ADA/504 Summary of Legal Requirements for Higher Ed
Discrimination is prohibited against qualified persons with disabilities in the areas
of recruitment, admission and treatment after admission.
All programs, services and activities must be available to students with disabilities
in the most integrated setting possible. This requirement includes academic programs,
field trips, practicums, internships, research, campus employment, graduate assistantships
and all student services and student life activities.
No student may be excluded from any course or any course of study solely on the basis
of disability.
When necessary, reasonable modification of course or degree requirements must be made
for students with disabilities unless the requirements can be demonstrated as essential
to the program or unless modification would fundamentally alter the nature of the
program.
Prohibitive rules may not be imposed on qualified students with disabilities, such
as banning audio recorders, service animals or other necessary equipment or aids in
the classroom.
The institution must provide appropriate auxiliary aids to qualified students with
disabilities when necessary for full educational access. Auxiliary aids include interpreters,
notetakers, readers, books in alternate format, adaptive equipment, captioned films/videos,
etc.
Teaching techniques, as well as special equipment and devices used in the classroom,
should be adapted in individual cases, when necessary, to ensure equal access.
Educational materials must be provided in an alternate format that is effective for
the student, when necessary, to ensure access to educational information.
Alternate testing and evaluation methods must be used, when necessary, to ensure the
student's achievement is being measured rather than his or her impaired sensory, manual
or speaking skill, except where such skills are the factors that the test purports
to measure.
Classes must be relocated, when necessary, to permit access for students with mobility
impairments.
It is discriminatory to counsel students with disabilities toward more restrictive
career objectives than other students with similar interests and abilities.
Communications with persons with disabilities must be as effective as communications
with others and sometimes must be accomplished by the use of auxiliary aids such as
interpreters, captioning, telephone relay service for the deaf, the use of a computer,
or alternate format materials such as large print, audio recording, e-text or Braille
for persons with visual impairments.
A student with a disability cannot be required to accept an accommodation, aid, service,
opportunity or benefit.
It is unlawful to retaliate, coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with any individual
who exercises his/her rights under ADA, or who aids or assists others in doing so.
Disability information is confidential and should not be disclosed without individual
consent.