Accessible Campus Community & Equitable Student Support (ACCESS) is the new name for the former Disability Support Services at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
“We changed the name to better reflect the services we provide,” said Dominic Dorsey, ACCESS director. “Our mission is to provide reasonable accommodations to ensure that diverse learners have access to the University and its programs through proactive and intentional interventions, resources and programming designed to meet federal compliance guidelines, while removing barriers, encouraging personal growth and increasing effective communication.”
Located in the Student Success Center, Room 1270, ACCESS is dedicated to providing reasonable curricular and co-curricular accommodations to diverse learners with major life impairments at SIUE. Each year, ACCESS assists hundreds of students with a variety of diagnoses as they pursue their academic disciplines.
ACCESS also provides resources that students can use to increase skills in learning, time management and test-taking. Both accommodations and resources are offered to students who have provided appropriate documentation and are approved through the application process.
“ACCESS operates as the bridge between the classroom and the commencement stage with a vision that students should not come to campus merely to attend, but to graduate,” Dorsey said. “Every policy, procedure and resource implemented has been designed to promote self-advocacy, independence and remove the gatekeepers to access as much as possible, leveling the playing field for students.”
The ACCESS office is open Monday-Friday year-round at 8 a.m., and during the fall 2018 semester will have extended hours past 4:30 p.m. to provide testing accommodations for evening courses, as needed. ACCESS is closed on days when the entire University is closed. Students must register and request accommodations from the ACCESS office.
Photo: ACCESS staff members standing left to right are Andy Koch, Calandra Mitchell, Jim Boyle, Berthine Blanc, Michelle Nickerson and Dominic Dorsey.