AN ABCD
APPROACH TO
OFFICE
MANAGEMENT
ADAM MEYER – UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
ADAM.MEYER@UCF.EDU
KEY TALKING POINTS
1. Awareness of Culture
2. Budgeting
3. Communication
4. Data Reporting
**Review of foundational aspects**
AWARENESS OF
CULTURE
IT IS YOUR BUSINESS
 The disability office is a small business
 Who are the “customers”?
 What is the mission of the disability office?
 Ensuring, creating and maintaining access

From a university perspective, not just a student
perspective
 Make policies, procedures and practices work for…
 Your office
 Perhaps more importantly, for your “customers”

Do you analyze key processes from their point of view?
BUILD TRUST
Trust is a skill, one that is an aspect of virtually all human
practices, cultures, and relationships.(Robert Solomon)
To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. (George
MacDonald)
The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey
 Requires focusing on shared, rather than
personal/department goals (OUR students, not MY or
YOUR students)
 Consistent in action, dependable follow-through,
openness to communicate (do what, when)
 Do policies and practices demonstrate that you have the
best interest of the students and of the faculty in the
name of access?
 On the extreme end, could any office language use
and/or practices be giving subliminal messages that
protecting the reputation of the office/oneself is the
most important?
 One conversation, one encounter, one experience at a
time
LISTEN FIRST, SPEAK LATER
To listen well, is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well,
and is as essential to all true conversation (Chinese proverb)
We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more
and talk less. (Diogenes)
People will feel safer around you and speak truthfully to you when
they feel you are listening intently to them. (Brian Koslow)
Strategies used:
• Meet people in their space, their comfort zone or in
a neutral location when possible
• Ask them questions first, listen to their story
• Use language from their story as the conversation
continues (Housing: capacity/fill beds)
• Student Advisory Board and Faculty Advisory
Board
OPERATE WITH THE RESOURCES
YOU HAVE, NOT THE RESOURCES
YOU WISH YOU HAD.
 Office policies and practices are not untouchable
concepts, immovable objects.
 What was made can be modified
 Is your attention where it really needs to be? Are certain
practices creating more work than necessary?
 Focus on what you can change and not on what you
cannot change.
 Internal operations vs. resource allocation
 The more effective you are internally, the more effective
you can be externally about campus and its culture.
Any other thoughts on getting a
handle on the campus culture?
COMMUNICATION
SOME THOUGHTS…
 Listen, listen, listen
 Genuine and authentic
 Maintain an open mind
 Show confidence
 Concise and clear (to the point)
 Assess nonverbal cues
 Think about the impact of messages, especially those
conveyed in writing
 Accommodation letters
 Office brochures
 Web information
 Share critical points first and then descend from there
 Make the message fit the audience
 Don’t have the audience conform to the message
 Under-sell and over-deliver
 Be aware of internal judgments and irrational thoughts
Any other thoughts on or strategies
you have used for effective
communication?
DATA REPORTING
WHAT QUANTITATIVE DATA???
Number of students connected with office
Disability
Specific Accommodations Requested/Used
Students by Major and/or College
Testing Accommodations
Assistive Technology Usage
Testing with Assistive Technology
Alternative Media
ASL/CART/C-Print Usage (and Cost)
GPA and possibly probation status
Year and/or Credit Hours Completed
Survey data (students and faculty)
WHAT QUALITATIVE DATA???
Similar student concerns/challenges
Similar faculty concerns/challenges
Frequent staff observations and assessments
HAVE IT? USE IT!!
 Internal office assessments and action
 Make any process or communication changes?
 Assessment is an on-going mindset, not a
one-time and occasional event
 Supervisor and His/Her Supervisor
 What Quantitative Data??
 Monthly, Semester and/or Annual Report
 Historical trends over 3 – 5 year periods
 Justification for additional resources
 Provide in format desired for beneficial use
 Academic departments
 Leading Majors with students with disabilities
 Specific disability consideration…deaf, blind,
etc…
 Other campus stakeholders
 Increase in Asperger’s…who might be
impacted?
 Use the data for proactive office management
and campus outreach
What are ways in which you use data
to tell and support your story?
BUDGETING
TWO
CONSIDERATIONS
 Centralized accommodation funding vs. department
accommodation funding
 Disability office budget vs. accommodation budget
WHO PAYS?
 For all associated student accommodation
needs (interpreters, book materials, equipment,
etc.)…
 Disability office covers everything?
 Through the respective home academic
departments?
 Depends…case by case?
MONEY SPEAKS
 When departments contribute to
accommodation costs…
 Accommodations perceived as responsibility of
respective unit, NOT as an institutional-wide
commitment
 Students with disabilities seen as a financial
drain on department
 Departments may want more personal/medical
information than necessary to justify expenses
 Debate over who pays can delay provision of
access
WHAT IS IN A BUDGET?
 A disability office budget tends to fund:

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Staff and student worker salaries
Office supplies and equipment
Database
Programming
Training and travel
Assistive technologies
???
Accommodations

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Service providers
Specialized equipment/technology
Braille production
Captioning
???
WHEN GOING TO THE
SAME BANK…
 Decisions need to be made to best “balance” the budget
 Office supplies, office-use equipment, database,
programming and travel are negotiable…
 Are legitimate academic accommodations negotiable?
 Office operations (daily and for future viability) can be
sacrificed to provide accommodations
TO BEST SHOW
COMMITMENT TO ACCESS…
 Operate with two funds:
 Office Operational Fund



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Staff and student worker salaries
Office supplies and equipment
Database
Programming
Training and travel
Assistive technologies (predictable “standard” needs)
???
 Accommodation Fund






Service providers
Specialized equipment
Braille production
Captioning
Unpredictable accommodation costs
???
ACCOMMODATION
FUND BENEFIT
 Shows commitment to access
 Access takes priority even during times of funding
challenges
 Recognizes fluctuation potential (not always predictable)
 Surplus not seen as negative (poor planning and
spending)
 Consider arrangement where it can go into the red if
increase in need (suggest good communication)
 The disability office work is valued and does not have to
sacrifice at expense of accommodations
ANALYZE WHERE POSSIBLE
 Any deaf students in programs requiring internships?
 Any known upcoming study abroad experiences requiring
interpreters?
 Idea of future semester Braille books needed
 Consider keeping all standard, predictable expenses with
the office budget
 Any staff salaries
 Differentiate infrastructure from direct service needs
 Database expenses
 Predictable, standard technologies
 Maintain regular communication with budget
administration
 Discuss variability and rationale
 Plan for when limit reached/exceeds
Other thoughts on beneficial budget
practices?
Any final questions?
Adam Meyer
University of Central Florida
adam.meyer@ucf.edu