This semester I'm taking a news writing class. One of my classmates told me that they had the idea to write about disability, but the teacher would not allow her to because she is disabled so she has an inherent bias about it, so I took it up instead. I learned a lot of interesting things from an interview with her and the director and assistant of Disability Services.

The biggest thing to me was that the amount of students coming into the disability services office has increased immensely. According to the administrative assistant of disability services, in 2013, 59 students entered the offices with disability related concerns. This year, 134 students did.

This increase is staggering, but at least it means people are getting the help they need, right? Not necessarily. I was also informed that while 48 of the 59 students from 2013 qualified for services, only 56 of this years 134 did. That's less than half of the students who had disability related concerns receiving extra services for it. This could be that these students didn't need extra services, but with the huge number of students who applied this seems like a very small number, and seems like a lot of people who believed they need help that didn't get it.

This brings me to another issue. Nowhere on the website can I find the requirements for qualifying extra services, or what the extra services could even be. To me, this is a vital piece of information. When I asked my friend about it, she didn't even know, and wouldn't know until she went to the office to formally apply. While I can see it from an angle against it, because it might deter students who would receive help if they don't apply because they don't believe they meet the requirements, it's important for students to know what services they could get if they do qualify and what those requirements are. Going in to apply with no idea of the requirements can be stressful, and wastes the time of the student and the office if it's clear the student will not receive services.

My last issue I had was that my friend did not even know about disability services until a student mentor reached out to them for her. She was never told that they existed, where they were, or that you had to apply for extra services. This is at least one student who did not even know about the accommodations that could be made for her, and who knows how many other students don't know about this? 264 individuals last year came in for individual counseling, and 67.2 percent said that their problem interfered with academics. Who knows how many more students need help or counseling, and did not know about the services? Disability needs to be addressed, or some students will be going through more struggle than necessary.