UCA’s Office of Accessibility Resources and Services, in suite 212 of the Student Health Center, provides resources and assistance to ensure students with disabilities have complete access to classrooms, programs and events at the university. 

Doris Pierce, director of OARS, said the “core foundation” of the office is to “provide equal access for students with disabilities.” 

UCA’s OARS website defines a disability as “a temporary or permanent condition that substantially limits one or more daily living activities.”

Pierce said there were 1,170 students active in the OARS database as of Dec. 2. UCA’s overall enrollment for fall 2022 was 9,913, according to UCA’s website, which means 11.8% of UCA students are registered with OARS. 

Pierce said the most common accommodations used in a classroom setting by students are “extra time, distraction-reduced testing, note-taking technology and recording lectures.”

OARS offers exam accommodation services, which are determined on an “individual basis” based on each student’s specific needs, according to the OARS website. 

The OARS website states, “The University Testing Center administers the exam needs of students with disabilities by proctoring test or quiz accommodations and scheduling exam times.”

OARS offers “adaptive technology” or “note-taking” services to help students obtain written or typed copies of in-class information. Some classes have a designated note takers. 

Students can also be approved to use assistive note-taking devices like Glean for Education, a digital voice recorder, or a LiveScribe Smart Pen, according to the OARS website.

The office can also set up faculty or staff consultations with students by facilitating meetings to discuss accommodations, according to the OARS website.  

For deaf or hard-of-hearing students, OARS offers “auxiliary aids and services,” including “sign language interpreting” and “transcription,” according to the OARS website. 

Pierce said OARS recently hired “three federal student workers to help with captioning services.”

Pierce said it was around early November when OARS sent out an email to faculty to let them know captioning services were available for things like lecture videos. 

OARS also offers several other accommodations and services to students based on their needs.

The office offers advance registration, which enables students with disabilities to enroll in courses earlier than other students; the OARS website states that the OARS staff will “grant priority registration to students who require advance planning to arrange modifications.”

The office also offers alternative format material when possible. The OARS website states that “every attempt is made to provide alternate format in the most efficient and effective way possible.”

For physically disabled students who need wheelchair accessibility, Pierce said every campus building has a wheelchair-accessible entrance. 

Some buildings on campus have elevators, but not all. Pierce said the university’s classroom buildings do have elevators or wheelchair lifts, though. 

OARS offers on-campus housing or dining accommodations. Housing accommodations can help address potential problems for people in need of wheelchair accessibility, like if a residence hall does not have an elevator. 

According to the OARS website, housing and dining accommodations can include, but are not limited to: “ADA compliant rooms,” “single-occupancy rooms,” “private” or “semi-private” restrooms, “meal plan exemptions” or “modifications,” and “assistance animals” such as a “service animal” or “emotional support animal.”

The office offers counseling and advocacy services as well. The OARS website states that the OARS staff can meet with students to assist them with “time management, study strategies and advocacy skills.”

Students can also utilize the OARS office if they are in need of “readers,” “scribes,” “lab assistance,” “library assistance” or “OARS cart services.” 

OARS also has a web accessibility committee with representatives from offices across campus. 

“We are talking about digital accessibility on a wider scale. We’re talking about making that happen. It’s a really exciting time in the history of our college,” Pierce said. 

Pierce said OARS has the resources it needs thanks to UCA’s Department of Finance and Administration.

“We have to go through a request, just like any other department does on campus. This year, we have been provided with software. It’s called Equidox. It takes an inaccessible document, so any document that’s on paper…it helps us to be able to convert that document to a tagged PDF … so the monies for that were $7,500 for five licenses, and that was provided to us this semester. We’re so excited about Equidox,” Pierce said. 

Pierce said OARS services are only for UCA students.

“Faculty with disabilities or disabling conditions can go through the Office of Human Resources,” Pierce said. 

Pierce said OARS is fully committed to the students it serves. 

“I would like for students to know that our office strives to make our campus inclusive and accessible, and campus-wide accessibility is our goal. We have campus partnerships, offices that help with that. We really care about our students. They can come and register with our office and sit down and talk with us about what is possible in the classroom in the way of equal access and accessibility,” Pierce said.