Procedure for requesting a reasonable accommodation
An Alma College student or applicant for admission with a mental or physical disability must declare his or her disability to the Academic and Career Planing office in order to be eligible for special accommodation. [An applicant is not required to declare a disability prior to admission unless he or she is requesting special accommodation from the college prior to admission. For example, he or she may wish to receive an untimed, on-campus administration of the ACT prior to the admissions decision.] The declaration is considered complete when the Academic and Career Planning office has interviewed the student and received appropriate written documentation of the disability from a recognized professional.
A recognized professional is considered to be a learning disabilities specialist, educational specialist, physician, licensed psychologist or professional counselor who is qualified to perform psycho-educational or neuro-psychological evaluations. An evaluation conducted by a graduate student under the direct supervision of one of the previously mentioned professionals is considered acceptable.
Any evaluation upon which documentation is based is expected to include a battery of assessment instruments, as well as a thorough developmental history. Appropriate documentation for a learning disability includes, but is not limited to, the results and interpretation of IQ or aptitude testing, achievement testing and information-processing testing. Appropriate documentation for ADD/ADHD includes, but is not limited to, the results and interpretation of IQ testing, a comprehensive clinical interview, and at least two of the following: continuous performance testing, executive function testing, information processing testing and personality testing. Documentation for either a learning disability or attention deficit disorder must reflect an evaluation performed within five years of the student's declaration at Alma College. It must state clearly that the student has a specific disability; it must describe that disability; and it must describe the student in terms of both learning weaknesses and strengths. Ideally, the report should also include recommendations for appropriate accommodation at the post-secondary level.
Ensuring that the Academic and Career Planning office receives appropriate documentation is the responsibility of the student. Alma College does not provide comprehensive assessment and documentation services.
Disability information is confidential; however, appropriate information may be released to Alma College faculty and staff on a need to know basis.
Based on documentation provided, it is the responsibility of the directorof Academic and Career Planning to: a) determine and certify eligibility for special accommodation and b) recommend reasonable types of accommodation.
Recommendations for accommodations fall into three general categories: teaching and learning, demonstrating knowledge and meeting academic requirements. The following list, while not exhaustive, is indicative of the most commonly accepted practices:
Standard teaching and learning accommodations include using multi-sensory teaching techniques, granting permission to use tape recorders or note-takers in class, allowing short breaks in lengthy laboratory or studio classes, making available low-distraction study rooms.
Demonstrating knowledge may be facilitated by allowing extended time for tests, altering the format of tests, permitting students to take tests in a low-distraction environment, allowing an oral reader for tests, allowing the use of a computerized spell checker for essay tests or waiving penalties for misspelling on tests, permitting the use of four-function calculators during tests, devising special examination schedules so that no more than one exam or major project is due per day.
Generally accepted accommodations with regard to academic policies include permitting extra time to complete degrees, allowing reduced course loads and making course substitutions. Course substitutions are only rarely allowed at Alma College. In order for a student to receive consideration for a course substitution, he or she must a) file a petition with the appropriate faculty committee and b) give the Academic and Career Planning office written permission to release information relevant to the petition. The director of Academic and Career Planning office attends all pertinent committee discussions and may ask a student to take an additional standardized test which is directly related to his or her request (for instance, the Modern Language Aptitude Test).
Once eligibility for special accommodation has been verified by the Academic and Career Planning office, students are given forms that they may present to any or all of their professors, as well as their academic advisors or other relevant professional staff. These forms indicate that the bearer has been identified as a student entitled to special consideration and accommodation under Section 504 and the ADA. Recommendations for accommodation—specifically those adjustments that are considered most functionally related to the individual's disabilities are included on each form. Students are encouraged to present these forms to all their professors at the beginning of each term, and then discuss in detail the nature of their disabilities. The more informed faculty members are, the more supportive they can be. Students, however are required to present a form only if they wish to receive accommodation. In general, students cannot be required to reveal information about their disabilities and any information that is provided to a professor or other professional staff member is considered confidential. Faculty members acknowledge receipt of eligibility forms by signing and dating them, then giving a copy to both the student and the Academic and Career Planning office. In this way, there is a record of who has been provided with information and on what date.
I. In the unlikely event that mutually satisfactory arrangements cannot be agreed upon by a student and a professor, even with the help of the Academic and Career Planning office, an appeal may be filed with the vice president for student life. At that time, a review panel consisting of the vice president for student life and/or the vice president of academic affairs and the head of the academic department involved in the academic dispute will be convened. (If the professor involved in the academic dispute is the head of the department, another faculty member will be appointed to the panel by the vice president of academic affairs.) The student must give the Academic and Career Planning office permission to release to the panel all information which is relevant to the dispute. The panel's findings and recommendations will be disseminated to the student, the professor in question, and the College's ADA Compliance Officer. If necessary, the panel's findings may be appealed, as a matter of final recourse, to the ADA Compliance Officer.
[It should be noted that current legislation mandates academic accommodation at post-secondary institutions, but it does not provide comprehensive guidelines regarding the type or extent of required accommodation. American colleges and universities, in concert with the Office of Civil Rights, have been expected to develop reasonable ways of meeting the needs of students with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder. Many of the previously mentioned practices may now be considered mandatory by the courts. Whether or not accommodations are considered mandatory depends most heavily on 1) the specific deficits identified during a student's diagnostic evaluation, 2) the recommendations made by diagnosticians and on-campus specialists and 3) the stated objectives/requirements of any given course of study.]
