Campus Statistics Used in Surveys

Illinois was the first university in the nation to provide access to all university services, curricula, and facilities to students with disabilities.

Illinois developed the first architectural accessibility standards, instituted the first wheelchair-accessible bus system, and was first to provide transitional and residential supports for students needing personal assistant services.

Students with physical disabilities who require personal assistant support services have an 87% graduation rate; nearly 60% obtain employment within a year of graduation, while another 32% enroll in graduate or professional schools.

Illinois was the first university to offer a comprehensive competitive wheelchair sports programs. It trained two-time Olympic gold-medalist wheelchair racer and 8-time Boston Marathon Wheelchair Division champion Jean Driscoll.

As a result of the outstanding, continuing efforts of the Disability Resources and Educational Services program, Illinois is consistently rated as the most or one of the most disability-friendly universities in the nation.

Today Illinois is a leader in IT accessibility, with the goal of equal access to IT resources for all students, faculty, and staff. Not only has this campus created best practices for developing truly accessible web sites, we also have software that webmasters can use to evaluate the functional accessibility of their sites. Our wizard for Microsoft Office converts Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents to an accessible format (http://www.cita.uiuc.edu/software/office/ ).