Accommodations

Our accommodations are intended to provide reasonable educational opportunity through programmatic access to the Boulder campus community.

Procedures for determining accommodations and individual rights and responsibilities are framed according to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Disability Services takes the responsibility of determining accommodations very seriously. Consequently, accommodation(s) approved by DS are supported by documentation on file.

The accommodations CU-Boulder provides may be different from those the student has received previously. In addition, certain accommodations may not be approved or may not be appropriate at the post-secondary level, even if they were recommended by an evaluator or received in the past.

There are no fees for accommodations.

Accommodations may include:

• Exam accommodations
  –Extended time
  –Distraction-reduced testing environment
  –Use of word processor and/or spell check
  –Readers
  –Scribes
• Communication accommodations
  –Captioning
  –Interpreters
  –Assistive listening devices
  –Notetakers
• Other adaptive accommodations/auxiliary aids
  –Alternative text formats (e.g., audio, books on CD,
  Braille)
  –Speech to text/Text to speech (e.g., Dragon, WYNN)
  –Adaptive computer access (e.g., JAWS, Zoomtext)

Rights and Responsibilities Related to Academic Accommodations

Eligible students, faculty, and Disability Services staff all have rights and
responsibilities related to reasonable accommodations in a post-secondary setting. The process requires collaboration among these three groups.

The student has the responsibility to:

• provide documentation to Disability Services that supports a need for accommodations. (See Documentation Requirements)
• make a request to the professor in a timely manner (DS interprets this to be at least a week before the exam).
• speak with the professor about how and where the accommodations are provided for extended time and distraction reduced environment. Faculty may provide the rare accommodation of separate room or have the student make arrangements through DS.
• make the necessary arrangements to have the exam proctored in DS for other exam accommodations at least five business days before the exam. A proctor form delineating the exam arrangements must be signed by the professor and turned in to DS.

Faculty has the responsibility to:

• seriously consider including a statement on course syllabi that informs students about the process for requesting and receiving reasonable accommodations based on disability. (See Preferred Syllabus Statement)
• provide accommodations as delineated in a letter from Disability Services.
• provide the exam accommodations of extended time and/or distraction reduced environment. Faculty may provide the rare accommodation of separate room or have the student make arrangements through DS. All other exam accommodations are provided in the DS office in Willard.
• deny accommodations to students who cannot provide evidence of a disability that warrants such. If documentation and/or accommodation requests are submitted directly to faculty without a letter from DS, faculty is encouraged to refer the student to DS.
• Acknowledgment and requests for reasonable accommodations can be difficult for some students; therefore, sensitivity and understanding are recommended.

Disability Services has the responsibility to:

• determine reasonable accommodations as supported by the submitted documentation and in collaboration with the student.
• deny accommodations that are not supported by the documentation. If evidence of a significant impact is not present, accommodations may not be warranted.
• ensure that students receive the appropriate reasonable accommodations.
• support faculty members around providing accommodations as needed
• provide specific reasonable accommodations such as a reader, a scribe, use of a word processor, or a sign language interpreter.
• provide alternate format to students whose documentation supports a need for it.