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. Pursuant to SB25-087, 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 Appeals
The Office of Disability, Access, and Inclusion (ODAI) functions as the central point for providing reasonable accommodations in the educational environment for CU Anschutz students with disabilities. Under the direction of the ODAI Director, the office has responsibility for reviewing requests for accommodations from students and ensuring equitable access to the educational environment for students with disabilities.
An accommodation request that ODAI determines to be unreasonable will be denied. Before an ODAI access coordinator/specialist issues an accommodation denial, the decision is automatically reviewed by the ODAI Assistant Director. In the event of a denial, ODAI access coordinators/specialists will offer an alternative accommodation wherever possible. If a student is denied accommodation or receives an accommodation that they consider ineffective, the student may file an appeal of the decision to the ODAI Director within ten business days of the decision. The scope of an appeal is limited to determining whether an accommodation decision was reasonable under the circumstances based on the three criteria set forth in the below section titled “First Appeal Process.” If the student disagrees with the ODAI Director’s appeal decision, they may file a second appeal to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs within ten business days of the ODAI Director’s appeal decision letter (“Appeal Decision Letter”). The scope of the second appeal is limited to determining whether the accommodation was reasonable under the circumstances based on the two criteria set forth in the below section titled “Second Appeal Process.” The Associate Vice Chancellor’s second appeal decision is final and not subject to additional review.
First Appeal Process
A student who wishes to appeal an accommodation decision must submit an Appeal Form to the ODAI Director. The student’s statement should indicate the specific basis for the appeal (see below) and supporting arguments. The bases available for an appeal are:
- any procedural errors by the access coordinator/specialist that materially impacted the interactive process and/or the accommodation decision;
- any information made available during the interactive process that was not adequately considered by the access coordinator/specialist; or
- any factual or analytical errors in the Accommodation Denial Letter which materially impacted the denial of accommodation(s).
Students are afforded the opportunity to provide names of individuals that have relevant information (i.e., witnesses) and supporting documentation. The student should be aware that an appeal is limited to consideration of the information that was made available to the access coordinator/specialist during the prior interactive process. If new information becomes available after the accommodation decision, the student must re-engage in the interactive process with their access coordinator/specialist by submitting an updated request for accommodations.
Notice of Appeal Decision
The ODAI Director will provide an Appeal Decision Letter to the student within twenty business days following submission of the Appeal Form and all supporting documentation. This twenty-day time limit may be extended at the discretion of the ODAI Director, upon written notice to the student.
In making the decision, the ODAI Director will consider materials obtained during the interactive process, the Accommodation Denial Letter, and the student’s Appeal Form. The decision of the ODAI Director may result in:
- upholding the accommodation decision in its entirety;
- sending information back for reconsideration (by the same or different access coordinator/specialist) and reengagement in the interactive process; or
- reversing or amending the accommodation decision in whole or in part.
Second Appeal Process
If a student believes that an appeal decision is unreasonable or that ODAI did not follow its procedures and policies in making the decision, they may file a second appeal with the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs by submitting a Second Appeal Form within ten business days of the Appeal Decision Letter’s issuance. The student’s submission should indicate the specific basis for the appeal and supporting arguments. The bases available for a second appeal are:
- any procedural errors by the access coordinator/specialist or ODAI Director that materially impacted the interactive process, accommodation decision, or appeal decision; or
- any factual or analytical errors in the Accommodation Denial Letter or Appeal Decision Letter that materially impacted the accommodation decision or appeal decision.
The student should be aware that the second appellate review involves consideration of the information that was made available to the ODAI Director during the appeal process and the Appeal Decision Letter. If new information becomes available after the appeal decision, the student must re-engage in the interactive process with their access coordinator/specialist by submitting an updated request for accommodations.
Notice of Second Appeal Decision
The Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs will provide a Final Appeal Decision Letter to the student within twenty business days following submission of the second appeal. This 20-day time limit may be extended at the discretion of the Associate Vice Chancellor, upon written notice to the student.
In making the decision, the Associate Vice Chancellor will consider materials obtained during the interactive process and the appeal process, the Appeal Decision Letter, and the student’s Second Appeal Form. The decision of the Associate Vice Chancellor may result in:
- upholding the accommodation decision in its entirety; or
- reversing or amending the accommodation decision in part or in whole.
The decision of the Associate Vice Chancellor is final and not subject to further review.
Additional Reporting Options
A student’s decision to file an appeal does not prevent that student from also filing a complaint of disability discrimination with CU Anschutz’s Office of Equity. Students may also report disability discrimination to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
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).