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 reasonable 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 provide
access and reasonable accommodations in helping the students achieve
those expectations.
Physical Disabilities.
Services for students with physical disabilities are coordinated
through the Office of Disability Services. Additional information is
available at 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 LSS webpage at
http://www.villanova.edu/vpaa/learningsupport/ Upon written request
from the student, LSS will provide a letter detailing the appropriate
accommodations. The student is responsible to deliver these letters to
their professors. LSS 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.
Instructors should not make special accommodations for 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
610-519-5176 or at nancy.mott@villanova.edu
as soon as possible. Registration is needed in order to receive
accommodations.
The following are some basic guidelines for students with disabilities.
Please refer to the faculty pages on the LSS webpage
http://www.villanova.edu/vpaa/learningsupport/faculty/ or by calling
610-519-5636.
- 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.
Please visit the webpage
http://www.villanova.edu/vpaa/learningsupport/ or contact the LSS
office with any questions or concerns at 610-519-5176.
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