Take a moment to get to know Andy Oliver, the new director of the Disability Resource Center.

Tell us about yourself. 

I am married and have 4 kids ages 26, 17, 14, and 13. I grew up in Olympia, Washington, attended Washington State University for two years and then transferred to Central Washington University to complete my undergraduate degree in Physical Education with a minor in Choral Music Education. I completed my Masters in Special Education at Seattle University taking classes in the summers while teaching High School Special Ed., first for two years in a large suburban district in the Seattle area, and then in a small rural district in North Central Washington for six and a half years.

I had an opportunity to make a move to the university level and took a position working in the Disability Resource Center at Arizona State University where I spent the next three and a half years before moving to my most recent position as the Director of the ACCESS Center at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for nearly seven years.

You are the new Director of the Disability Resource Center. What led you into this field of work?

I was in the final year of my undergrad program at Central Washington University when I had to take a course titled “Intro to Students with Disabilities.” As we were going through the unit on ADHD and talking about the symptoms, it seemed like a checklist of my life. I went and talked with my instructor, who referred me to a professor that was doing a study for a book she was writing.  After a number of meetings ended up being diagnosed with ADHD.

I had always struggled as a student in junior high and high school and those struggles had continued into my university studies. I was in a position where I was not likely to be able do student teaching because my GPA was too low. With my new diagnosis, academic accommodations, and the help of medication I was able to get back on track and complete my teaching degree and student teaching experience.

In looking for teaching positions, I found that most of the open positions required years of teaching experience. As I became more frustrated with not receiving any interviews for positions, I received an email about an emergency endorsement program in Special Education through Seattle University.  I could take some summer classes, get an emergency endorsement to teach Special Education and continue working through a Masters program while teaching.

I was offered a position to teach High School Special Education at the school where I had done my student teaching. It turned out that with my own experience as a student with a disability that went undiagnosed through all of K-12 and most of my undergrad, I made great connections with kids and ended up loving the disability services field.

What are your short term goals for this position?

The Disability Resource Center is already doing great work here at Missouri State. The top priority right now is to make sure that our new database system is completely built out and ready for students and faculty to get the full benefit by Fall semester.

In addition, everything we do in the DRC is a collaboration with other people on campus, whether it is academic accommodations and working with professors, housing accommodations and working with Residence Life, or working with other units to put on programming for students. In order to effectively collaborate, I need to make personal connections with people on campus and get to know the ways that we have worked together historically.

What role do you see the DRC playing on the Missouri State campus?

The DRC is the face of disability services at Missouri State. While it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure an equitable university experience for students with disabilities, the DRC is often the first stop in making that happen.

We can be a resource to faculty, staff, and students alike to provide information about making Missouri State a more accessible campus for everyone.

What resources does your office offer?

Our advisors work with students to determine appropriate accommodations for their university courses, housing, and dining services. We also provide equipment and software license loans to students who need assistive technology along with converting textbooks to alternative formats such as electronic texts, Braille, or large print materials.

We are also here to be a resource to all of the campus community and provide information and training to faculty and staff.

Some students don’t want to use the DRC because they see it as the use makes them different from other students. What would you say to these students to encourage them to take advantage of the resources offered by the DRC?

Using accommodations should not be a scary thing, in fact, many of us use accommodations on a regular basis and don’t even think about it. Anyone who wears glasses or contact lenses is using an accommodation to enhance their eyesight and give them an equitable vision experience to their peers with 20/20 vision.

In the same way, academic accommodations are intended to give a student with a disability an equitable experience in the classroom. When I was first diagnosed I had some of those same concerns. When I first talk with students who are reluctant to work with the DRC my messaging to them centers around being prepared for getting services in place should the need arise.

If a student registers with the DRC, they are not required to use accommodations in their classes, but the registration process takes time. Often if students have a need in the middle of the semester it is an immediate need and a couple of weeks getting registered, providing documentation, and meeting with an advisor to determine appropriate accommodations puts the student further behind in their classes.

If a student is proactive and does all of that as they are entering the university, it is simply a matter of contacting their advisor mid-semester and requesting their accommodations that can go into effect immediately.

Accessibility should be a very important part of our life. Why is accessibility so important? What are things that each staff member can do to make in their department to make resources more accessible?

Accessibility is important because it means that every student has the same opportunity to be successful in their classes. The ultimate goal would be to have everyone approach accessibility from a Universal Design perspective and create classes, buildings, and environments on campus that are usable by everyone without any modification.

In order to do that though we have to change out mindset. Thinking about accessibility as course content is being created, demanding that book publishers offer fully accessible copies of their textbooks when we adopt them, captioning all of the media used in a class ahead of someone making a request for that, etc.

Our goal should not be mere compliance with the ADA, but rather going above and beyond those requirements because it is the right thing to do for our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and our community.

What are your hobbies?

I love getting outside and hiking, fishing, hunting, biking, or anything else that gets me out into nature. I used to work as a professional chef for a catering company so I like to cook, bake, and barbecue, and then eat the results.

I am a reader and enjoy any adventure story that pulls me into another time or place. Favorite authors include James Rollins, Clive Cussler, Michael Crichton, John Grisham, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Over the last four years my family has had the opportunity to work with a non-profit missions organization based in Branson, Generation Next. I have taken two trips to Kibwezi, Kenya with my kids to work with elementary aged students at Generation Next Academy which provides fully sponsored education for more than 250 students whose families are unable to afford to send them to the local government schools.

Our whole family is traveling to Kenya again this summer, giving my wife her first opportunity to go.