FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NUMBERS/TYPES

How Many Students have Disabilities at Colorado State University?

There are approximately 500 to 600 students per semester on campus who identified themselves to the university as having a permanent or temporary disability.  Because not all students with disabilities need accommodations, the number of students on campus is not exact.  The majority of students identified through RDS are through direct contact.  Only a handful of students may not have been seen personally by the staff of RDS but have otherwise self-identified to the university as having a disability .

Student often identify with RDS when first arriving on campus.  However, many students do not self-identify until they are faced with a problem or anticipate one.  Some students who suddenly find themselves struggling in this environment have been found to have undetected disabilities, the limitations of which they have been able to cope until challenged by specific course work or material.   In addition, since some disabilities are acquired, there may be students who become disabled while attending classes.  This includes both permanent disabilities as well as temporary ones.

In support of the university's overall commitment to retention, RDS will provide support services to students with temporary disabilities as long as resources to do so are available.

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What Types of Disabilities are Students Likely to Have?

Students with mobility, visual, hearing, learning, and with chronic health conditions attend CSU.   The majority of students who identify themselves with a disability have permanent limitations.  However, RDS has also worked with students with temporary limitations such as broken legs or short hospitalizations.

Mobility, visual, and hearing disabilities are usually readily recognizable.  Mobility impairments include the difficulty of moving from one place to another, use of hands or arms, or simply accessing buildings, classrooms, or other locations.  Visual impairments often result in difficulties with print material in different degrees - ranging from those who need things slightly enlarged to those who need an alternative to print material (e.g. audio or tactile).  Hearing limitations range from the need to use hearing aids and speech reading to the need to communicate through alternative methods (i.e. sign language).

The other conditions identified as disabilities might be less obvious and include such conditions as psychiatric impairments, epilepsy, severe asthma or allergies, chronic pain, cardiac limitations and learning disabilities, including Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Central Auditory Processing Deficit (CAPD), Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (SSS), and head injury.  While some chronic health conditions require little accommodation, students with these disabilities may find themselves facing attitudinal barriers that exist concerning these conditions.  RDS can act as an advocate for these students when necessary.

The following table gives a snapshot of the disabled student population as of Fall, 2004:

Total student numbers range per semester from 700 to 790. The majority of students self-identified on campus are those with disabilities affecting their ability to learn or process information (i.e., those with learning disabilities).

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What is a "Learning Disability"?

As "invisible" disabilities, learning disabilities are the most challenging for an academic environment.  A "learning disability" can manifest itself in a variety of ways.  However, it does not mean a student with one has a lower intelligence (mental retardation) nor does it mean a student cannot learn.  In fact, CSU students with diagnosed learning disabilities have at least average, and some above average, intelligence.  There are various causes attributed to learning disabilities, many of which are considered genetic.  What is recognized about them is that they are neurologically based and are related to how the brain deals with the activity of learning.

A student who has been diagnosed as having a learning disability experiences difficulty in one or several processes associated with learning.  These processes often involve encoding and decoding information.  In other words, a student may have difficulty taking in information (e.g. in reading or in hearing correct words), in processing information (e.g. understanding the meaning of a question), and/or in showing what they know and understand (e.g. through written work, through speaking, etc.).  These processes can also affect a student's ability to perform common behavioral tasks such as focusing and filtering out distractions, understanding abstract concepts, spelling, listening and taking notes, manipulating numbers and symbols, or interpreting body language and other social cues correctly.

The educational system has been designed for the "average" student with the expectations he/she can and will learn through a standard process.  Therefore, students with learning disabilities can find it very FRUSTRATING in such an environment.  They often know and understand material but are unable to demonstrate their knowledge through methods that are considered "ordinary" means of measuring mastery.  Sometimes they may have difficulty knowing what to study, whether to focus on details or general concepts, or how to apply theory.  While these difficulties may be experienced by any student occasionally, a student with a learning disability experiences these difficulties as part of daily life, sometimes not realizing when something is amiss until given feedback (i.e. a failing grade on an exam).

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