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My staff and I work with a number of other units on campus, including numerous departments within all faculties and coordinating with disability service counselors who have assessed students’ needs before referring them to our unit. We have a new brochure describing our services that is available at orientation sessions and for pick up at the various disability services offices. On Access York’s Student Sub-Committee I regularly network with the other service providers to understand issues external to the libraries that may affect the services we offer and the students’ experiences. YUL News: Who are LAS’s clients and how do you serve them? TM: Students are our primary clients. LAS’s role has progressed from meeting just the legal requirements for accommodating students to matching their individual needs, ways of learning and technologies to the various alternate format materials we have available to assist with learning. For my part, I try not to assume things about our clients’ needs – I ask them, and I attempt to make them feel comfortable in our environment, so even if it’s sometimes difficult to share aspects of their needs with us they feel they can do so.
TM: The administrative side of my work is very important to further services, but the most enjoyable part of my job is working with students to improve their academic experience. YUL News: What was the most rewarding situation where you were able to assist a client? TM: For me, it’s whenever a student goes from really struggling with achieving even passing grades to doing really well, even being on the Dean’s list or continuing on to graduate study. When we are able to supply course materials to students in such a way that they can process the information like their fellow students and reach their potential, it’s always gratifying when the student returns to tell us of their success. [One such student arrived even as we were interviewing Tina.] That’s as rewarding today as it was years ago when I started. YUL News: What are the biggest challenges for the unit and for you as Manager? TM: As Manager, I try hard to ensure that the department has enough resources – people, space and so on - to meet demand. We have existed as a discrete unit for only two years, but we are already beginning to outgrow our floor space, so challenges still exist. The unit itself has two main challenges in providing effective assistance. First, we need students to contact us in the summer regarding their fall courses but for various reasons they don’t always arrive at York until fall, which is very late for us to get them the course materials they’ll need. Second, we can’t provide alternate format materials in time to assist students if we don’t know early enough what the readings will be for their courses – it can take months to create alternate format materials. Faculty can assist significantly by informing us as early as June when we require course reading lists to prepare alternate format materials. This and other aspects of teaching differently-abled students are explored in the online Faculty resource guide. YUL News: What are your interests outside work? TM: I’ve done stand up comedy in years past. It’s a whole “downtown” lifestyle: participating in open mike nights, writing every day – a difficult mix with a demanding day job, so it’s on hold for now. But I look forward to returning to comedy writing! YUL News: You recently won an award of excellence. Tell us more… TM: I was so honoured by this award! It’s wonderful to know that someone has given you tangible recognition for your efforts - but this simply wouldn’t be possible without the dedicated staff here. I can’t stress enough the caring, attention to detail, and the genuine concern for students that our staff brings to work every day. Also, the support in place from the University Librarian’s Office for the department and its initiatives is crucial to the level of service we offer students.
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