Services for Studnents with Disabilities
Faculty Resource Guide: Legal Responsibilties of Faculty to Students with Disabilities
Students may experience significant differences from high school in a university's handling of disabilities. These differences are attributable to governance by different law (universities are governed by ADA and Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, but not IDEA) as well as expectations that students will assume greater responsibility for their behavior and for asserting their needs. Here are some important points to keep in mind as you make the transition.
- As students are now legally adults, university personnel will expect to work directly with students rather than with parents. Indeed, laws are such that staff may be precluded from talking with parents unless the student gives consent for staff to do so.
- Universities do not bear the responsibility for identifying disabled students. Instead, students must identify themselves to the campus disabilities office.
- Universities do not bear the responsibility for notifying professors of a student's need for accommodations; the student ultimately bears that responsibility, even when the disabilities office has approved accommodations.
- Students bear the responsibility for apprising the university of any difficulties they are experiencing securing accommodations.
- University personnel are available to consult with and guide students but do not generally provide the level of oversight and monitoring students may have experienced in high school. There are no "progress" or "team meetings," e.g., nor are there any "case management" services: no one pushes students to attend classes or to submit homework.
- Students may not qualify for the same accommodations in university that they had in high school, even if the students' situations are otherwise unchanged.
- University professors are not obligated to alter their instructional practices. For example, they need not add visual aids to accommodate the needs of a learning disabled student.
- Universities are not required to make program or curricular modifications, nor are they required to offer alternate assessments or modifications to exams.
- Universities are not required to offer services of a personal nature-including study-skills training and academic tutoring.
- Universities may and often do require different documentation from what was acceptable in high school, as discussed below. Documentation that was acceptable in high school may not be adequate in university.
A Note about Attention Deficit Disorder
ADD is not a learning disability, although many persons have mistakenly labeled as such. ADD is a neurological condition that reduces a person's productivity and rate of learning. ADD may constitute a disability if the symptoms are severe enough to "significantly affect a major life activity" such as learning. The role of medication is especially important with regard to ADD and disability status, in so far as medication treatment may reduce the symptoms to the point at which they are no longer disabling. Thus students with ADD do not automatically qualify for accommodations.
