Demonstration Project funded by the
Department of Education Award# P333A020021The Office of Disability Services at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) is working in collaboration with seven area colleges on this Demonstration Project funded by the Department of Education’s Office of Post Secondary Education. The project’s main objective is to “Ensure Students with Disabilities Receive a Quality Higher Education.” The project intends to provide information, training and support in multiple formats to better assist faculty in meeting the academic needs of their students with disabilities by utilizing the concepts of Universal Design for Learning.
Area colleges participating in this project include:
- Holyoke Community College
- Greenfield Community College
- Berkshire Community College
- Springfield College
- Western New England College
- Mount Holyoke College
- Elms College
The Disability Service Coordinators from these seven Western Massachusetts colleges will serve as the Advisory Board to the project. These members will be responsible for assessing the training and information needs of faculty, staff and administrators on each of their campuses. Surveys and focus groups will be conducted to assist in this assessment process.
In furthering our goal “to create a campus culture that values diversity and promotes inclusion” the project will employ a two-pronged approach that:
- Applies the most current research on learning to the practice of classroom teaching, and
- Examines our attitudes, values, and beliefs as individuals and as a campus community.
The project will build upon a successful model of faculty training in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that was first implemented at STCC within a project funded from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Faculty from our math and science departments will serve as peer trainers for faculty within the Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Business and Allied Health divisions.