Introducing a new approach to support

I’m Lindsay Green, a disability services professional working at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. I’m a current graduate student studying Disability Services in Higher Education and will be finishing up this degree in the Spring Semester.

During my studies and over the last few years of supporting students with disabilities on a College campus, I’ve developed a philosophy in how to support students with disabilities. My philosophy involves an approach that supports the full student. From assisting them in social environments to helping them understand their brain and how to operate in society, to allocating their appropriate accommodations.

My research has influenced my work with students and my work with students has influenced my research. During my grad program, I’ve dedicated my research to finding the best ways to expand resources and offerings to students that will help with the full picture of the student.

Typically when students receive services from their college it is just allocating appropriate accommodations. But I think that students with disabilities would greatly benefit from being guided further; whether from tutoring services, mentorships or buddy programs and really being supported in all endeavors, inside and outside of the classroom.

Over the past several years, I have been able to build this approach into the everyday workings of my role at MMC. During intakes with students, I have expanded the questions and conversation to obtain more information that will in turn set up stronger lines of communication between students and the disability services office so that more comprehensive support can be offered. Supporting the whole student guides everything we do, and we’re always looking to make improvements towards this goal.

Other than the shared experience of chaos and adjustment, students had to come up with creative ways to continue their studies and manage their accommodations. My department often found ourselves coming up with creative accommodations to offer more support and guide how students were interacting with coursework and their assessments.

Students are resilient! It has been remarkable to watch our students grow and respond to the challenges of our current climate and come up with creative ways to make it work for them!

Note Taking support is invaluable to the learning experience. The ability to take effective notes and engage with them enriches the learning process. Students have expressed that when they were finally able to take useful and comprehensive notes, their grades were impacted, their confidence soared and overall they began to understand and interact with the coursework in a more effective and fulfilling manner.

Glean attracted my eye because of the comprehensive role in note taking it takes, along with it being user-friendly and appealing for young adults (especially in creating notes using emoji and symbols). Having Glean be more accessible for all students because it is web based is another great feature.

*Lindsay will be exploring these ideas further in a series of articles we’ll soon publish on our brand new blog *