Student Support Services for Students with Disabilities

June 27, 2011

Philosophy

The Student Support Services Program at Colby Community College is committed to providing equal opportunities for higher education to academically qualified disabled students who have a reasonable expectation of college success.

A reasonable accommodation is a modification or adjustment to a course, program, service, job, activity, or facility that enables a qualified student with a disability to have an equal opportunity.

A qualified disabled person is defined with respect to postsecondary and vocational education services, as a disabled person who meets the academic and technical standards requisite to admission or participation in the recipient’s education program or activity.

It is the philosophy of the Student Support Services program that disabled individuals, as they become college students, are to be integrated as completely as possible into the college community.  It is not the program’s purpose to offer a specialized curriculum, nor assume the role of the local rehabilitation office.  Therefore, it is important that disabled students who attend CCC have training and preparation in self care and mobility and assume the responsibility of increasing those capabilities.

Rights and Responsibilities of Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities at CCC have the right to:

• Equal access to courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities offered through CCC.
• An equal opportunity to work and to learn, and to receive reasonable accommodations.
• Appropriate confidentiality of all information regarding their disability and to choose to whom, outside of CCC, information about their disability will be disclosed, except as disclosures are required or permitted by law.
• Information, reasonable available in accessible formats.

Students with disabilities at CCC have the responsibility to:

• Meet qualification and maintain essential institutional standards for courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities.
• Identify as an individual with a disability when an accommodation is needed ant seek information, counsel, and assistance as necessary.
• Demonstrate and/or document (from an appropriate professional) how the disability limits their participation in courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities.
• Follow published procedures for obtaining reasonable accommodations.

Services Available through Student Support Services

General

• Arranging specialized individual and group orientation.
• Assisting faculty and staff to work effectively with disabled students.
• Advising on classroom accommodations
• Counseling (personal, career and academic)
• Tutoring
• Supplemental Instruction
• Term paper typing assistance
• Individualized needs

Services to Visually Impaired Students:

• Orientation and mobility assistance
• Test administration/proctoring Referral of readers
• Assistance with text books in audio format

Services to Hearing Impaired Students:

• Recruitment and referral of tutor/note takers
• Counseling and guidance for academic social and personal needs
• Assistance in referrals to community resources
• Interpreters (when resources allow)

Services to Learning Disabled Students:

• Test proctoring for additional time
• Reading and writing assistance with classroom exams(with instructor permission)
• Assistance with textbooks in audio format

Rights and Responsibilities of CCC

Colby Community College has the right to:

• Identify and establish essential function, abilities, skills, knowledge, and standards for courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities and to evaluate faculty, staff, and students on this basis.
• Request and receive current documentation that supports requests for accommodation, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services.
• Deny a request for accommodations if the documentation demonstrates that the request is not warranted, or if the individual fails to provide appropriate documentation.
• Select among equally effective accommodation.
• Refuse an unreasonable accommodation that imposes a fundamental alteration on a program or activity of CCC.

Colby Community College has the responsibility to:

• Provide information to faculty, staff, students, and guests with disabilities in access formats upon request.
• Ensure that courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities, when viewed in their entirety, are available and usable in most integrated and appropriate settings.
• Evaluate faculty, staff, students, and applicants on their abilities and not their disabilities.
• Provide or arrange reasonable accommodation for faculty, staff, students, and guests with disabilities in courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities.
• To maintain appropriate confidentiality of records and communication, except where permitted by law.

Contact Us

Lisa Stithem
785-460-5514
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