Big Poet Give 2022

The Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) is committed to ensuring that all students with disabilities have equal standing in educational programs, activities, and facilities at Whittier College. 

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), its Amendment, and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, we are committed to reducing barriers against students with disabilities at Whittier College. We seek to do so by: 

• Providing reasonable and appropriate accommodations to students with disabilities, while maintaining the standards of the college’s academic programs
• Assisting students with disabilities in self-advocacy
• Offering disability management appointments
• Educating the Whittier College community about disabilities and services provided
• Ensuring our campus is legally compliant with state and federal disability laws

BELOW ARE SOME STUDENT TESTIMONIALS 

Your donation has a direct and immediate impact on the our students' education and overall experience at Whittier College. 

"For as long as I have been registered with SDS they have worked diligently to ensure that I received each accommodation I've requested."

"SDS works tirelessly to make sure students with disabilities on campus receive academic equity that secures our futures."

"The accommodations SDS provides are vital to my education and without them I would not be as successful as my peers. SDS accommodations are essential for my education."

Assistive technology can make a world of a difference for our students. One example is Kurzweil, which is a text-to-speech program, and allows students to read any digital text aloud. The rate of the speech can be modified, and the program has multiple voices students can choose from to hear the text. Student feedback we have received about it are:

“Kurzweil has been important to me during my education at Whittier College because it has allowed me to have equal access within the classroom setting. With the help of Kurzweil, my time spent reading has decreased and I have been able to focus more effectively and efficiently.”

“Kurzweil is awesome. I love it. It’s a book but electronic style and you can adjust the reader at your own pace. It’s a really good tool to have. Without it, it would take a lot of time. I wouldn’t understand the reading without Kurzweil. I tend to learn when the device is reading it to me. It saves time. If I was reading it on my own, it would take forever. My course material is dense and it would take a lot longer.”