Our Mission
The Center for Disability Resources (CDR), formerly known as the Office of Disability Services’ (ODS) mission is to engage the University Community to empower students, enhance equity and provide a platform for innovation and inclusion.
We achieve this by:
- mitigating competitive disadvantages and environmental barriers that impact learning;
- supporting faculty in the classroom and our colleagues across the university to strive for universal design and full inclusion.
- providing individual accommodations when environmental barriers cannot be eliminated and assistive technology that fosters independent, self-determined learners.
CDR embraces the concept of disability as diversity and is committed to creating a new context for disability; to redefine the term disability and the culture that surrounds it. A student’s success may not be in spite of their disability but perhaps because of it.
The existence of a disability provides an opportunity/motivation to enhance other skill sets that may not have been otherwise enhanced, such as:
- Better at communicating – self advocacy
- Empathetic
- Technical skills
- Social skills
- Time management skills
- Adaptable/flexible
- Leadership