Facts on the ADA Accommodations and Disability

accommodation. Tutoring is considereda personal service and the law does notrequire a school to provide students withpersonal services. However, if a collegeprovides tutoring or services such as mathor writing labs for non-disabled students,students with disabilities must have thesame access to these services as nondisabledstudents.Who is eligible for anaccommodation?A student must meet two criteria to be eligiblefor an accommodation. First, the studentmust meet the essential orrequisite eligibility requirements of the program,service or activity in which he or shewishes to participate with orwithout an accommodation. This meansthat the student must meet the requisiteeligibility requirements in spite of his orher disability. Second, the student musthave a documented disability as definedby the Americans with Disabilities Act orthe Rehabilitation Act.What is a disability underthe ADA?Disability is defined as any physical ormental impairment that substantially limitsone or more major life activities such ascaring for oneself, performing manual tasks,walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing,learning, or working. “Substantiallylimited” generally means that a person isunable to perform a major life activity thatthe average person in the general populationcan perform. Mitigating or correctivemeasures such as medication, or correctivelenses may be considered when determiningwhether a person is substantially limited.<strong>Facts</strong> on ADA, Accommodationsand DisabilityThe ADA also prohibits discriminationagainst individuals who have a record orhistory of being substantially impaired andindividuals who are regarded as havingsuch impairments.At each college a designated staff decideswhether a student meets the definitionof disability under the ADA requires.Persons are not entitled to protection ofthe ADA simply because they have beendiagnosed with a disability. The disabilitymust substantially limit their ability toperform major life activities. Thus, thisdisability determination process is on a caseby-casebasis.A college cannot set-up predeterminedcategories of what types of disabilities willbe accommodated and what types will not.To help you understand the potential scopeof covered disabilities a non-exhaustive listof types of conditions that may be coveredby the ADA includes:• physical, sight, speech orhearing impairments,• epilepsy,• muscular dystrophy,• multiple sclerosis,• cancer, heart diseases,• diabetes,• chronic illnesses,• HIV or AIDS,• psychiatric disabilities,• specific learning disabilities,• mental retardation, and• recovered drug or alcoholaddiction.The college uses the IndividualAccommodations Model to determineappropriate and effective academicaccommodations. The model provides aresearch-based method for selectingaccommodations that are based on astudent’s needs, strengths, and goals.