Disability 101

1. Disability 101 Presented By Cyn Ukoko, 913-945-7035 cukoko@kumc.edu

2. Student’s Responsibilities • Must Self Identify & register with Academic Accommodations. • Provide documentation of your disability. • Read & sign the technical standards as outlined in your program. • Make an appointment with faculty to discuss accommodations. • Inform office of the materials you need in alternate format ASAP. • Notify faculty/Office immediately when an accommodation is not being provided completely or correctly. • Act as your own advocate. Work with counselors on developing advocacy skills and communicating your specific needs and accommodations to faculty.

3. Faculty Responsibilities • Request verification of a student's eligibility for any requested accommodations. • Expect the student to initiate accommodation requests. • A statement placed on course syllabi indicating a faculty member's willingness to provide reasonable accommodations to a student with a disability & contact Information. • Students with disabilities should meet the same course expectations as their peers and no adapted grades. • Provide accommodations only to students who are registered. • Treat and protect all disability-related information as confidential. • Work to ensure that all audio-visual materials used in class are accessible. • Provide all reasonable accommodations as stated in letter

4. AAS Responsibilities • Receive the appropriate documentation from the student prior to the services being initiated. • Deny unreasonable academic accommodations, adjustments, and/or auxiliary services. • Collect, evaluate, securely house disability documentation and determine eligibility for services. • Treat and protect all disability-related information as confidential. • Meet with the student privately in an accessible location. • Provide appropriate accommodations in collaboration with the instructor and student. • Communicate procedures clearly to the student and the faculty. • Assist students with disabilities in understanding their strengths and functional limitations. Provide them with the skills to become self-advocates.

5. Most Frequently Asked Questions • Who is responsible for determining appropriate accommodations? • Am I required to provide accommodations to students who request it? • Student has asked for accommodations. How do I know the student truly has a disability and needs accommodations? • Have a student in class who told me that s/he has a disability, but since that time has never requested any accommodations. Am I still responsible for accommodations? • I have a student who is having difficulty in my class. I think this student may have a disability. What should I do to help the student? • Do I have any recourse if I disagree about requested accommodations? • Where do I refer a student with a disability?

6. American Disabilities Act (ADA) • No otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall, solely by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity. • On Jan. 1, 2009, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was significantly and purposefully amended to broaden the number of people who can claim to be disabled and seek ADA protection. (ADAAA)

7. ADA Continue • Ironically, the ADA's base definition of disability was untouched. An individual still must demonstrate he: a) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his major life activities; b) has a record of such an impairment; or c) is regarded as having an impairment. The ADAAA critically alters the way the three crucial terms highlighted above within that definition will be interpreted, and establishes new standards that must be considered.

8. ADA Continue • Mitigating measures don't matterCasting aside time-honored law, the ADAAA states that mitigating measures (other than ordinary eyeglasses and contact lenses) shall not be considered in determining whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity. Those measures include medications, medical supplies, prosthetics, hearing aids, and learned behavioral or adaptive modifications. Thus, if Jack has a mental impairment whose limitation essentially is neutralized or mitigated by medication, he still may be deemed to be substantially limited in a major life activity.

9. Section 504 • The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 amended section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in part by stating that the term "program or activity" means: "all the operations of" state or local government agencies and entities that receive funds from such as Post Secondary Education. • Section 104.42 of the ED rules prohibits postsecondary educational institutions from discriminating against qualified disabled people on the basis of disability in admissions and recruitment.

10. Section 504 Continue • Section 104.44(a) of the ED regulations requires postsecondary educational institutions to modify their academic requirements to ensure that they do not discriminate, or have the effect of discriminating, against a qualified disabled applicant or student. Academic requirements that the institution can demonstrate are essential to the program of instruction being pursued by such student or to any directly related licensing requirement will not be regarded as discriminatory, even if they have an adverse effect on people with disabilities. Modifications may include extending the length of time established for completing degree requirements, substituting specific courses and course work as a requisite for completing degree requirements, or adapting the way specific courses are conducted.

11. Section 504 Continue • If a student with a disability cannot fulfill an essential requirement of a program, the person is not "qualified" within the definition of this term Section 504 is not intended to dilute the quality of education offered and contains no dictum that essential program requirements be modified or waived. • It is important to remember that modifications should not be made based on generalizations regarding categories of disability, but should be made on a case-by-case basis.

12. Substantial Limitation • Impairment is substantial when the limitation for individual is greater than that experienced in the general population. • Example: Experience pain after walking a mile which prohibits individual from doing other activities (debilitating) • Example: Unable to lift 10 pounds without significant pain

13. Reasonable Accommodations • Must be effective – producing the intended or expected effect • 3 Exceptions • Undue Burden or Hardship • Fundamental Alteration • Pose a direct threat • The Accommodation must be linked to the fundamental limitations,

14. With or Without Reasonable Accommodation • Reasonable modifications to rules, policies or practices • Removal of architectural, communication or transportation barriers. • Provision of auxiliary aids and services. • Modification or adjustment to a job, the work environment, or the way things usually are done. • Making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. • Remember some things are a given!

15. Working Together • Universal design is an approach to designing course instruction, materials, and content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. Universal design provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. Universal Design allows the student to control the method of accessing information while the faculty monitors the learning process and initiates any beneficial methods.

16. Working Together • Although this design enables the student to be self-sufficient, the faculty is responsible for imparting knowledge and facilitating the learning process. It should be noted that Universal Design does not remove academic challenges; it removes barriers to access. Simply stated, Universal Design is just good teaching.