WNY Collegiate Consortium and Disability Advocates

Student Rights and Responsibilities:

Every qualified individual with a disability has the right to:

• Equal access to courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities available through the college or university.

Every qualified student with a DOCUMENTED disability has the right to:

• Appropriate confidentiality of all information pertaining to the disability with the choice of to whom to disclose the disability, except as required by law.

• When requested in a timely manner, reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids determined by the institution on a case-by-case and/or course-by-course basis.

• Information reasonably available in accessible formats in a timely manner.

Every qualified student with a disability has the responsibility to:

• Meet the eligibility and essential technical standards, both academic and institutional, including the student code of conduct.

• Identify him/herself in a timely manner as an individual with a disability when requesting an accommodation from the appropriate service provider.

• Provide documentation from a qualified source that verifies the nature of the disability, current impact of that disability on every day activities, and the need for specific accommodations.

• Follow specific procedures for obtaining reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments and services.

College or University Rights and Responsibilities

Colleges and universities have the right to:

• Maintain academic, admissions, conduct and graduation standards.

• Require that a student with a disability provide current documentation completed by a qualified professional source to verify the need for reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids.

• Discuss a student’s need for reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids with the professional source of his documentation with the student’s signed consent authorizing discussion.

• Select among equally effective and appropriate accommodations, adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids for each student on a case-by-case/course-by-course basis.

• Deny a request for accommodations, adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids if

a)the documentation does not identify a specific disability or a combination of conditions that substantially limit a major life activity,

b)the documentation fails to verify the need for the requested services, and/or

c)the documentation is not provided in a timely manner.

• Refuse to provide an accommodation, adjustment, and/or auxiliary aid that is inappropriate or unreasonable, including any that:

a)poses a direct threat to the health and safety of others;

b)constitutes a substantial change or alteration to an essential element of a course or program;

c)fundamentally alters the nature of the service provided; and/or

d)poses undue financial hardship or administrative burden on the institution.

Colleges and universities have the responsibility to:

• Review and revise institutional, programmatic, employment and other policies and procedures to assure that they do not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities.

• Ensure that the institution’s courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities, when viewed in their entirety, are offered in the most integrated and appropriate settings based on a review of what the law requires.

• Provide information regarding policies and procedures, including the college’s 504 Grievance Procedures to students with disabilities in a timely manner and assure its availability in accessible formats upon request.

• Evaluate students on their abilities, not their disabilities.

• Provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids for students with disabilities upon a timely request by a student.

• Maintain appropriate confidentiality of records and communication concerning students with disabilities except where disclosure is required by law or authorized by the student.

More specifically, institutions have the responsibility to:

• Assist students with disabilities who self-identify and meet the college’s criteria for eligibility in receiving reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids determined on a case-by-case/course-by-course basis.

• Assure confidentiality of all information pertaining to a student’s disability.

• Inform students with disabilities of the college or university policies and procedures for filing a formal grievance both internally and/or through external agencies (e.g., US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights).

Students: the following is a list of questions to help identify college services that can meet your specific needs. Not every question will apply to every student, but those that do will help you begin a dialogue with the college’s Disability Support staff and will help generate other questions that the student or parent does need to ask.