Changes in place, and more coming, for WWU's disAbility Resources for Students Office

The disAbility Resources for Students Office has a new name, a new website, and shortly — a new home!

What’s in a name?

Beginning Fall 2018 disAbility Resources for Students (DRS) is now the Disability Access Center (DAC).  DAC staff worked with students to develop this new name.  An overview of this evolution is below:

Disability – Many were passionate that we keep the word “disability” in there.  It doesn’t need to be spelled different, embellished, or omitted.  It’s an important aspect of the fabric of diversity here at Western. 

Access – The DAC team partners with the entire Western community to promote access and inclusion.  It’s often not the students who need resources to be included, but the community that needs resources to be more inclusive.   

Center – The DAC is getting its own permanent space, which will allow for new opportunity in building community and working in small groups.  Construction is underway, and the DAC is scheduled to move to the first floor of Wilson Library in Spring 2019.  A new accessible entrance, a larger testing center, and more offices are planned! 

More information

More information about the Disability Access Center is available on their new website disability.wwu.edu.  This website was made possible by a generous contribution from the donors of the Learning Differently Scholarship Fund and the ingenuity of Western’s Web Communication Technologies (WebTech).  WebTech developed an accessible Twitter feed that works with screen reader technologies that allows blind individuals to surf the internet.  Additionally, they developed a font changing feature that transforms all text on the website to Open Dyslexic, a font that is easier to read for some people with learning disabilities to read.  Best of all, these tools will be available to all website developers at Western using WordPress. 

Lastly, do check out Read & Write.  This exciting literacy software was made possible by the partnership between the DAC, the English Department, and the Library and is available to the entire Western Community.  Read & Write makes it easy to convert digital texts to audio and improves the notetaking process.  DAC Staff look forward to partnering together in the exciting year of change ahead!  Don’t hesitate to reach out and visit us in Old Main 120, for the time being!