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From the steps of the Million Dollar Staircase in the New York State Capitol building, obtaining additional funding for services for students with disabilities in higher education hardly seemed impossible to students Eden Bishop, Samuel Clarke and Kayleen Coyotl who, with Luis Gutierrez, Guttman’s assistant director of AccessABILITY Services, joined hundreds of other college students at the February 8 NYS Student Empowerment Day rally for "Enhancing Supports for Disability Services Offices" in higher education.
“Honestly, the day in Albany was great,” said Clarke, an IT major in his second year and treasurer of Guttman’s Abilities Club, the college’s chapter of CCSD, (CUNY Coalition of Students with Disabilities). “The experience was empowering and motivating to get students what we really need in education: challenge and meaning. I never knew that being there to help fight for our rights would be one of my educational moments of accomplishment and pride to protest the unfairness of the state budget.”
With an estimated 80,000 New York college and university students currently registered with their campus Offices of Disability, and 11,000 of those at CUNY, the State Education Department requests an increase of $13 million to the $2 million already approved by the legislature. This funding, they argue, is necessary to provide resources and opportunities students need, such as adaptive technology, academic coaching and tutoring, accessible classrooms and laboratories, mental health services and professional development in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for faculty and staff.
“It’s an equity issue,” explains Gutierrez, who serves as co-advisor to Guttman’s Abilities Club along with CUNY Leads Specialist Maryanne Sackarnoski. “When students come to us having an IEP or 504 Plan in high school, it’s up to each college, both public and private, to provide the budget for whatever accommodations and services we can afford to offer them. There just isn’t adequate state-level funding specifically for students with disabilities,” he said.
Since 2012, the number of students relying on Guttman’s Office of AccessABILITY Services (OAS) has been growing except for this year, in line with decreased post-COVID higher education enrollments nationally. “College is a time when students are figuring out their identities,” says Sackarnoski. “No matter what our numbers are, we want to be sensitive to students in their level of comfort identifying as having a disability. The Abilities Club promotes peer communication and self-advocacy. We’re coming out of a time of ‘one-click engagement’ and trying many different face-to-face activities to get students’ participation and grow their leadership.”
The efforts of Guttierez, Sackarnoski and the whole OAS team led by Director Crystal Vasquez are enhanced by Abilities Club President Eden Bishop, a second-year Liberal Arts and Sciences major, who summed up her experience at the February 8 rally: “My trip to Albany was nothing short of inspiring. It was amazing to see so many people come out and show their support for students with disabilities. Right now, we’ve cleared the first hurdle, making our voices known. And I’m with my community every step of the way until we reach our goal.”
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