my disability research

Thank you to Lori Ebert, Nathaniel Oster, TJ Tollakson, Drew Hartley, Erle Morring, and Mandy Jones for their contributions to my Push America fund. These donations put me over $1,000 so I'm over 1/3 of the way to my fundraising goal. I'm happy to say that both of the TJ's in my life have made a contribution! Now, all I need is to get all the Mike's, Jennifer's, and Rob's I know to make a contribution...as always, my fundraising profile link is at the bottom of this note.

Last week, I started working on applying for corporate grants. I'm applying for grants with Wal-Mart, Target, McDonald's, and Lowes. If you should happen to have connections to any of these corporations, please let me know.

This week, I wanna talk about the applied research project that I'm working on as part of my MA program. I conducted a survey of 169 students at Missouri State University to determine what they know and think about the Office of Disability Services, students with disabilities, and ADA accommodations. My survey closed on Friday. I will conduct more in-depth statistical analysis, but I had some interesting initial findings:

* just over half (50.3%) of the participants have a friend or family member with a disability
* just over a quarter (27%) of the participants have a friend with a disability attending Missouri State University
* only 29% of participants accurately selected the correct number of students at Missouri State receiving ADA accommodations (about 300)
* only 27% of participants knew the location of the Office of Disability Services and 46% reported that they did not know its location
* 86% of participants agree that the Missouri State campus is accessible to people with physical disabilities
* 68% of participants agree that Missouri State is a welcoming environment for students with disabilities
* 78% of participants disagree that students receiving ADA accommodations get an unfair advantage in classes
* 81% of participants agree that ADA accommodations are fair

follow this link for complete survey results: survey monkey

I appreciate your support!

Erich's web site