Disability survey opens door to members’ concerns

Responding to a charge from the UUP Executive Board to monitor campus implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and to make recommendations regarding disability rights, the union’s statewide Disability Rights and Concerns Committee in late 2000 began a two-part investigation that included a survey of UUP members with disabilities and a review of ADA compliance on SUNY campuses.

UUPer Sally Knapp, a librarian at SUNY Albany and co-chair of the committee, said the 28-question survey not only provided the “users’ perspectives” on ADA implementation, it gave UUP members with disabilities an opportunity to voice their concerns, as well as to comment on campus accomplishments and suggest improvements. Of the 1,000-plus questionnaires returned, 235 were completed by UUPers with disabilities.

“It is appropriate that UUP is listening to and representing its members from the disability minority group,” said Knapp, who is in the process of analyzing the final survey data.

Questionnaires went to all UUP members because the committee “wanted to reach people whose disabilities were not visible,” Knapp added. “We asked UUPers with disabilities to answer questions about demographics, discrimination, accommodations and disability-related expenses.” To ensure anonymity, the survey did not ask a respondent’s gender or SUNY campus, she said.

Respondents were asked if they would like to be personally contacted about their concerns, if they were interested in joining a disability issues e-list service or if they would like to network with others using similar software or adaptive technology. Respondents could also volunteer to assess the ADA compliance by their respective campuses.

“The response far exceeded our expectations,” Knapp said. “Twenty-eight people asked to be contacted personally, 71 joined the e-mail service and members from six campuses volunteered to study the accessibility of their campus facilities.”

Preliminary analysis of the findings indicates that almost two-thirds of the respondents with disabilities are between the ages of 40 and 60. Nearly half are professionals, more than 40 percent are teaching academics and the remainder are librarians.

More than a third of the respondents became disabled after they were employed by SUNY. “We will have more to say in the final report regarding this group, who often have difficulty adjusting, obtaining accommodations and whose early retirement might deprive SUNY of talented and experienced employees,” Knapp said. Almost one quarter of the respondents requested and obtained accommodations, but a third indicated they did not have the necessary accommodations to help them do their jobs better.

The importance of accessible campuses cannot be overemphasized, according to Knapp. “Accessibility is the level playing ground that optimizes participation by everyone,” she said.

The committee mailed accessibility checklists to those who volunteered to survey their campus facilities. “We asked questions about safety, barriers and accommodations,” Knapp said. “We asked for descriptions of ways in which campuses excelled in providing access, areas needing improvement and for suggestions about how to improve attitudes, access and policies.”

She added: “These results do not substitute for overall systematic evaluations of campus accessibility, but they do represent important member concerns.”