Ever since the coronavirus pandemic began, Virginia Kuhn, a professor of cinema who has taught at USC since 2007, said she has noticed a rise in the amount of accommodation letters she’s received. 

“I could count on one hand how many accommodation letters I received before COVID,” Kuhn said. “But it does seem to me that since COVID, I’ve had a lot more, probably the same amount [combined] that I had in all the years before.”

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Despite the increased need for accommodations after the pandemic began, Kuhn faced multiple incidents where the Office of Student Accessibility Services failed to respond to requests. In Spring 2023, OSAS did not respond after a student needed accommodations for the class textbook. The situation became so dire that Kuhn said she was ready to buy the student the e-book herself. 

“The student who needed it said that that has been her experience, that either she calls and gets someone right away and they can help, or if she doesn’t get someone right away, then it takes quite a long time for her to get anywhere,” Kuhn said. 

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, OSAS wrote, “The Office of Student Accessibility Services (OSAS) is devoted to addressing the diverse needs of our students and ensuring equal access in both classroom and academic environments.”

OSAS encourages any students who need help to reach out, they wrote. Their recommendation being to go into their office or contacting them directly. 

“Recognizing the challenges that can arise at the beginning of the semester, our OSAS specialists are committed to promptly assisting students while fostering a thorough and supportive interactive process, particularly during peak times,” OSAS wrote. “The OSAS team is experiencing a typical busy start to the semester and currently is meeting its expected review timelines for student requests for accommodations.”

Gwen Smith, associate director of the Student Assembly for Accessibility and a junior majoring in international relations, receives support from OSAS. Because her accommodations were already set up, she hasn’t experienced any issues, but said she has heard it’s been taking longer for new students. Smith said SAA’s role on campus is to advocate for students who feel OSAS isn’t doing enough for them.

“I don’t know if [OSAS is] just overworked or what the situation is, but the guidance counselors take a really long time to reply if they reply at all,” Smith said. “Sometimes, you have to go in-person to the office. Or if some of our members had questions, they could just ask us, and we’d be able to answer them from just knowing how it works in the University already.”

Smith said her overall experience with accommodations has been relatively positive, and that it’s been easier for her to access accommodations at USC than at her high school. But she said OSAS still deserves some criticism.

“​We do have to hold these institutions or these organizations accountable, especially because the rate at which disabled students graduate is extremely low compared to other groups,” Smith said. “I feel like this could potentially be a barrier in a way to helping disabled people get through college if they’re already experiencing this sort of struggle and can’t be accommodated in their learning in a good amount of time.”

According to a 2017 Department of Education Study, 50% of students with disabilities graduated from four-year colleges within six years, while 68% of students without disabilities graduated from four-year colleges within six years.

Kuhn said she has had problems contacting OSAS even with accommodations that require less support on the office’s end. When her students requested more accessible formats for hard-copy class materials, Kuhn submitted materials to OSAS but did not hear back.

“By this point, it’s too late in the semester to really do anything,” Kuhn said. “I got her access a different way, because I can convert things myself. I feel like it was just a situation where I don’t know if they’re very responsive to the students.”

Kuhn said her experience with OSAS led to her deciding that the next time a student needs accommodation, she will deal with it herself to ensure students get the help they need.

“I just got to look out for the student in the classroom, and I can’t afford to let weeks pass by,” Kuhn said. “You know how busy it is when you start a semester, and you’re really just trying to get everyone situated. I feel like it’s more expedient to do it myself than to farm it out to OSAS.”

SAA plans to send a survey to students asking about their experiences with contacting and obtaining accommodations from OSAS, said Charles Ding, co-director of SAA and a senior majoring in East Asian area studies and health promotion and disease prevention studies. The goal is to present the data to OSAS and to shorten the distance between OSAS and the general student population.

“We aim to send a survey out hopefully by the end of the month, we’re still looking through different resources to figure out the best questions to ask, but we do aim to send it out by the end of the month,” Ding said “Depending on the number of results that come in, we may have coding and analysis done before spring break.”