PROCEDURES AND POLICIES
Request for services:
All students in need of disability services must provide documentation of their disability and complete the “Request for Services” form, which can be found here. Students who received accommodations as an undergraduate must provide documentation of their accommodations to the Disability Services office. The needs of students who are experiencing significant difficulty with coursework/assigned readings due to an undocumented disability must complete the “Request for Services” form and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
In-Class Accommodation Requests
Students in need of in-class accommodations must complete the “Accommodation Letter to Professor” form found here. Letters will be prepared and sent to the students professors one week prior to the start of class. Failure to meet the deadline could delay your letter to faculty. Please make note of the deadlines for requesting accommodation letters below.
Fall Semester
- July 15
Winter Term
- November 1
Spring Semester
- December 15th
Summer Term
- May 1st
Alternative Textbooks
Students who need alternative textbooks, such as textbooks in PDF format, should complete the alternative textbook request form as soon as their syllabus is made available on Canvas. Students must first purchase a hard copy of the book(s) needed and send the receipt(s) to the Disability Services office before alternate books can be ordered. Alternative format book requests can take up to 4-6 weeks to be fulfilled by the publisher.
Fall Semester
- July 15th.
Winter Term
- October 31st
Spring Semester
- November 30th
Summer Term
- April 30th
E-books
Students should purchase e-books, when possible, to use with their speech-to-text readers. Many publishers also provide textbooks through third-party resources such as BookShare and Accessible Textbook Network (ATN).
Reasonable Accommodations:
Reasonable accommodations are reasonable modifications of the learning environment that eliminate, as much as possible, physical or instructional barriers to learning encountered by the student with a disability. A reasonable accommodation is considered appropriate and reasonable if the accommodation is feasible and reasonable in its alternative method or format, and does not impose an undue burden or hardship on the school. Accommodations are individualized and dependent on the nature of the specific disability or disabilities.
Unreasonable Accommodations:
Unreasonable accommodations are those that (1) alter requirements that are essential to the program of instruction, (2) cause a fundamental alteration in the nature of a specific course or academic program, (3) impose undue financial or administrative burden, or (4) pose an appreciable threat to personal or public safety.
The school will assess on a case-by-case basis whether a particular reasonable accommodation would cause undue hardship. An “undue hardship” is a significant difficulty or expense and focuses on the resources and circumstances of the school in relationship to the cost or difficulty of providing a specific accommodation. Undue hardship refers not only to financial difficulty, but to reasonable accommodations that are unduly extensive, substantial, or disruptive, or those that would fundamentally alter the nature or operation of a course or program of study.