Overcoming Unintentional Barriers with Intentional Strategies: Educating Faculty about Student Disabilities

Abstract

Krista Forrest is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where she teaches general psychology and life span development as well as advanced courses in adolescent psychology, group dynamics, and psychology and law. A graduate of North Carolina State University with a MS in developmental psychology and a PhD in social psychology, she is currently examining the extent to which specific police interrogation strategies influence a suspect's likelihood of falsely confessing. Her dedication to educating students with disabilities comes from 12 years of combined teaching experience at North Carolina State, Elon College, and University of Nebraska at Kearney as well as her role as a mother to a child who has both visual and hearing impairments. Catherine Fichten received her MA in experimental social psychology from Concordia University, her PhD in clinical psychology from McGill University, and is currently a Professor of Psychology at Dawson College, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University, and a clinical psychologist at the SMBD–Jewish General Hospital. In addition to her research in the areas of sexual dysfunction and sleep disorders, she has published or has in press over 30 articles concerning postsecondary students and disabilities. Topics range from nondisabled student and faculty perceptions of students with disabilities to the availability of technology for students with disabilities. She has authored or coauthored grants worth over 2 million dollars to empirically investigate factors influencing the academic and social success of college students with disabilities. As a member of the advisory committee for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, she has informed multiple institutes within the agency of the needs and research opportunities related to mobility issues. Many of her articles are available on her Web page ( www.fichten.org ).