What are my rights and responsibilities as a student with a disability?

Rights and Responsibilities of Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities have the right:

  • To participate voluntarily in Student Accessibility Services
  • To participate in other courses, programs, or activities offered by the college
  • To be evaluated based on ability, not disability
  • To appeal a decision regarding accommodations through the student grievance process

Students with disabilities have the responsibility:

  • To provide professional documentation of disability to the college
  • To request accommodations in a timely way
  • To follow SAS procedures for obtaining accommodations
  • To work cooperatively with SAS to determine and implement accommodations
  • To comply with the Student Rules of Conduct as written in the College catalog
  • To maintain the academic standards of the college

Faculty Rights and Responsibilities

Faculty have the right:

  • To set academic standards
  • To evaluate the student based on the standards of the class and to grade accordingly
  • To advise the student to contact SAS if the student requests an accommodation and the instructor has not received written notification from the SAS office

Faculty have the responsibility:

  • To work with SAS to provide for accommodations in a fair and timely way
  • To adjust instruction without fundamentally altering the program
  • To provide handouts in a timely way for alternate media provision
  • To select textbooks in a timely way so e-text can be ordered from the publisher
  • To respect and maintain a student’s right to confidentiality about his/her disability
  • To contact the SAS office if there is disagreement about the accommodation
  • To work with SAS to ensure that instructional web pages are accessible to students who use assistive technology
  • To work with SAS to ensure that instructional videos are captioned

Faculty do not have the right to refuse to provide accommodations, to question whether the disability exists when accommodations have been authorized by SAS, or to request to examine the student’s documentation.

SAS Rights and Responsibilities

SAS has the right:

  • To request and receive current documentation that supports the need for accommodations
  • To deny a request for accommodations if the documentation demonstrates that the request is not warranted or if the individual fails to provide appropriate documentation
  • To suspend or terminate services if the student repeatedly does not comply with SAS policies or procedures or does not meet the academic standards established by the college.

SAS has the responsibility:

  • To assist faculty in providing or arranging accommodations and/or auxiliary aids
  • To hold student information confidential except where permitted or required by law
  • To communicate to students, faculty, and staff the process to request accommodations
  • To verify the student’s disabilities and authorize accommodations based on educational limitations caused by the disability
  • To establish requirements for measurable progress and abuse of services. If a student does not adhere to established procedures, SAS will notify the student of the possibility of suspension or termination of SAS services.