Student Rights & Responsibilities
Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, students with disabilities have rights and responsibilities associated with nondiscrimination and access within the higher education environment. Those rights and responsibilities include:
Rights
- To an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from courses, programs, services, or activities offered through the college;
- To an equal opportunity to work, to learn, and to receive reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services;
- To appropriate confidentiality of disability-related information except as disclosures are required/permitted by law;
- To information, reasonably available, in accessible formats;
- To file an informal or formal complaint or grievance if a violation of rights is suspected.
Responsibilities
- To meet qualifications and maintain essential institutional standards for courses, programs, services, or activities;
- To self-identify as an individual with a disability and request accommodation(s) in a timely manner
- To demonstrate and/or document (from a licensed professional) how the disability limits participation in courses, programs, services, or activities;
- To follow operational procedures for obtaining information, services, and reasonable accommodations;
- To contact an Office of Disability, Access, & Inclusion staff member if reasonable accommodations are not implemented in a timely manner.
Rights
- To request and receive documentation that supports current requests for reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary services;
- To evaluate and/or identify functional limitations of the student’s disability to determine appropriate academic adjustments and accommodations needed for courses, programs, services, and university activities;
- To deny a request for reasonable accommodation, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary services if the documentation demonstrates that they are not warranted or if the individual fails to provide appropriate documentation;
- To select among equally effective, reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services;
- To deny a request for an unreasonable accommodation, adjustment, and/or auxiliary service or one that imposes an undue hardship or fundamental alteration of a program or activity of the university
Responsibilities
- To ensure that qualified students receive accommodation and/or academic adjustments for courses, programs, activities, and services in the most integrated and appropriate settings;
- To provide information, upon request, to students with disabilities in accessible formats;
- To evaluate each request for an accommodation on an individual basis
- To maintain appropriate confidentiality of records and communication except where disclosures are permitted/required by law.
Documentation Guidelines
As part of the interactive process, ODAI reviews documentation of a student’s disability. That documentation may include a letter from a provider or public agency, evaluation report, or other types of summary information. Students should share their documentation only with ODAI, and students should not share their documentation with faculty or other personnel from their program.
Providers supplying documentation must:
- Include their name, title, professional credentials, licensure/certification information, and location of practice
- Have professional training in, and experience with, diagnosing or treating the condition(s) requiring accommodation(s)
- Not be a family member of the student requesting accommodations
Documentation provided:
- Should be a PDF or Word document on provider’s company/practice letterhead
- Must identify specific disabilities or diagnoses (include DSM/ICD code if applicable) and the related functional limitations
- Must describe severity, prognosis, or, if cyclical in nature, the frequency and duration of active symptoms
- Should include side effects of any medications and/or treatment plans (if applicable)
- Should provide recommended accommodations and a rationale for each
Psycho-educational evaluation reports are an acceptable form of documentation to establish learning disabilities (i.e. Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, etc.). Such evaluations should include:
- Full medical/developmental/academic/familial history, including any evidence of early impairment
- Results of a battery of psychoeducational assessments designed to identify learning disabilities, including some or all of the following:
- Diagnostic interview
- Cognitive ability/intellectual functioning
- Academic achievement
- Information processing
- Oral language (receptive and expressive)
- Other instruments used in differential diagnosis
- Differential diagnoses if applicable:
- Other factors (motivation, emotion, attention, fluency in English, etc.)
- Evidence of coexisting disorders or suspected coexisting disorders
- Interpretation of results:
- A specific diagnosis, unless not indicated
- Clear statement of the student’s functional limitations.
- Recommended accommodations linked to the functional limitations
Please Note: When applying for accommodations on board exams psycho-educational evaluations are typically required and should have been conducted within the last three years. For a list of community resources for psych-educational tests, students can check out our list of testing options.
Accommodation Appeal Process
The Director of ODAI (or their designee) automatically reconsiders all accommodation request denials. These decisions are documented in the student’s file and made available to the student. However, students are entitled to appeal ODAI's decisions regarding their disability eligibility and any denial of accommodation beyond the Director’s review in accordance with the below process.If you believe that ODAI has denied you a reasonable accommodation, you may appeal ODAI’s decision to the Office of Equity as possible disability discrimination. There are multiple ways to report your appeal to the Office of Equity. You may use their online reporting form. You may also call the Office of Equity at (303) 315-2567. You may send an email to equity@ucdenver.edu. Once you file your appeal with the Office of Equity, they will follow their office procedures in determining how to handle your report.
ODAI Grievance Procedure
Throughout the ODAI process, students can expect to be treated with respect, receive timely responses, and have their concerns addressed privately to the greatest degree possible. In the event that you feel you have been mistreated by ODAI staff, you may file a grievance with the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (AVC).