DISABILITY SERVICES

In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Standard College provides accommodations for individuals with a disability in order to assure equal access to the nursing educational programs. Standard College does not discriminate against applicants or students because of gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnic background, political affiliation, or disability. Accommodations are assigned to an individual with a disability to mitigate the impact of the functional limitations caused by the disability.

Students with disabilities are asked to provide documentation of their disability to the institution, such as a current psychoeducational evaluation or a report from a doctor. See Guidelines for Disability Documentation below. The type of documentation needed will depend on the disability and the accommodations being requested. before they receive disability-related accommodations or support. The nature and scope of the necessary documentation varies with the type of disability and the nature of the support/services requested. Standard College asks for documentation of disability in order to (a) establish that the student is a person with a disability, and therefore a member of the protected class, entitled to protection under the law, and (b) establish what, if any, actions (or accommodations) are required on the part of the institution in order to assure equal access for the person with a disability. The school takes a generous approach in offering protection under the law (that is, acknowledging that the student is a person with a disability), while also assuring that accommodations and services provided are access-oriented.

Students requesting modifications or accommodations due to a disability should submit the request in writing to the Deputy Executive Director-Academic. The request, along with required documentation, will be reviewed by the Deputy Executive Director- Academic and individuals knowledgeable of disabilities as appropriate. The student will receive written notification of the decision.

1. The credentials of the evaluator
   

   Documentation must be completed by a licensed or otherwise properly credentialed professional who has appropriate training and experience and has no close, personal relationship with the student being evaluated. A good match between the credentials of the individual making the diagnosis and the disability being reported is expected (e.g., an orthopedic limitation might be documented by a physician but not by a licensed psychologist).

2. A diagnostic statement identifying the disability
   

   Documentation must include a clear diagnostic statement identifying the disability and the date of the most current diagnostic evaluation as well as the date of the original diagnosis, as appropriate. While diagnostic codes from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM) or the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) of the World Health Organization are helpful in providing this information, a full clinical description also can convey the necessary information.

Documentation must include information on how the disability currently impacts the individual. A combination of the results of formal evaluation procedures, clinical narrative, and the individual’s self-report is the most comprehensive approach to fully documenting impact. Documentation should be thorough enough to demonstrate whether and how a major life activity is substantially limited by providing a clear sense of the severity, frequency, and pervasiveness of the disability.

While relatively recent documentation is recommended in most circumstances, common sense and discretion in accepting older documentation of disabilities that are permanent or non- varying are recommended. Likewise, changes in the disability and/or changes in how the disability impacts the individual as a result of growth and development may warrant more frequent updates to provide an accurate picture. Additionally, if changes in accommodations are needed, updated documentation may be required. In other words, the recency of the documentation depends on the facts and circumstances of the student’s disability and the accommodations requested.

Services to accommodate individuals with disabilities include receiving additional time to complete exams. Students will be provided with an extension of time and one half to complete a test. In addition, all lectures are recorded and stored in Populi. Students may listen to the lecture at any time and as often as they choose to. Additional accommodations that may be provided an individual with disabilities include the following services.

1. Use of tape recorders to record lectures
2. Time-and half for assignments, quizzes, and exams.
3. Private rooms to reduce distractions during tests and exams
4. Use of scratch blank paper during exams. The used/unused scratch paper must be submitted to the instructor at the end of the exam

Assistive Technology is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve an individual’s functioning and independence. The purpose of assistance technology is to help enhance learning by capitalizing on one’s strengths while modifying areas of difficulty. Different forms of educational assistive technology offered by the school include:

• Accessibility Features of Zoom
• Open Access Textbooks and Literature
• Text to Speech & Literacy Support Tools
• Writing Support Tools
• Executive Functioning: Time/Task Management Tools

Accessibility Features

Students, faculty and staff are having to learn new tools and technologies to manage with the transition to online learning. Below are a few tips regarding the accessibility features of a few of these technologies, to support the transition:

Accessibility features of Zoom

• Closed captioning
• Automatic transcripts
• Keyboard accessibility – hot keys and keyboard shortcuts

Open Access Textbooks and Literature

Emergency Library for students to have free access to textbooks. Offered through the Internet Archive

Internet Archive – Accounts are free and open to the world. Please visit their site to sign up or write to info@archive.org for assistance.

Text to Speech & Literacy Support Tools

Assistive Technology can provide support with reading, enhanced comprehension, and built in tools, such as dictionaries, built in highlighting and note-taking features, and visual tracking support, that can make you more efficient while reading. Students with learning disabilities, ADHD, mental health diagnoses, traumatic brain injuries, chronic health conditions, and visual impairments may benefit from these types of tools.

• Kurzweil Read the Web – Chrome Extension
• Microsoft Learning Tools – Within Office 365
• VoiceDream Reader
• Balabolka – Windows only
• VoiceOver – Mac Operating Systems – includes options to magnify, keyboard control and verbal descriptions (in English) to describe what is happening on screen. It also reads aloud file content as well as web pages, E-mail messages, and word processing files while providing a relatively accurate narrative of the user’s workspace.

Assistive technology may provide new ideas, methods, and support to your traditional writing habits.

Requests for an accommodation should be sent by email to the Deputy Executive Director. The Deputy Executive Director, Heather Ettus, may be reached by email at hettus@standardcollege.edu.