Santa Barbara City College’s online education program named #14 best online school for students with disabilities by the SR Education Group and GuideToOnlineSchools.com
The SR Education Group researched 1,265 schools and ranked Santa Barbara City College’s online education program #14 out of the top 50 schools providing the highest level of support, accommodations and comprehensive resources for students with disabilities.
“We evaluated over 1,200 schools on factors indicative of the level of support provided to students with disabilities, like thoroughness of resources, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) training for faculty, and availability of distance learning accommodations,” Taitum Ridgway from SR Education Group said. “We also selected 15 colleges with the highest disability-friendly scores to be featured, and Santa Barbara City College made the list!”
GuideToOnlineSchools.com states Santa Barbara City College offers a range of accommodations to students with disabilities, which include audio lectures, testing accommodations and learning materials in Braille, large print and audio books.
“Santa Barbara City College provides faculty with the support necessary to help students with disabilities achieve their education goals,” GuideToOnlineSchools.com states. “Through its Disabled Student Programs and Services department, the college aims to empower students to achieve independence through education.”
Laurie Vasquez, the assistive technologies specialist in DSPS at SBCC explained that the college also offers extended time for testing, the ability to request special accommodation letters to instructors online, disability related counseling and UDL training of faculty.
SBCC provides faculty with the resources they need to make necessary accommodations for those in need, Vasquez explained. They have access to Distance Education Captioning and Transcription, which allows faculty to caption their videos for classes or make other necessary changes. SBCC also provides a Faculty Resource Center where staff support and train faculty on universal design principles.
“We are working hard to meet the needs of students in all teaching modalities,” Vasquez said. “One student this semester said it best, ‘I’m graduating in May and transferring to UCSB and stopped by to say thank you for all the DSPS help you’ve provided while I have been attending SBCC. I’ve attended other online colleges and their DSPS programs have not been as helpful or attentive as you have been through SBCC. Thank you for helping me set my accommodations, and other disability issues that have arisen during past semesters.’”
