Staff Perspective: Creating a More Accessible College Experience

The following blog post was written by Nathan Blair, district director for the Office of Student Accessibility Services at City Colleges of Chicago.

July 26, 2023 marks the 33^rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was signed into law in 1990. This landmark piece of civil rights legislation prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in public life.

In light of the upcoming ADA anniversary, and with July being Disability Pride Month, accessibility is top of mind for many—it’s making headlines, gaining visibility on social media, and more. As the district director of Student Accessibility Services at City Colleges of Chicago, I’m proud to say that accessibility is always top of mind for our system.

At City Colleges, we take our commitment to providing exceptional learning opportunities and educational services to our diverse city seriously. We provide accommodations so that anyone with a disability who interacts with our spaces or services has equal and equitable access to pursue a quality and affordable public education.

For students with disabilities, we offer a wide range of accommodation services through our ACCESS Centers. Each ACCESS Center is staffed with knowledgeable professionals who are ready to assist students with disabilities and faculty and staff who support students with disabilities through accommodations, training, and consultation.

In addition to the ACCESS Centers, the Chicago Roadmap, our robust partnership with Chicago Public Schools, provides proactive support to incoming City Colleges students with disabilities who have recently graduated from CPS. Our comprehensive orientation and success coaching services have been instrumental in connecting these students with their ACCESS Center teams as well as other student services.

The ADA provides public entities like ours with a framework of minimum expectations for accommodations and support for people with disabilities, but our work does not stop there. City Colleges has taken steps to go beyond compliance to imagine practices, supports, and programs that will support and promote the full inclusion of people with disabilities.

In June of 2021, a taskforce was convened to assess City Colleges through the lens of disability equity and justice so that we can make strategic improvements in our operations and culture. This taskforce collaborated across our seven colleges and District Office to draft a comprehensive accessibility plan that addresses barriers and inequities for all stakeholders with disabilities.

As I said, our work is not done, but reflecting on what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last several years makes this Disability Pride Month an even prouder one for me and our entire accessibility team.

To learn more about accessibility and the disability services we offer at City Colleges, visit www.ccc.edu/access.

Nathan Blair is the district director for the Office of Student Accessibility Services at City Colleges of Chicago. In his role, he works closely with the college ACCESS Center teams and Interpreter Services to provide timely and effective accommodation and accessibility services to students with disabilities. Nate is a certified sign language interpreter by trade, holding both national and state certifications, as well as being a qualified educational interpreter. Nate also has two undergraduate degrees in English and communication science and disorders, with a graduate degree in ASL/English interpreting. He began his work at City Colleges as a part-time sign language interpreter in 2015 and returned in 2019 to manage Interpreter Services.