Charles Street Chats: Q&A with Karyn Schulz
BEHIND THE CHAT
Order: iced chai with skim milk, Starbucks to go
Location: UBalt Shuttle
Distance from campus: 0 miles
Karyn Schulz has been director of Disability and Access Services at The University of Baltimore for 16 years, all but two years of her overall tenure here. She’s long been an advocate for accessibility rights and access and keeps her Academic Center door open for students with documented disabilities to find accommodations and support to facilitate their academic success. Her work as director and commitment to UBalt, including service on the Council of University System Staff and University’s Staff Senate, earned her the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents’ Staff Award in 2013.
Q: You’ve been Disability and Access Services director at UBalt for 16 years. What drew you to this career path, and what inspires you to stay?
A: When I first started working in the field of education in, I was a special ed teacher. I went to [University of Maryland] College Park and started teaching right after graduation in Prince George’s County but moved to Harford County after getting married and taught special education a year up there and just realized I don’t want to be in the public school anymore.
In 1992, I applied for a position with the disability support services office at what was then Essex Community College. I’ve been in higher education since my start at Essex.
I came to The University of Baltimore in 2006 as the coordinator of tutoring. In 2008, I was asked to step in to the director position of Disability and Access Services and within a year, I felt like I was ‘home.’ This is the work I was meant to do.
There are two reasons why I do what I do. First, I come from a family of teachers. Everyone in my family, adult wise, has been a teacher in a classroom in some way, shape, or form, so that’s part of who I am. Second, I’m a giver. I want to make sure people get to where they need to be and provide the tools needed to get there.
The real reason I stay is graduation. We know those stories that walk across that stage and the grit and perseverance of University of Baltimore students, particularly the students with disabilities. I know what bridges they had to build to get to graduation, despite experiencing ableism (but they have a disability) from others.
We work with our students who are undergrad, grad, through law school. Since we work with every level of student at the University, it is nice to know that they can start as a freshman, go to graduate school and go to law school, and your accommodations follow you all the way through.
WATCH: How can colleges be more accessible to their community?
Q: What’s something you’ve always wanted to do professionally, personally, or both?
A: I’d like to start writing, whether it’s journal writing, or story-telling. My husband tells me all the time that the stories that I come home with are ‘you-can’t-believe-this-happened stuff’ that my field should write books about, and I probably have several chapters I can contribute! But I also feel when I retire in a couple years, I want to consult. I want to help either high school kids with disabilities transition to college, or work with kids on self-advocacy wherever they are, because they don’t always understand how they request accommodations. Those are the two things; I would love to do both if possible.
Q: As a founding board member of the Peaces of Me Foundation, you’re committed to a group striving to eliminate stigma associated with disability, physical differences and chronic illness. Based on all your work, how can people be better allies?
A: Listen. Really understand that people with disabilities can do almost anything they set out to do. Do they need accommodations more often than not? Probably. It depends on the task at hand. It depends on how the diagnosis impacts their capabilities or expectations of capabilities.
Don’t make a quick judgment. A quick example I’ll use: accessible parking. You see someone get out of a car, they don’t look disabled, but they’re in the car and they have the placard. People think, “oh, it must be someone else’s placard they’re using,” where it could be cardiac issues, could be pulmonary disease—all these different diagnoses that they are legally allowed to use that spot. So, it’s not rushing to judgment, not making those assumptions as well.
Unfortunately, people with disabilities in the United States, as a group, are the most underemployed population overall, but once they’re employed, they’re the most employable and they stay the most, as well. There’s a balance we need to maintain—get the people employed and understand that they’re capable of doing work that they’re hired to do.
Also, accommodations, as another point of that, are not expensive. The majority of them are cheap, if not free. Technologies are also increasing, the ability for technology to be utilized as an accommodation. Word for Microsoft has read out loud, that means it’s a screen reader; you don’t have to buy separate software, so people who need that can work right away.
Many different things, it’s just a matter of asking, what can I do? How do I do it?
What Charms Us
We end all our Charles Street Chats with the same question: What do you love most about Baltimore? Here’s Karyn’s answer.
It’s a city of people dedicated to their city. There’s a feeling about being in Baltimore. I’m from New York. I love Baltimore, too. It’s just a great place. It’s friendly. People just want to do the best they can.