Disability on College Campuses

In this edition of Ask About the ADA, Joe Zesski discusses disability laws, acquiring accommodations, and tips for acquiring said accommodations for students on college campuses. For a transcript of today's episode, please visit the Ask About the ADA podcast feed on BuzzSprout.

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Disability on Campus Episode 6

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JOE ZESSKI: Hello. Welcome to Ask About the ADA, the podcast where we answer your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to your everyday life. I'm Joe Zesski, the program manager at the Northeast ADA. And thank you for joining us today. 

This is part 2 of a short series of podcasts based on a webinar that was delivered May 31, 2023. The webinar was the transition from K-12 to the post-secondary environment. It focused on students with disabilities and the changing rights and responsibilities that those students have as they move from high school to the college world. 

Today's section of the webinar begins with a short review of the laws that apply in the college environment, and then moves into a conversation about accommodations. When can accommodations be requested, and how should they be requested? It will also talk about some tips to keep in mind to help make asking for reasonable accommodations successful. With that being said, let's listen to this section of the webinar. 

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So we talked about the laws and when they may apply. What part of the process do they apply in? And it's really from beginning to end. Everything in the educational process can be covered or addressed in some way under these nondiscrimination laws. 

So it's not just, when someone arrives on campus they have to go get accommodations in order to do their academic work. Actually, the laws protect people before they arrive. So it applies to websites. 

It applies to the application process, whether online, or I suppose some places still may have paper applications. It includes enrollment process, connecting with financial aid and financial aid services, someone applies or is enrolled in a school. Then, of course, it does address when people do arrive on campus. 

So when a student comes, of course, the most common thing to think about is, well, I need academic accommodations in order to do my work. Yes, that is, of course, going to be covered. But it will focus-- will apply in other areas, as well, such as in student housing, if someone needs a housing related accommodation through the school. 

Perhaps someone is going to do an internship or a field placement. That is also going to be covered by the ADA. Transportation, if a school offers transportation throughout campus, it will need to be accessible to students with and without disabilities. And of course, all the aspects of being a part of the campus, right through the graduation ceremony and graduating, all those aspects are going to be covered by the ADA, as well as Section 504. 

So when someone does get to campus, what exactly does disability mean? Again, it depends on the situation. But in terms of civil rights under the ADA and Section 504, it has the same meaning because the Americans with Disabilities Act took its definition of disability from Section 504. 

The definition itself is more about how someone is able to function and interact with their environment. It's not necessarily a medical-related definition or medical-specific definition. It also can have very different meaning from definitions that may be more based on society and society's interaction with individuals. So for the purposes of the ADA and Section 504, a disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. 

Because this is addressed in other areas and other webinars, and you can certainly find a lot from our website at northeastada.org or the ADA National Network at ADA TA, as in technical assistance, dot org. But be aware that someone could have conditions ranging from learning disabilities to food allergies, severe food allergies, to mental health, to physical-related disabilities. There's a wide range of conditions that are going to be covered under the definition of disability, whether someone has a condition now, a physical or mental impairment, that's currently limiting a major life activity or a record of one. 

For example, if someone has diabetes that is well-controlled, it's not impacting their major life activities, but perhaps they may need to take medication in order to regulate their blood sugar. Someone may have a record of an impairment which would be covered, for example. So again, in the interest of time, I won't go further into it unless there are specific questions. 

And one of the important questions that a student who has a disability has to think about and decide for themselves, before and when they get to campus, is, should I disclose that I have a disability? Should I share that I have a disability? There are important things to know about that. 

First, the decision whether or not to disclose is up to the student. It's optional. There's no mandatory requirement that someone share that they have a disability. This is true in the post-secondary environment, in colleges and universities. It's also true when people go into the employment sector. 

It's up to the individual to decide whether or not they want to disclose. And there are, of course, pluses and minuses to it. And for students who often, not always, but often are young, are teenagers, or in their early 20s, the decision of whether or not to disclose can be difficult, depending on what their disability is, how they manage their disability. It's a very personal decision. Now, for some students the practical aspect for them probably may make it very clear whether they want to disclose or not. But not everyone's disability is so straightforward. 

So first, know that it is optional whether or not to disclose. Now, important to note, as I mentioned, this is part of that transition from high school to college, where students are moving from entitlement to rights and responsibilities. The student does not have to disclose. But then they don't have rights, necessarily, under the ADA unless they share that they do have a disability, particularly if they have a disability that is not apparent, that may be non-obvious. 

