Students who would like to request disability-related services or accommodations are required to schedule an appointment for an initial intake procedure with the Disability Resource Center staff. As part of the intake procedure, the DRC staff will require appropriate documentation of disability. Eligibility will be determined on the basis of the presence of a disability and a need for services and accommodations to support an equal educational opportunity. Information from the disability documentation, the student’s stated experience with services that have been effective in past academic settings and the DRC professional judgment will be drawn upon in making the eligibility determination.
The first prong of the federal definition of disability includes two elements: 1) a physical or mental impairment which 2) substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of the person in question. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, major life activities include but are not limited to walking, breathing, seeing, hearing, performing manual tasks, caring for oneself, learning and working. Therefore, disability has both medical and functional elements, and both of these elements must be explicitly documented for DRC’ purposes. Students are required to provide documentation of disability prior to the provision of services. Accommodations cannot be retroactive and begin only after documentation is received and a reasonable time for accommodation development has been allowed.
|
