UC Davis observes national disability awareness month and California Disability History Week with two events next week: the Accessible Technology and Services Faire, and a symposium featuring a faculty talk on autism spectrum disorders in college students.

In particular, Marjorie Solomon, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, plans to talk about how the disorders can affect students in and out of the classroom, and what the campus can do to help these students adapt to college life and succeed.

The symposium is scheduled for the noon hour Friday, Oct. 14, simultaneous with the four-hour-long Accessible Technology and Services Faire. Both events are free and open to the public.

The program sponsors: the Disability Issues Administrative Advisory Committee, the Office of Campus Community Relations, the Student Disability Center and Disability Management Services.

Congress declared National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week in 1945 and changed the name (and extended the observance) to National Disability Employment Awareness Month in 1988.

UC Davis’ annual observances have focused on issues related to education as well as employment. This year’s central topic deals with students: autism spectrum disorders.

“UC Davis and colleges throughout the country are experiencing increasing enrollments of students with autism spectrum disorders, who have specialized needs,” said Professor Emeritus David Follette, a physician.

Jeanne Wilson, director of the Student Disability Center, noted that the number of students with autism spectrum disorders who have disclosed their disability to the campus has risen from one to more than 25 in the past five years.

Follette and Wilson are co-chairs of the Disability Issues Administrative Advisory Committee, which is charged with advising the campus on issues affecting people with disabilities relating to employment, educational opportunities and removal of architectural barriers. One of the committee’s key initiatives is informing faculty and students of available resources and ensuring that the learning environment is optimal for students with and without disabilities.

Speakers and fair participants

Solomon also plans to highlight the most recent research in her field of expertise: autism spectrum disorders in children, adolescents and college-age men and women.

The program also includes:

• Fred Wood, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, whose remarks will touch on the state Legislature’s designation of Disability History Week as a way to “afford opportunities for students and the general public to learn more about the disability community and to celebrate its role in contemporary American society.”

• Marie Carter DuBois, talking about her work with the UC Davis Autism Spectrum Disorders Workgroup, and about ASD-related efforts in the School of Education, where she recently served as assistant dean. She left the school to become assistant executive vice chancellor in the office of provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter.

Campus units due to participate in the Accessible Technology and Services Faire include:

• Center for Accessible Technologies
• Information and Educational Technology
• Student Academic Success Center
• Internship and Career Center
• Student Disability Center
• Disability Management Services (for faculty and staff)
• Student Health Services
• Counseling and Psychological Services
• Campus Recreation
• Environmental Health and Safety (ergonomic evaluations)

The organizers said the Student Disability Advocacy Group, the Autism Awareness Association and Staff Assembly also will participate.

The vendor participants list includes AMP (website accessibility assessment tool), Apple, Google, Livescribe smartpen and Office Relief.

The Accessible Technology and Services Faire is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the symposium from noon to 1 p.m. amid the fair, Friday, Oct. 14, in Ballrooms A and B at the Conference Center at the campus’s south entry.