WNY Collegiate Consortium and Disability Advocates

Student Rights and Responsibilities:

Every otherwise qualified student with a documented disability has the following rights:

• Equal access to courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities available through the college or university.
• 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.
• Appropriate confidentiality of all information pertaining to the disability with the choice of to whom to disclose the disability, except as required by law.
• Information reasonably available in accessible formats.

Every otherwise qualified student with a disability has the responsibility to:

• Meet the qualifications 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, functional limitations, 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 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
  1. the documentation does not identify a specific disability,
  2. the documentation fails to verify the need for the requested services, and/or
  3. 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:
  1. poses a direct threat to the health and safety of others;
  2. constitutes a substantial change or alteration to an essential element of a course or program;
  3. fundamentally alters the nature of the service provided; and/or
  4. 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 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 or university’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).