Tips for students with disabilities - Brigham Young University-Idaho Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
Tips for students with disabilities I would say is find a really good apartment. One that is not just wheelchair accessible but there's a lot of newer apartments around here that really can cater to you and it just makes your life so much easier and there are students who have experience helping others with disabilities or things like that that do volunteer to pick those apartments and have roommates that they are willing to help out and that's been a huge blessing that I've seen.
Video 2 Transcript
So when I first got to BYU-Idaho, I was really tentative about going to the Disability Resource Center because I didn't want to need it. I didn't want to need help. But with my last few semesters, I finally did go to them and talk and figure out what I needed and it made finishing up my degree so much easier. Go in, talk to them, go to Accessibility Services and talk to them and they're going to make sure that you have what you need to be the most successful.
Video 3 Transcript
If you have mobility issues, the winter might seem really intimidating, because it's a walking campus, there's a lot of walking, and if the sidewalks aren't clear, that could be really awful for anyone. Campus is really good about clearing them, and most of the traveled sidewalks are heated. It's built in elements in the cement, so it's not as bad as you might be thinking. Maybe.
Video 4 Transcript
Rexburg is super hilly and some of them pretty steep. I had some friends and knew of some people who had wheelchairs or mobility issues and one of them had a service dog just for assisting pulling up the hills which I think was really genius because I had another friend who didn't have a wheelchair and it was or who had a wheelchair and didn't have a mobility dog and it could be pretty brutal.
Video 5 Transcript
Find out what resources are available to you. Go to the office, talk to a friend. If you're too shy to do it, talk to a friend that will do it for you. Ask your bishop for help. People are there to help you. They will help you with every single thing you need. That way you can be successful as well. No disability is limiting. You can even open your own business if you like. Good luck and I hope the best for you.
Video 6 Transcript
I had a service dog that attended BYU-Idaho with me, and I have a couple tips for using the bathroom on campus with a service dog, specifically the dog using the bathroom on campus. I was mostly in the snow building because I was a music major, and so I believe it's either the Romney or the McKay. I haven't been on campus for over a year, so I don't remember exactly, but either the Romney or the McKay has a little section that has a little patio underneath where it's covered, so when it snows, I would take my dog there to use the bathroom because, again, the snow will pile up a couple feet off of the sidewalks on campus when they clear the sidewalks, and just like with your housing, where it'd be good to have a little area shoveled for your dog to use the bathroom, it's good to have an area that is not covered in snow on campus. So go up towards the snow building, and then if you're walking towards the snow building on the right, one of those buildings has a little area underneath that you can take your dog to use the bathroom, but again, make sure you always clean up after your service dog when they potty on campus.
Video 7 Transcript
If you have ADHD or something like that and need some kind of accommodation such as getting more time on tests or something like that, you actually can receive that if you know what to do and that is to get an official diagnosis and if you don't have one you can go to the Student Health Center and Counseling Center and they have people that can help you through that and see if you qualify and then they can apply those extensions. And I forget how exactly that works but they also have an office I believe in the library that's still there where you can like make sure those are going the way they're supposed to. But yeah and then that will apply to tests you just need to let your teachers know at that point that you have that extension and things like that.
Video 8 Transcript
One of the things that happens every semester, which I think is amazing, is they have a general authority come and give a devotional. And while this is really great, it can be difficult for people with disabilities. I have a service dog, and when they have somebody that is a general authority come and do a devotional, they open the doors to the I-Center about half an hour early. And when they do this, students just flood in the doors to get the closest seat possible and the best seat possible, and everybody's trampling each other, and it's just really chaotic. I didn't want my service dog to be trampled in this chaos, and I also don't do well with crowds and with that kind of chaos. So I was able to talk to the ushers and just say, hey, would it be possible for me to get in a few minutes early so that I can get to my seat safely with my service dog and get a seat that I can have enough floor space for my service dog to be safe? And I was able to do that. So if you have any kind of disability, if you have a service dog or you're a wheelchair user, or you have some kind of mobility difficulty or anything like that, talk to the ushers and see if you can get in a few minutes early for these devotionals.
Video 9 Transcript
I have a service dog that attended BYU-Idaho with me and if you have a service dog I have a few tips. One of them is be prepared to have a shovel and be prepared to shovel a little area near your housing for your service dog to use the bathroom in the winter because you will get a few feet of snow and your dog probably won't want to walk through a few feet of snow to go to the bathroom in your apartment complex. So ask your apartment complex where they would like you to take your dog for the bathroom and make sure you always clean up after your dog, but I would always shovel a little area for my dog to use so that he wouldn't have to climb through two feet of snow to use the bathroom. And that's another thing is with housing is that you do have to get approval with housing before you move in for your service animal or your emotional support animal. So make sure that you do that. Make sure you get approval before you move in so you don't have any issues with that.
Video 10 Transcript
So if you have a disability of any kind, the disability department is there to help you, and it is super helpful. You will need a documentation of your disability, but then if you go in there and talk to them and say, here are the accommodations that are helpful for me, and this is why, they will help you to figure out how to talk to your professors and to get those accommodations for you. So that is very helpful. If you have a disability and if you need any kind of accommodations, even if you haven't had accommodations in the past at school and you think that there's things that would help you, go talk to the disability department and they will help you. I ended up having a few accommodations that I put down at the beginning of my time at BYU-Idaho, and I did use them for the first couple semesters, and then I didn't need them after that, but it was helpful to be able to have the ability to use those accommodations as I needed them. So if you are coming in and you have any kind of disability, go to the disability department and they are there to help you.
Video 11 Transcript
So I have autism and I had a service dog that came with me to BYU-Idaho and he went to all my classes and all that kind of stuff. My tips for having a service dog on campus are one, check in with the disability department with your service dog because they just want to make sure that it's a legitimate service dog, which I think is great. I think they should do that. Be prepared to answer the two questions that you are allowed to be asked per the Americans with Disabilities Act when you go in for devotional because they will ask you those questions. They would always ask me the first several times of the semester and then once the greeters knew me and my service dog, they didn't ask me every time, but they always asked me the first few times, which I really appreciated. And they did ask both questions, which I really appreciated. So be prepared to answer those, especially when you go into devotional. And then I also think that you should have boots for your service dog in the winter. I had boots that went all the way up to his knees to keep his legs clean so that we would keep inside clean. But those are just a couple of basic tips for having a service dog on campus.
