UW-Madison accessibility accomplishments, resources

The university has a significant record of commitment to serving people with disabilities. Here’s a list of UW–Madison accomplishments and resources:

Facilities/Kohl Center
The university is considered a national leader in accessible design for its buildings, including the Kohl Center, the university’s multi-purpose athletic facility.

The Kohl Center offers a wide range of accessible features, including 314 wheelchair and wheelchair companion seats; lower counters at concession stands; TTY-equipped telephones for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired; 28 fully accessible restrooms and seven family restrooms; assisted listening devices for the arena seating area; accessible ticket windows; and luxury suites that include removal seats for wheelchairs and fully accessible bathrooms.

The Kohl Center is considered the most accessible basketball and hockey arena in the world, according to Marcia Carlson, facilities and accessibility specialist at UW–Madison.

Officials from the Sydney Olympics Committee even visited the Kohl Center in their planning related to serving disabled people during this year’s Summer Olympics.

Mcburney Disability Resource Center
The McBurney Disability Resource Center, part of the Dean of Students Office, provides services for students who are disabled to ensure they have equal access to education opportunities. Students must identify themselves as disabled to receive services. McBurney serves about 1,500 students a year, including many prospective students.

The center offers notetaking, alternative testing, reading, taped textbooks, document conversion, Braille, sign language and oral interpreting, real time captioning, priority registration, laboratory and library assistance, advocacy and counseling. McBurney staff members provide referrals for other disability-related accommodations on campus and in the Madison area.

Campus policies and procedures
Employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act are administered by the Equity and Diversity Resource Center for disabled faculty, academic staff and classified staff. Students with disabilities are served through the McBurney Disability Resource Center. Designated division-level representatives work with employees on ADA issues. Trained faculty work as access and accommodation resource coordinators on instructional issues.

These campuswide committees focus on access and disability: the Committee on Access and Accommodation in Instruction, the Disabilities Accommodation Advisory Committee and the ADA Compliance Task Force. The university’s ADA coordinator is Melany S. Newby, vice chancellor for legal and executive affairs.

Awards/acknowledgments
Efforts to provide access for disabled people have earned the university several awards and acknowledgments.

• ADA Wisconsin Partnership presented its Award for Communication Access to UW–Madison in 1997 after the university installed 13 TTY pay phones for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. The university has since added another 10 TTY pay phones on campus.
• We magazine, in its July-August 1999 issue, recognized UW–Madison as leading a national list of institutions that have created a “disability-friendly” atmosphere for students, employees and visitors. The magazine lauded UW–Madison for “superior services and facilities (paratransit vans, accessible and well-lit lecture halls, TTY pay phones), avid students in the (College) of Engineering (who) have designated assistive listening devices for fellow students in the community, and the McBurney Disability Resource Center.”
• In March, UW–Madison was invited to join a select national program designed to increase the success of disabled college students. Through the Division of Information Technology’s Learning Technology and Distance Education Group, working with the McBurney Disability Resource Center, the university is part of a program called Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology.

  Based at the University of Washington, the program seeks to increase the number of disabled students and employees in higher education; organizes professional development for faculty and staff; and disseminates information. The DoIT group will develop ways to implement a professional development program for faculty nationwide. In Wisconsin, DoIT will concentrate on creating a professional development program for UW System campuses.

Information technology
The university seeks to make information technology accessible to all students, faculty and staff, including those with disabilities. The Division of Information Technology coordinates this effort, primarily through its Learning Technology and Distance Education Group.

DoIT’s Technology Access Program evaluates and monitors the university’s technology-based teaching and learning environment for people with disabilities. TAP investigates, recommends and implements new instructional tools and resources for students, faculty and instructional staff. TAP also creates and supports a coordinated university-wide infrastructure that encourages use of the tools in teaching and learning by working with individuals and units within DoIT and campuswide.

Adaptive computer equipment is available through DoIT in the Steenbock Library InfoLab, DoIT InfoLab and Memorial Library InfoLab. Adaptive hardware and software for MacIntosh and PC-compatible computers includes alternative keyboards; trackballs; magnifying lamps; stereo headphones and speakers; adjustable tables and chairs; voice recognition software; outspoken speech output software for speaking menus; tele-sensory Braille screen output devices; Braille printers; optical character reading software for scanners; and screen and photograph magnifiers.

DoIT also publishes the campus web page accessibility guidelines.

Trace Research and Development Center
The Trace Research and Development Center, founded in 1971 in the College of Engineering, is a national leader in making technologies such as computers, automatic teller machines, information kiosks and the Internet more accessible to people with disabilities.

And in the past two years, Trace has received two sizable grants to make information technology more accessible to the disabled.

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research awarded Trace a five-year, $6.75 million grant in 1998 to research new approaches in making next-generation information technology usable by all. In 1999, the institute awarded Trace a five-year, $3.37 million grant to work with Gallaudet University on a project to make telecommunications systems more accessible for people who are older or disabled.

In addition, Trace is assisting the National Computation Science Alliance to ensure that supercomputing systems and applications are built in a way that makes them more accessible.

Ultratec
Ultratec Inc., the University Research Park’s largest tenant, is the world’s leading developer and manufacturer of text telecommunications devices (TTYs) for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired.

Company founder and president Robert Engelke developed the technology as a UW–Madison engineering student and later as a psychology research specialist in the 1970s. Engelke’s devices were a major improvement over the inadequate and overpriced products on the market. Founded in 1978, Ultratec has more than 20 patents, and is the leading supplier worldwide of TTYs for consumers, government agencies, emergency service providers, and other public facilities.

Ultratec’s commitment to equal access goes beyond its products. The company actively recruits and hires employees who have disabilities and has designed its workplace to be barrier-free.

Earlier this month, Ultratec received the Company of the Year award from the Association of University Related Research Parks, an international organization representing more than 230 university-affiliated parks.

Waisman Center
The Waisman Center, opened in 1973, is a nationally recognized facility at UW–Madison specializing in research, clinical service and outreach programs for children with disabilities and their families.

Named after Harry A. Waisman, a pediatrician and biochemist who was a pioneer in mental retardation research, the center is one of 14 national centers dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about human development and developmental disabilities through research and practice.

The Waisman Center’s current expansion project will benefit the university and the community by providing state-of-the-art facilities for gene and cell therapy research, an integrated neuroimaging facility, new space for early intervention programs, and remodeled space for the Waisman Early Childhood education and research program.

Part of the expansion will be the Discovery Garden: An Outdoor Learning Play Space. The garden will integrate the natural environment, gardens and water into play areas. Not only will physical barriers be removed, but meaningful outdoor learning activities will be made available for children with special needs to participate in along with their typically developing peers. Completion is expected this fall.

Waisman also runs a web-based service called Family Village. Updated weekly, Family Village functions as a portal into reputable and accurate disability sites on the Internet, and also helps parents find common ground through chat rooms and discussion groups. The site averages about 700 visitors a day, and another 7,000 connect to links under the Family Village umbrella.