Asking for alternatives or suggestions if the initial request was refused • Analyzing feasibility of the suggestion

32. 4. Asking for referrals • Asking for a referral if the suggestion is not feasible • Asking for contact information for the referring person • Asking for permission to use the university staff member’s name

33. 5. Planning Future Actions • Planning the who, what, when , where, how with the university staff member.

34. 6. Summarizing the meeting • Summarizing and confirming future actions. • Summary of the agreement will help you make sure you have all the facts needed and promote mutual understanding.

35. 7. Closing the meeting • Stating appreciation for the university staff member’s time, effort, or help • Making a final closing

36. Intervention components (independent variables) • Review previous lessons • Introduce current training session and rationale • Give clear definitions of the accommodation-requesting behaviors • examples • non-examples

37. Intervention components (cont.) • Model the skills • Introduce role-plays for practice • Have participants rehearse behaviors until they master them • Provide specific corrective feedback and reinforcement to participants during practice

38. Reliability Two independent raters scored scenario-based interactions, reading the transcribed interactions • One scored all 96 transcribed interactions • The second observer scored 50% of randomly selected scenarios

39. Participants’ Evaluation Participants evaluated the: • Sequence and length of training sessions • Helpfulness of resource materials • “realness” or reality of the accommodation scenarios used for this study

40. Expert Judges • Four independent outside experts under a “blind review” of transcribed interactions rated the participants’ behavioral skill level exhibited during scenario role-plays to request needed accommodations in a university setting. • Reviewers had no knowledge whether the role plays situations were pre or post training.

41. Results

42. Percent of applicable accommodation-requesting Skills observed No occasion to occur: 0 Generalization probes before training: Generalization probes after training: 0%-50% : Participant 1: scenario 5, 6 Participant 1: scenario 23, 24 51%-89% : Participant 2: scenario 5, 6 Participant 2: scenario 27, 28 90%-100% : Participant 3: scenario 5, 6 Participant 3: scenario31, 32 0

43. Knowledge Assessment

44. Planning future actions Asking for suggestions General performance Opening the meeting Closing the meeting Making the request Asking for referral Summarizing 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 -0.5 Clay's performance before and after training -1 -1.5 -2 -2.5 -3 Before Training After training Expert Judges - Clay

45. Planning future actions Asking for suggestions General performance Opening the meeting Closing the meeting Making the request Asking for referral Summarizing 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Rick's performance before and after training -0.5 -1 -1.5 -2 -2.5 -3 Before Training After training Expert Judges - Rick

46. Planning future actions Asking for suggestions General performance Closing the meeting Making the request Opening the meeting Asking for referral Summarizing 2 1.5 1 Zane's performance before and after traning 0.5 0 -0.5 -1 -1.5 -2 -2.5 Before Training After training Expert Judges - Zane

47. Reliability • Independent Variables: Inter-rater scores were 100% for all 3 training sessions • Dependent Variables: Inter-rater scores ranged from 93% to 100% for all 48 transcribed interactions

48. Participants’ Evaluation • Participants generally liked the training and said that the resources were helpful and they would use the skills in the future • They agreed that the scenarios were realistic and practical for their training needs and would recommend this training to other students with disabilities

49. This study demonstrated the effectiveness of the training package to help participants increase their self-advocacy skills for needed accommodations • These data were also confirmed by expert judges’ ratings of participants’ skill levels during role-play scenarios Conclusions

50. The effects appeared to generalize to more natural situations when participants approached university staff members regarding accommodations needed for the subsequent semester