Defining the Roles of Services to Students with Disabilities: Creating a Certificate for Service Providers

1
Defining the Roles of Services to Students with
Disabilities Creating a Certificate for
Service Providers

• Susan Asselin, Virginia Tech
• Peggy Weiss, UNC Chapel Hill
• Jane Warner, The Citadel
• Virginia AHEAD Fall Conference
• October 1, 2009
• John Tyler Community College Chester, VA

2
What Are We Doing Today?

• Starting a conversation with you about the value
  of a on-line certification program for disability
  services providers and others in higher education
  who work with students with disabilities.
• Asking for your help to begin to develop a
  curriculum towards a certification process.

3
Beginning Questions

• What are your thoughts on the need for a
  certification for disability service providers?
• Would it make a difference in your hiring
  practices if an individual had certification in
  this area?
• Would you consider that this program be used for
  existing staff to update their knowledge?
• Would it make sense to use the AHEAD Professional
  Standards as a starting point to develop the
  program?

4
Todays Goal

• Use a DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) approach to
  solicit expert input on knowledge and skills
  needed by college disability service providers to
  determine the feasibility of developing and
  offering a professional certificate program.

5
Objectives

• Brainstorm all the position titles in disability
  services or other programs that provide direct
  services to students with disabilities (e.g. N4A
  Athletic Learning Specialists)
• Examine AHEAD Professional Standards categories
  and major duties and prioritize by importance and
  frequency
• Determine specific professional knowledge and
  skills for tasks under each duty
• List additional experiences outside course that
  would be beneficial
• Describe the ideal delivery model
• Recommend what should we do next?

6
Think, Think, Think

• What are your job titles?
• What traits do you consider essential to this job?

7
AHEAD Professional Standards

• Administration
• Direct Service
• Consultation and/or
• Collaboration
• Institutional Awareness
• Professional Development

8
AHEAD Professional Standards - Administration
Duties Knowledge Skills
Develop Program Policies Procedures
Develops program services
Identify Establish program goals
Supervise/train program staff
9

• Outside Course Experiences

10

• Delivery mode

11
What is next?