Font Size: 
The Americans with Disabilities Act provides a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities and provision of reasonable accommodations for qualified students enrolled in higher education.
Possible Accommodations 1
Decisions as to appropriate accommodations should be made on a case by case basis. No particular accommodations are appropriate for all students, but below are some common ones offered to students with learning disabilities and or AD/HD.
|
Important Elements in a Reasonable Accommodation 2
- What is “reasonable” is determined by reviewing and analyzing the facts of the particular case. There is no global definition of the term.
- “Certain limits to the requirement of reasonable accommodations do apply. An accommodation is not reasonable if it imposes any ‘undue financial or administrative burden’ or if it requires a ‘fundamental alteration in the nature of the program.’ Darian v. University of Massachusetts, 980 F. Supp 77 (MA 1997) and Arline, supra at 287.
- The obligation to provide reasonable accommodations is not an absolute standard. It involves compromise and balance. As noted by the court in Wynne v. Tufts University
Reasonableness is not a constant. To the contrary, what is reasonable in a particular situation may not be reasonable in a different situation – even if the situation differences are relatively slight. … Ultimately, what is reasonable depends on variable mix of factors. Id. at 795
The PLuS Program provides the following accommodations:
- Test Proctoring
- Extended time on the exam
- Separate room to eliminate distractions
- Reader to read the exam's questions
- Transcriber to type the student's responses
- Computer for the student to type his/her responses
- Priority Registration
- Advocacy
- Weekly Sessions with a PLuS Clinician
A detailed description of the PLuS program accommodations can be found here.
Additional services that students may qualify for which are provided in collaboration with the Office for Students with Disabilities:
- Books on Tape
- Copy Card
For further details regarding these services, please contact OSD.
Resources
1 Faculty Training Tips: Guidance for Teaching Students with Disabilities. Horsham, PA: LRP Publications (2005).
2 Disability and Higher Education. Horsham, PA: LRP Publications (1998).