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Academic advisors not only help the student
to design a program of study, interpret catalogs, and choose among academic
alternatives, but also monitor academic progress and recommend appropriate
resources to answer questions and solve problems related to academic, career,
and personal matters. In a survey conducted by researchers at Brigham Young
University (Preece, J., Maughan, M., Stevens, L., & Byrd, P., 2001, July,
Portland, OR, paper presented at the AHEAD National Conference), researchers
found that 35% of academic advisors did not know which students on their
caseloads had disabilities. Moreover, 31% felt that they had insufficient
knowledge of disability issues, including understanding job and classroom
accommodation issues, discrimination, job market issues, as well as general
feelings of discomfort in working with students with disabilities.
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Academic advisors can set the tone for
students’ entire educational experiences. Many times, academic advisors are
not aware that a student is hard of hearing, or even deaf, or is receiving
assistance from the college disability services or using accommodations in
class. Hard of hearing students especially are often students with hidden
disabilities. Because this information is confidential, if the student has an
invisible disability and chooses not to make the advisor aware of it, the
advisor will have no way of knowing. However, even when the student has a
visible disability, the academic advisor may not be aware of the educational
implications for the individual.
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