{"id":712,"date":"2017-04-11T11:51:22","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T15:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=712"},"modified":"2017-04-11T12:38:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T16:38:00","slug":"student-view-changes-needed-to-support-college-applicants-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/04\/11\/student-view-changes-needed-to-support-college-applicants-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Student View: Changes Needed to Support College Applicants with Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Colleges must do more to provide and improve accommodations for students with disabilities, grad student Valerie Piro wrote in a recent essay<\/a> published by Inside Higher Ed<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Piro, who uses a wheelchair and is currently pursuing a master\u2019s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, highlighted the challenges she faced when touring colleges as a high school student.<\/p>\n

At one university, she had to use a makeshift wooden ramp to navigate a short flight of stairs. At another school, her prospective residence hall was located at the bottom of a steep hill and the college\u2019s dorm rooms were much too small to accommodate her physical therapy equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysical space and a well-functioning infrastructure on a campus cannot be overlooked, especially when one has a disability,\u201d wrote Piro, who is paralyzed from the chest down. \u201cWhat better way to tell a wheelchair user that they don\u2019t belong at a college or university than by strewing the campus with stairs, broken help buttons, and pitiful excuses for ramps?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In her essay, Piro shared the factors she used when deciding which college to attend. In addition to campus visits, Piro made a rule for herself: If she couldn\u2019t find information about disability services on a college\u2019s website within two minutes, it would probably be a bad fit.<\/p>\n

She also checked campus accessibility maps, pored over shuttle schedules, and asked college officials about the accommodations she\u2019d receive on campus.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Piro found a right-fit college. Now, as a grad student, she\u2019s calling on all institutions of higher education to make the changes needed to support students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a student has been accepted to a college, their ability to attend should never be in question,\u201d Piro wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s time to take the burden off students with disabilities in the application process and ensure that all colleges and universities can accommodate their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full story<\/a> and check out these college search tips for students with paralysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Admitted writer\/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at\u00a0mstegmeir@nacacnet.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colleges must do more to provide and improve accommodations for students with disabilities, grad student Valerie Piro wrote in a recent essay published by Inside Higher Ed. Piro, who uses a wheelchair and is currently pursuing a master\u2019s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, highlighted the challenges she faced when touring colleges as … Continue reading Student View: Changes Needed to Support College Applicants with Disabilities<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,10],"tags":[208],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access","category-college-admission","tag-students-with-disabilities"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mary Stegmeir","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/mstegmeir\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-bu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}