The Law
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, individuals with disabilities are protected from discrimination. In order to establish that an individual is covered under the ADA, the documentation must indicate that the disability substantially limits some major life activity, including learning.
One of the most important things you can do to arrange services in college is to provide the Accessibility Services office with the proper documentation of your disability.
The following documentation guidelines are provided in the interest of ensuring that documentation of a disability demonstrates an impact on a major life activity and supports the request for accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids.
All documentation submitted to the Accessibility Services office is confidential.
Students with Learning Disabilities
You must provide a copy of your most recent psychological evaluation. The evaluation should identify:
- What your specific learning disability is.
- The functional limitations (how your disability affects you) should be included in the evaluation.
- The evaluation must be completed by a psychologist, school psychologist, psychiatrist or other person qualified to administer evaluations.
Students With Medical, Physical of Other Types of Disabilities
You must provide documentation from a medical doctor or other qualified professional stating what your disability is and how your disability will affect you in an academic setting. This documentation must be on your doctor's letterhead. Information on prescription pad is not accepted.
Procedures
- Documentation should be sent to the Accessibility Services Office at either the Morrisville campus or the Norwich campus.
- Your high school will not automatically send documentation. You must request that it be sent.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
Accommodations cannot be implemented until the student contacts the Office of Accessibility Services.
Prior history of an accommodation in K-12 schooling or another college does not, in and of itself, warrant its continued provision of services.
The student must initiate requests for services and / or accommodations. The student and Accessibility Services will determine accommodations collaboratively.
Because the provision of all reasonable accommodations and services is based upon assessment of the current impact of the disability on academic performance, it is in an individual's best interest to provide recent and appropriate documentation.
If documentation is inadequate in scope or content, or does not address the individual's current level of functioning and need for accommodation, reevaluation may be warranted. Further assessment by an appropriate professional may be required if co-existing disabilities or disabling conditions are indicated. Furthermore, changes may have occurred in the individual's performance since previous assessment, or medication(s) may have been prescribed or discontinued since the previous assessment was conducted. In such cases, it may be necessary to update the evaluation report. The update should include a detailed assessment of the current impact of the disability or condition and interpretive summary of relevant information and the previous diagnostic report.