Month: February 2020

LifeLink PSU is a special education program that supports students with disabilities in the State College Area School District (SCASD). The program is for students aged 18-21 and offers an opportunity to take classes at Penn State, learn social and technical skills, and focus on independence. In Pennsylvania, the maximum age that a student can be enrolled in public high school is 21, which means that many students with disabilities end up spending 8 years in the same spot, relearning similar skills and staying somewhat stagnant. By moving students out of their parents’ home and into a college environment, LifeLink offers students with disabilities a unique opportunity.

I’ve had several friends go through the LifeLink program, and all of them have high reviews. My friend Katie would talk about how excited she was to be in classes, and how she liked to get to live in an apartment without her parents. Other students I know from State High (SCASD’s high school) have used LifeLink as a transition. They’ll stay at home for 5 days a week and then go to the LifeLink apartment over the weekend. This way, they get to gradually adjust to a major life change and learn the ins and outs of college life before making a full commitment. Here’s a very relatable testimony from one of my friends, Abby: “At LifeLink I take Sign Language, Hip-Hop, Biobehavioral Health, and Women’s Studies classes. My classes are good except the ones that start at 9:05 a.m. It’s so easy to be late but my mentor and I always make it on time.”

LifeLink doesn’t accept everyone. Students have to be mature and show a desire to live in a community. It was always a great incentive for special ed teachers to use in their classrooms, as only the students who did their best and desired to grow would get into this life-changing opportunity.

Lifelink has many volunteers from the Penn State community, which is definitely something I hope to do while I’m a student here. They have 500 PSU Student Mentors which help with things from tutoring to recreational activities. Some of the disability-focused classes here require a service component, and LifeLink is a great way to help out. Volunteering schedules are very flexible and the program is always looking for new people! If you’re interested, you can call 814-865-8260 and ask about getting involved. Along with the volunteers, LifeLink also has 4 full-time learning support teachers.

LifeLink adds tremendous value to the entire Penn State community. It incorporates diversity into the classroom and provides opportunities for students with and without disabilities.

The ability to access a location or piece of information gives people power. It’s how we connect with others, learn about the world, and get opportunities. Unfortunately, for many people with disabilities, the world is inaccessible.

Of course, there are the obvious barriers such as stairs for people with wheelchairs (ie the main entrance to Boucke, despite it hosting the disability resources office), as well as many accessibility issues that able-bodied people don’t have to think about on a regular basis. This includes issues like web access, hearing, and communication.

Recently, web accessibility has been gaining more attention. Developers are taught to contrast their text so that it is legible to those with vision loss, give their images alternative text, and control time-out settings. Penn State, for example, is supposed to make any text handouts available on alternative media. This is a great initiative; however, it has some flaws. A major problem that individuals with disabilities face is timing. To get text in alternative media, they often have to request it two weeks in advance. In that amount of time, professors may re-arrange the schedule or add new text, making it near-impossible for people with disabilities to keep up. Penn State also has website pages on accessible images, keyboards, and many other web-access issues, showing that they are trying to keep campus as accessible as possible.

Another major issue that people with disabilities can face has to do with hearing and communicating. As a member of Sign Language Organization, I’ve heard many people with hearing loss and interpreters that work at PSU complain about the lack of resources for Deaf and hard of hearing students. Despite Penn State offering resources like interpreters and assistive listening devices, there is a severe shortage, and many professors don’t know how to help their students with hearing impairments. Additionally, despite advocacy from student groups, Penn State refuses to allow ASL (American Sign Language) to be counted as a language. Though this may seem trivial, many people in the Deaf and HOH community feel frustrated and disrespected by the lack of recognition for their language. With that being said, Penn State is trying to improve its accessibility for hearing impaired students. Every summer, Penn State hosts a Deaf and HOH camp for high school students, teaching them about accessibility in college, resources available to them, and fostering a community. There’s also a new club on campus called PSU Access, that is working to create a more accessible campus.