Disability Services

I looked up the Disability Services offered at Bowling Green and Ohio State for deaf and hard of hearing students (at http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/sa/disability/page18309.html and http://ods.osu.edu/services/).  Compared to Bowling Green State University’s website, there are more resources directly available to prospective students perusing the website.  The website offers tips on how to transition to college, such as contacting the Office of Disability Services directly and immediately.  It also details the types of classes that will best prepare a student for the types of classes that are offered at Ohio State.  It also provides very detailed instructions on how to apply and register with the ODS.  They also offer a College Day specifically for high school students, families, and counselors to attend to really provide a specialized orientation and advice for these students.  Though only one day, this special session just for these students really send the nonverbal message that these students are valued at the institution.

Both Bowling Green and Ohio State offer scholarships for students with disabilities.  They both also provide voter registration services so that students won’t need to maneuver outside of campus without resources.  BGSU will lend out FM amplification systems for academic purposes.  They also provide Typewell Meaning-for-Meaning Translation, where a trained Typewell captionist uses two laptop computers provided by the DS Office to transmit a meaning-for-meaning translation of the content of classes and campus events. This information is simultaneously read by the attending student.  They also provide Computer Assisted Real-Time Captioning (CART) - also referred to as real time captioning (the instant translation of the spoken word into English text using a stenotype machine, notebook computer, and realtime software). The text is displayed on the computer screen, which is located in front of the student.  They also offer interpreting services up to 3 days in advance.  Ohio State also offers these services.  They request that you request interpretation as soon as possible. They cannot guarantee interpreting services less than seven days in advance.  When I first read Bowling Green’s deadline of three days, I remembered thinking that it was asking students to know way in advance, which makes Ohio State’s much more daunting.  At the same time though, this makes sense because Ohio State is so much larger than Bowling Green.  However, this really forces students to plan ahead and know what kind of programs and events they would want to attend, way in advance.  This puts a lot of pressure on these students, and could exclude them from joining in impromptu social activities, or joining friends on a floor to an event or program.  On the flip side, the webpage also offers ASL events both on and off-campus, including events sponsored by the ASL Club, Deaf churches, and other organizations including Deaf Women of Ohio, which is an organization that Lindsay may legitimately want to be a part of that is still in the Columbus area (http://www.deafwomenofohio.com/main_page.html).