Disabilities, Students with

Villanova University strives to provide an environment for personal and intellectual growth of all its students, and also complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In order to meet these commitments, Villanova offers educational opportunities and appropriate academic accommodations for the needs of qualified students with disabilities. The standards for academic credit should not be modified for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities have fulfilled the same entrance requirements, have the same range of backgrounds and experiences as other students at Villanova, and should be fully capable of meeting Villanova's standards. The University's goal is to help them achieve those expectations.

Physical Disabilities

Services for students with physical disabilities are provided by the Office of Disability Services.

Other Disabilities (including learning disabilities)

Services for students with disabilities that impact on learning are provided by various offices and coordinated by Learning Support Services (LSS). Many students with these disabilities do not ask for accommodations at all. Other disabled students choose to self-identify and ask for appropriate accommodations. If students do want accommodations, they must complete a registration process with LSS. This process involves providing current documentation and meeting with the LSS Coordinator to discuss appropriate accommodations. Guidelines for acceptable documentation are available on the Learning Support Services website. LSS also publishes a Faculty Handbook.

The Learning Support Services office will provide a letter to the professor identifying the student as having a disability and describing the necessary accommodations. LSS usually asks students to meet with their professors at the beginning of each semester to discuss all accommodations. Students who have not registered with LSS will sometimes approach professors to ask for accommodations. These students should be referred to LSS, so that appropriate accommodations can be worked out in conjunction with LSS. Professors should not make special accommodations for disabled students who have not registered with LSS.

All faculty members should announce on the first day of class the desire to speak confidentially with any student with special needs as soon as possible, and course syllabi should include a statement about students with disabilities. A sample statement might read:

It is the policy of Villanova to make reasonable academic accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are a person with a disability please contact me after class or during office hours and make arrangements to register with the Learning Support Office by contacting 610-519-5636 or at nancy.mott@villanova.edu as soon as possible. Registration is needed in order to receive accommodations.

Basic Guidelines for Students with Disabilities

• Support from faculty is critical to ensuring that students with disabilities receive accommodations necessary to reach their potential. It is important to remember that accommodations are not advantages, but are a means of providing each student with full access to Villanova's programs.
• Standards for academic credit should not be modified for students with disabilities. They may need accommodations in testing, but the content should not be changed.
• It is not necessary to rewrite a course to accommodate students with disabilities; simply modifying the presentation of materials may make it fully accessible.
• If one student with a particular type of disability had difficulty with a specific task, do not assume that the next student with the same type of disability will experience similar problems.
• Some textbooks are also available in other formats -- such as computer disks, large print versions, e-books, or videos with closed captioning -- that may be more accessible for students with disabilities. If you are using a textbook that is available in these formats, please inform both LSS and disabled students who may benefit from them.
• Students with disabilities are frequently sensitive about their disabilities, so faculty members should make every effort to treat these issues sensitively and confidentially.