Sandi Burnett

SMC Staff

“I feel blessed to be in a job that is so meaningful to me.”

To Sandi Burnett, her profession is very much a personal issue. The occupational therapy specialist, who works in SMC’s Disabled Students Center, was born with a severe neurological disability. This resulted in the loss of a leg. Sandi can now often be seen scouting the campus for places that provide inadequate access for the disabled. “My whole purpose on campus is to make the college accessible for students with severe physical disabilities,” explains Sandi who also sits on the Accessibility Appeals Board for Building and Safety for the city of Santa Monica.

In recent years, Sandi has noticed many improvements. “The laws have changed a lot in the last 25 years,” she says. “I experienced a lot of segregation as a child and wasn’t allowed to go to public school.” The arrival of sophisticated computer technology has aided Sandi’s cause and she tries to stay current of new developments by maintaining contact with the faculty at USC where she did her graduate work. “The field does change every week,” she says, “and it has made a tremendous difference in the ways that students are integrated into the curriculum.”

Integration of disabled students at SMC is her prime mission, but Sandi stresses that any change requires the cooperation of the entire campus. “Part of my job is to troubleshoot within the classroom. If students are enrolled in classes where they might have access problems with standard desks or lab equipment, then I get called in,” she says. “But from there on, it’s a process of finding out from the student what his or her needs are and then working with the faculty member to see what they’re able to change to accomodate the student. We all work together on this, and it becomes a team effort.”

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