ELIGIBILITY FOR DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS

Policy
Procedure

POLICY

The University of North Dakota is responsible for providing reasonable accommodations/academic adjustments to qualified students with disabilities to ensure there is no discrimination on the basis of disability as established under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans With Disabilities Amendments Act.

A reasonable accommodation is a modification or adjustment to a course, program, service, activity or facility. Modifications and adjustments are typically changes in how a task or activity is accomplished or an alteration to a physical structure. Reasonable accommodations do not alter academic standards or essential requirements of the course/curriculum nor cause undue hardship to the parties involved.

To qualify for disability accommodations, the student must:

• Have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, such as learning, seeing, hearing, speaking, walking or breathing. Presence of disability alone does not necessarily qualify an individual for accommodations.
• Experience functional limitation(s) caused by the disability that significantly limit or prevent access to the University’s programs, services or facilities.

In order for DSS to determine that an accommodation is reasonable and appropriate for an individual student, the following criteria must be met:

• There must be a logical link between the functional limits of the student’s disability and the specific accommodation. For example, a student with a learning disability that adversely affects reading comprehension may need to reread each test question and all the multiple choice answers several times in order to accurately comprehend the meaning. This student would be eligible for a specific percentage of extended time to compensate for the functional limitation of slow reading rate.


• An accommodation does not change academic standards or alter the essential requirements of the course/curriculum.


• The determination process is done on a case by case basis and is accomplished through discussion with the student and review of the disability documentation.
  

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PROCEDURE

The steps in the accommodation determination process are:

1. The student must register with DSS and be determined eligible for consideration of reasonable accommodations.


2. The student meets with a Disability Specialist (DS) to identify the disability’s functional limitations that significantly limit or prevent access to the student’s academic work and/or campus environment. A determination is then made as to which accommodation will be appropriate and reasonable.


3. The student is given a document that verifies the need for accommodations, describes the student’s functional limitations and lists the specific accommodations that may compensate for the effects of those limits.


4. The student is responsible for requesting the accommodations from the professor. The professor may ask for verification of the need, and the student can show him or her the verification document from DSS.


5. The student and the professor work out the details of how those accommodations will be provided. The DS is available to consult with the professor and student and assist in problem solving.


6. The student must update the verification documents every semester.
   

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