That is something to keep in mind as well. So if someone chooses not to disclose that they have a disability, but let's say because of a learning disability they may have, they find a mathematics course very difficult because of their disability, and they do poorly. They can't, at the end of the semester, say or reveal that they-- or share that they have a disability, and expect that, retroactively, their poor performance will be improved or fixed. 

From that point forward, they may have right to a reasonable accommodation. But whatever happened before when they did not choose to disclose will stand as it is. So be aware, there are pluses and minuses to disclosing a disability. 

Also, it's important to know where to go. So as a student goes onto campus, it's important for them, if they have a disability, to know where to find-- it may be called the Office for Students with Disabilities. There are other names. But essentially, the function is of this office is to ensure that students who do have disabilities receive accommodations that they need for success in their college and university careers. 

It's important to know the right place to go because disclosing to a professor or to a faculty member is likely not going to be the right path to go because professors, faculty members are not going to be experts in disability and what disability-related needs are, or what laws are, or what students' rights. There are, of course, some very good professors who will try to work with the student. But for all concerned, it's best that a student with a disability go through the appropriate channels, which would be the Office for Students with Disabilities. 

So we have this decision. That's important. Let's say a student decides to disclose that they have a disability. We'll go to our next slide and look at what should happen next or what are things to be aware of after a student decides that they want to disclose. 

Well, first, know that, as I said, every college or university will probably have its own process. But the place to find out what that process is will be an office for students with disabilities. That office will be able to begin getting the student with a disability set up so that accommodations could be considered, the student can be evaluated, what their needs are, and what types of accommodations are going to be appropriate. 

That information about where to find this office should be readily available through the website of a college or university. The information should not be difficult to find. That is the intent of the law. So hopefully, process or that office will be easy to locate. 

But reach out to that office because, as a student goes to the office, they are probably going to have to provide information, which we will discuss. When a student goes to the Office for Students with Disabilities, as I said, this is a rights and responsibilities model, and here, a student may need to prove that they have a disability. There are times where someone's disability may be obvious. 

Perhaps someone uses a white cane because they are blind. Or perhaps someone uses a wheelchair because they have some sort of physical-related disability. It's more obvious, and so proof of disability probably will be relatively simple. 

However, let's say someone has a non-obvious or a hidden disability, as it sometimes is called. For example, let's say someone has dyslexia. Or perhaps someone has a learning disability, like I mentioned earlier. Or perhaps they have some other type of disability that, again, is not going to be obvious. 

There can be paperwork involved. And this is where it can be helpful for students to know themselves and where they can go to get information. There are times when a simple diagnosis from a medical provider or a professional may not be enough. And in those cases, an office for students with disabilities, in order to verify that someone has a disability, might look for different types of documentation that someone has a disability, perhaps a formal assessment, which particularly can be difficult in terms of learning disabilities. 

When someone is transitioning in high school and knows that they're going to college, it's probably good to get any formal assessments that you can as a person with disability done while you're in the high school setting, and there's financial tools to help support covering the cost of the assessments. Once someone is out of the high school environment, the cost of testing often will fall upon the person, the individual. And of course, some of the assessments that are out there for different types of disabilities are very expensive. And so any that can be done near to graduation, where the high school may be able to cover the expense, would be wise. 

Other things that an office for students with disabilities might look for or might request is other medical data or information, some observations. Having past Section 504 plans from high school may be helpful, or past IEPs. A college or university is not required to follow Section 504 plans from high school or IEPs. 

However, they can be good guideposts. They can be good indicators of what has previously been helpful or successful for a student with a disability. So again, there's no requirement that colleges and universities follow these plans created during high school, but they can be valuable tools in helping to figure out what might be appropriate. So there are all types of information that an office for a student with disabilities might require to prove someone's disability. 

So hopefully, this process goes smoothly. Sometimes it's a little bumpy, but hopefully not. And we can move beyond talking about whether someone has a disability and move towards what actually will help the person. 

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And that's it for today's episode. Thank you for listening. And join us next episode when we will conclude the webinar, and we'll be discussing more about accommodations, what are appropriate accommodations, and what happens when the student and the institution disagree about that. Meanwhile, always feel free to visit us at northeastada.org. 

If you have questions, you can also call us at 1-800-949-4232. And thank you, as always, to our student producer, Will Warren, as well as to Peter Quinn of the Yang-Tan Institute's media team for helping to polish up these episodes. And thank you all for listening, and we hope you'll continue to be a part of the conversation.