Program offers help to students

In honor of Disability Awareness Month, the DSP&S program hosted an Open House on Oct. 29.

“I believe it was to bring awareness to students of the disabilities program in general,” wrote Seth Harris, English/environmental science tutor and liberal arts senior student at SJCC.

The event was informative in many ways.

“It was to introduce our program to the campus community, which includes students, faculty and staff,” Adaptive Technology Specialist Joanne Nakaso wrote in an email. “We also wanted to introduce our new supervisor Edina Rutland and new staff members Mary Denham (counselor), Kathy Buob (instructional assistant) and Tait Rafat (adapted P.E. instructor).”

The program offers help to students who meets DSP&S’ requirements.

“Students who think they might qualify should stop by the office for an appointment,” Nakaso wrote.

The DSP&S is in room SC-106, on the first floor of the Student Center, next to the Campus Bookstore.

“You must provide certification of disability and meet with one of our program counselors, who will review your certification and determine which accommodations will meet your needs,” Nakaso wrote.

Students who have these blindness, low vision, deaf/hard of hearing, mobility, dexterity, learning disabilities and mental health can qualify for the program, Nakaso wrote.

“DSP&S provides support services and specialized instructions to help students with disabilities to succeed at SJCC by providing computer-aided instruction, adaptive word processing in our Hi-Tech Computer Center; interpreting and captioning services; adaptive physical education and tutoring,” DSP&S Supervisor Edina Rutland wrote in an email.

The program and staff help students with variety of issues.

“Two parts to my job; basically tech support for the program,” Nakaso said. “The Adaptive Media refers to non standard printed material, which is newspapers, magazines and books.”

There is alot of students who come in for the DSP program.

“The number of students coming for services varies from semester to semester” Rutland wrote. “In the Fall 2014 semester we have over 700 students.”