Abstract

Abstract: Of the public universities in the State of Washington, only one has a completely student-funded and student-run office in student government specifically dedicated to serving students with disabilities, the University of Washington. This office: the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) Student Disability Commission (SDC) has two paid student staff, and a budget of ($24,465) in 2019; a unique opportunity for disabled students and allies to engage in shared governance, and work directly on improving their own access challenges, and that of their peers.

The SDC has had a major role in impacting services provided to students with disabilities at the University. Leadership of the commission was responsible for the creation of a Disability and Deaf Cultural Center which opened 2013, known as the D Center (Dickson, 2012) and in 2019 established a task force for the creation of the ASUW Office of Inclusive Design, an office which would provide consultation and funding for accessibility services for student-funded events and programs (such as ASL interpretation and CART captioning) (Taylor, 2019). Most notably, the SDC was able to bring about changes which were left unaddressed or incomplete by non-student stakeholders. The SDC has demonstrated the potential capability of student-funded, student-led offices whose primary purpose is to address educational inequities for disabled students. The existence of the SDC, and its subsequent creations and projects, offer insight into some of the ways in which disabled students and allies have been effective student government leaders; using their unique position within the University to further advance access to post-secondary education.