Accommodations

Determining Reasonable and Appropriate Accommodations

Accommodation Practices and Policies

USD provides students with disabilities with accommodations or with modifications to policies and practices in order to ensure that students have an equal opportunity to participate in all USD programs, services, and activities.  The purpose of accommodations is not to guarantee success but to provide access and equal opportunity.  The following policies and practices apply to all accommodations provided to students with disabilities at USD:

Determining Accommodations

Initially, the Director will determine the accommodations to be provided to each student.  The Director shall base this determination upon all of the following:

• the documentation provided by the student;
• the intake with the student;
• consultation with other USD Disability Services staff who have reviewed the documentation
• USD's academic policies and/or those of the student's college or school;
• the policies and practices set forth in this document;
• consultation with course faculty regarding the essential course elements and the manner in which student mastery of course material is to be evaluated.

Accommodations are subject to adjustment

The initial accommodation determination of the Director may be modified for any number of reasons.  Some common reasons for changing the initial accommodation determination are:

• the faculty member teaching the course determines that providing the accommodation would fundamentally alter an essential element of the course;
• the student tries the accommodation, and it is not effective;
• the student requests a different accommodation, provided it is reasonable and appropriate;
• the student does not accept the initial accommodation determination of the Director and successfully grieves the issues to the Vice-President and Provost;
• the Director substitutes an equally effective accommodation for reasons of administrative efficiency.

Accommodations are provided on a case-by-case basis

Accommodations for each student will be determined on an individual basis considering all the factors mentioned above.  Students with similar disabilities may not necessarily receive the same accommodations.  There is no list of approved accommodations for any specific disability.

Accommodations will not be provided reatroactively

A student who completes the intake process with the Director is entitled to services and accommodations only from that date forward.  USD will generally not expunge or reexamine course work completed before documentation of a disability, even if the student can establish that they had a disability at the time of the course in question.

All accommodation requests are not granted

USD will only provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations based upon a review of the factors described in paragraph #1 above.  This means that students may not necessarily be provided with all the accommodations recommended in their documentation.  Some common reasons that USD will not provide a requested accommodation:

• providing the accommodation would fundamentally alter the program, course, or activity;
• the accommodation being requested is not supported by the documentation;
• it is against the policies and practices set forth in this document to provide the requested accommodations (e.g., unlimited time on tests);
• providing the accommodation would pose a direct threat to the student or to others;
• providing the accommodation would constitute an undue administrative or financial burden pursuant to criteria established under the ADA and/or Section 504.

Interim accommodations based on partial documentation

In rare circumstances, a student who has not provided all documentation required under the Documentation Guidelines may be granted accommodations on an interim basis.  To be eligible for interim accommodations, a student must have at least provided reliable documentation that gives a clear diagnosis of a physical or mental impairment.  Accommodations which are typically appropriate for the student's impairment will be offered on an interim basis.  Interim accommodations will normally be provided for eight (8) weeks.  Under no circumstances will interim accommodations be continued for more than one (1) semester.  The purporse is to allow students who do not have pre-existing documentation conforming to the Documentation Guidelines the opportunity to obtain supplemental documentation.  If it is the informed judgment of the Director that the student will be unable to later substantiate the requested accommodation, the accommodation will not be provided.