6 minute read
Meet Dr. Courtney Jarrett
Pioneering disability services at Ball State University
BY DR. DAROLYN”LYN” JONES
Meet Dr. Courtney Jarrett, Director of Disability Services for Ball State University. Jarrett was working at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and her boss had a master’s degree so she decided if she wanted to advance herself in the field, she had better get an advanced degree also. To help offset the costs of returning to school, Jarrett accepted a graduate assistantship which required her to work with students in the Learning Center at Ball State. It was there that she first started working with students with
disabilities who needed the services of the Learning Center.
After she earned her doctorate, she began teaching at Ball State in the Women and Gender Studies Program, but because of budget cuts, her position was eliminated after a year. Then the Associate Director of Disability Services position opened up.” I didn’t think I was qualified, but because of my work at the Learning Center and my interest in working with marginalized populations, I was hired,” she said. What she realized about the position is that you learn by being in the job, working directly with students. No two students are the same, not even two students who have the same disability. Every student has different needs and requires different accommodations.
After 10 years as associate director, Jarrett was promoted to Director in 2018. Ball State became a pioneer of disability services in higher education in the 1960s, long before the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. That pioneering work continues today under Jarrett’s leadership.
Back in the 1970’s, Richard Harris, who was wearing many administrative hats at the university, took on the cause of students with physical disabilities who needed accommodations. Someone in a wheelchair wanted to be part of a fraternity, so Harris made sure that location had a ramp. A student wanted to have a more accessible dorm room; Harris made that happen. A student wanted to be able to access certain buildings, and Harris complied. Ball State started to get noticed by wheelchair users everywhere as a university that was accessible and inclusive.
Eventually, Harris’s work turned into the Office of Disability Services and he became its first director. College Magazine now ranks the campus number one for services for physically disabled students. New Mobility magazine ranked Ball State among”ten schools that set the bar high” by offering”a wide range of inclusive opportunities in a truly accessible setting.”
Key indicators used by New Mobility included Ball State’s wheelchair-friendly infrastructure, the percentage of accessible buildings, and the integrated accessible housing options. Ball State also scored well on personal assistance programs, adaptive sports and recreation opportunities, accessible on-campus transportation, and adaptive computer labs, among other criteria.
But Jarrett’s office works with much more than just wheelchair users. There are 3200 students on campus with disabilities that range from autism spectrum disorder and mental health diagnoses to a wide range of orthopedic, occupational, hearing, and visual impairments, and Jarrett’s job requires her to coordinate with just about every entity at the university to serve them appropriately. She works with Facilities Planning to make sure curb cuts, ramps, tables in classrooms, and elevators are all in place and in working order; with residence hall directors to make sure that dorms have accessible showers, grab bars, and keyless entries; with dining hall and food services for accessibility and dietary restrictions; with transportation to organize shuttle bus services on the large campus; and with university instructors from every major and department to ensure that everything from visuals, seating, captioning, note sharing, lighting, and accommodations are in place. She helps ensure that the Learning Center and Assistive Technology Lab have what they each need to serve students, faculty, and staff who need those services.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the floor, but at Ball State we set the bar way higher than that for our disability services,” Jarrett said. She meets with administrators, staff, and faculty from every sector of this mid-size public university, educating them that universal compliance is everybody’s job. Ball State is unique in that it has a faculty mentorship program that pairs disabled students with a faculty member from their major area of study. Students meet regularly with their mentor, who”helps them with the complexities of the academic experience. These mentors are trained to give students a sense of belonging to the university community and a better understanding of the academic expectations” (BSU, Faculty Mentorship, 2023). Faculty mentors also help students learn to self advocate and can act as a liaison in their respective departments.
Students with disabilities are drawn to Ball State because of its commitment to inclusive excellence and accessibility. But another draw, according to Jarrett, is the sports program for students with disabilities which offers rugby, power soccer, wheelchair basketball, and goal ball for the visually impaired.
Ball state is also home to a very strong and long-standing student organization, The Alliance for Disability Awareness, which does advocacy work on and off campus. Additionally, the nationally known Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders (CASD) on campus offers a program for university students who are on the spectrum.”The CAPS2 program at the CASD empowers students with ASD to maximize their strengths as well as develop and refine skills in the areas of self-development and self-determination,” Jarrett said.
Jarrett explains that at Ball State, you will encounter less stigma as a student with either mobility or non-apparent disabilities than you do elsewhere, something that she is very proud of.
This year, Ball State was the first university to provide a summer bridge program for new students coming to campus with a disability. Students got to move in a week early to learn the campus, find their classes, orient themselves to the campus climate, and engage with disability services staff and important supports like the Learning Center and Assistive Technology Labs. This is yet another example of Ball State’s pioneering leadership in disability services and inclusion work.
To learn more about disability services at Ball State University, visit https/www.bsu.edu/about/ administrativeoffices /disability-services
Ball State University. (2023). Center for autism spectrum disorders: CAPS2 cultivating the academic and personal success of students. https/www.bsu.edu/ academics/centersandinstitutes/ center-for-autism-spectrumdisorder/caps2
Ball State University (2023). Office of disability services: Faculty mentorship program. https/www.bsu.edu/about/ administrativeoffices/disabilityservices/services-resources/ students/fmp
Thomas, M. (2019, Mar. 23). Disability services at ball state ranked no. 1 nationally. Ball State Daily News. https/www. ballstatedaily.com/newslink/ article/2019/03/disabilityservices-ranking
