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LRC BULLETIN

The LearningResourceCenter is a nationally recognized academic support program for students with documented learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders.
January 21, 2007 / volume 1, Number 1

Inside This Issue
Message from the LRC Director
Faculty Notification Letter
Note taking Request Form
Letters From the Office of Civil Rights
Accommodation Facts
Disability In Brief – Asperger’s Syndrome
Students have the responsibility of initiating requests for academic and testing adjustments. / A MESSAGE TO FACULTY AND STAFF
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the LRC Bulletin. The LearningResourceCenter at MitchellCollege has served for twenty five years as a resource both for students with learning challenges and to members of the larger MitchellCollege Community. We are launching this new communication to enhance further the partnership between the professional educators and the rest of the faculty and staff at MitchellCollege. We will be sharing information about policies and procedures that are essential to the accommodation process, news, and notes from the area of higher education and disability, and items from the everyday world that relate to the understanding of disability in society. We hope you enjoy this newsletter and find it useful to your contribution to furthering the mission of MitchellCollege. If you have any questions, comments, or recommendations please feel free to contact either me, or Sue Plante, the editor of this newsletter.
Sincerely,
Peter F. Love, MPH, PhD
DirectorLearningResourceCenter
MitchellCollege

FACULTY NOTIFICATION LETTER

Within the first two weeks of the semester, some instructors may be presented with a Faculty Notification Letter. This letter has been prepared by an LRC Specialist and a student with documented disabilities. The letter will indicate the accommodations and/or modifications that have been approved for use by the LRC. Accommodations and modifications are granted on a case by case basis as determined by the specific needs of each student. Please remember that this letter is an important step in the LRC Accommodation Procedure. Students are responsible by law to provide the college with documentation of a disability and request accommodations as far ahead of time as possible. This letter provides the opportunity for students to participate in an interactive process with faculty to discuss accommodations and any other academic concerns.

NOTETAKING REQUEST FORM

/ At the start of the semester students must meet with their specialists to request note taker assistance and determine accommodation eligibility. If the student is approved for this accommodation, the student will hand deliver a Request for Note Taking Accommodation Form to the faculty member of each class for which notes are being requested.
The student is required to discuss his need for provided notes with his instructors. The student and instructor will identify the method by which the student will obtain class notes, using the Request for Note Taking Accommodation Form.
Notes and supplemental information that are posted online is a method by which a note taking accommodation can be provided. Students have found this note taking accommodation extremely valuable and speak positively of it.
If the instructor chooses to identify a peer note taker in class, the faculty member will make an announcement in class indicating that there is a student requesting a note taker and that anyone interested should contact the LRC. The faculty member is required to maintain confidentiality regarding the student’s identity.
If there are any questions or concerns about arranging this accommodation, please contact the student’s Learning Specialist.

LETTERS FROM THE OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS

It is very important that colleges and universities have established policies and procedures that explain the modification and accommodation process. This letter from the Office of Civil Rights can be used to illustrate the fact that students are responsible for requesting accommodations.
CASE NAME: Letter to the University of Arizona, No. 08-02-2011(102LRP 38501) (OCR VIII< Denver (AZ) 2002).
Ruling: A student with a learning disability was responsible for requesting a specific accommodation but failed to do so, the OCR determined.
Meaning: Educational institutions and students with disabilities each have a responsibility to engage in an interactive process to determine reasonable accommodations.
Summary: A student followed the first step of a university’s policy for student services relating to the documentation of a disability and request for reasonable accommodations. However, he failed to complete the second step of the process, OCR determined.
The policy required students to first submit documentation establishing their disability. Once the university’s disability resource center determined the existence of a disability, the student was required to request accommodations.
The center and the student would then discuss the impact between the disability and the academic environment to determine possible reasonable accommodations.
Center officials determined he had a disability and informed him that he needed to initiate the discussion by requesting accommodations.
The student responded with general complaints about an instructor and demands for new grades and different courses, but he did not request specific accommodations.
This was insufficient to begin the interactive process and, as a result, did not allow the center to provide him with reasonable academic adjustments.
Under Section 504, universities must publicize the availability of academic adjustments and name the person designated to coordinate the adjustments.
Students who are disabled and may need academic adjustments must notify the university and assist it in identifying necessary adjustments. Both the student and the university officials have a responsibility to engage in an interactive process. Students who fail to initiate the process or to respond maybe acting in bad faith (34).
Filo, Edward, and Paula Willits. Identifying, Accommodation and Serving Students With LD and ADD in Higher Education. Horsham:LRP,2005.
For questions and comments about this newsletter please contact:
Peter Love
860-701-5071

or
Sue Plante
860-701-5145

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ACCOMMODATION FACTS:

  • Accommodations that will alter the essential nature of a program do not have to be provided.
  • The student bears the responsibility to inform the college of his disability and to request accommodations.
  • Changes to accommodations are acceptable if they are reasonable and appropriate.
  • You do not have to provide accommodations if a student does not follow established procedures.
  • A faculty member may not unilaterally decide an accommodation is not necessary.

DISABILITY IN BRIEF:ASPERGER’S SYNDROME

Recently in the news it was reported that Nikki Bacharach, the daughter of Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson, committed suicide by suffocation. A statement from her family read, “She quietly committed suicide to escape the ravages to her brain brought on by Asperger’s Syndrome.” Anyone reading the entire article without any understanding of the condition would get the wrong idea about what Aspergers really is. In reading the article one would be led to believe that Aspergers slowly destroys the capacity for the brain to function to the point where life is not worth living.
There are students on this campus who have been diagnosed with AS and they would be deeply offended by this account. While being diagnosed with Aspergers has its challenges, it is not a condition to escape from. People diagnosed with Aspergers can be creative, intelligent, and have the potential to be successful and productive members of society.
So what is Asperger’s Syndrome?
According to the website, Council of Exceptional Children, “Individuals with AS can exhibit a variety of characteristics and the disorder can range from mild to severe. Individuals with AS show marked deficiencies in social skills, have difficulties with transitions or changes and prefer sameness. They often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They often have a great deal of difficulty reading non verbal cues and very often have difficulty determining proper space.
By definition, those with AS have a normal IQ and many individuals exhibit exceptional skill or talent in a specific area. Because of their degree of functionality and their naiveté, those with AS are often viewed as eccentric or odd and can easily become the victims of teasing and bullying. While language development seems, on the surface, normal, individuals with AS often have deficits in pragmatics and prosody.”
For More Information
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