Rights and Responsibilities for Ensuring Educational Access for Students with Disabilities
Educational access is the provision of classroom accommodations, auxiliary aids and services to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students regardless of their disability. Creating equal educational opportunities is a collaborative effort between the student, the faculty member and the Office of Accessibility.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 protect students with disabilities from discrimination that may occur as a result of misconceptions, attitudinal barriers and/or failure of the institution to provide appropriate accommodations, auxiliary aids or services. Examples of accommodations and auxiliary aides include, but are not limited to: educational materials in alternate format (i.e. Braille, cd, electronic format, enlarged print), note takers, extended time for exams and qualified sign language interpreters.
PLEASE NOTE:
Faculty and staff members do not have the right to ask students if they have a disability. For those students with documented disabilities, faculty and staff members do not have the right to ask about the nature of the disability. For those students who choose to disclose their disability, this information should be treated confidentially.