Services for Students with Disabilities
Faculty Resource Guide: Introduction
Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities
Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first legislation protecting individuals with disabilities by ensuring access to and non-discrimination in any programs/activities that receive federal assistance. "Section 504" dictates that reasonable accommodations, including academic adjustments, be provided to all persons with disabilities who participate in federally funded programs.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA, P.L. 101-336) extends protection to all persons with disabilities. The ADA requires organizations to make reasonable accommodations for individuals who have known physical or mental disabilities and who are "otherwise qualified."
A "disability" is defined as a mental or physical impairment that "substantially limits one or more major life activities." This can include the ability to care for oneself, learn, walk, see, hear, speak, breathe, or maintain social relationships.
The implications for persons who are seeking a college education are as follows:
Admissions
- No quotas may be placed on the number of disabled students accepted into a program.
- No tests or other measures may be required for admission that have a disproportionate adverse impact on individuals unless they have been validated as a predictor of academic success in the education program or activity in question.
- Students with a disability must meet the same criteria for admission as students without a disability. However, students cannot be denied admission based on their disability status. Students with disabilities must be given equal consideration as student without disabilities.
Treatment
- Students with disabilities must be afforded equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from all post-secondary education programs, including education programs and activities not operated wholly by the participant.
- Programs and activities involving disabled students must be provided in the most integrated setting possible.
Academic Adjustments
- In certain circumstances, modifications to academic requirements must be made to ensure that they do not discriminate against disabled students. This does not mean that standards fundamental to a given program must be altered.
- Rules may not be unreasonably imposed that limit a disabled student's ability to complete a course of study.
- Schools must ensure that disabled students are not denied the benefits of, excluded from participation in, or otherwise discriminated against with regard to educational program or activity due to the absence of auxiliary aids*.
Financial and Employment Assistance
- Schools offering financial or work-study employment must do so in a non-discriminatory manner.
Non-Academic Services
- Disabled students must have an equal opportunity to participate in all physical education and athletic activities if otherwise qualified to do so.
- Counseling services including academic, personal, and career, must be provided in a non-discriminatory manner.
- Counselors may not direct qualified disabled students towards more-restrictive careers than they would non-disabled students with similar interests and abilities.
- The University must provide accessible, comparable, and convenient housing.
- Organizations that receive significant assistance from the University must select members in a non-discriminatory manner.
*Although auxiliary aids are available, the University does not provide other devices or services of a personal nature.
