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Frequently Asked Questions

Who is considered an “otherwise qualified” individual with a disability?

• An “otherwise qualified” individual is one who meets the academic and technical standards for admission or participation in the educational programs or activities of the college in spite of the disability.

• Because we are an open enrollment institution virtually anyone with a disability would meet admission standards. Some of our programs have additional admission and technical standards that students are required to meet.

What qualifies as a learning, physical, or psychological disability?

An impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of the individual. Examples would include but not be limited to:
o Hearing
o Seeing
o Walking
o Talking
o Learning
o Breathing
o Sleeping
o Performing manual tasks
o Working
o Eating

What about people with psychological disabilities like depression, manic depression, obsessive compulsive disorders, etc?

If the disability impacts a major life activity to a “significant degree” it probably is covered under the ADA. However, not all disabilities require reasonable accommodation. For example, a person with depression, who is compliant with medications, may not need any accommodations. This will be assessed in the intake and documentation process.

What does the student have to do to qualify to obtain reasonable accommodations?

Students must provide documentation of a qualifying disability to the designated office for services to students with disabilities at the college they attend. The student may self-refer by calling or coming to the office. Faculty members are encouraged to refer students when they believe a student is having a great deal of difficulty in their class, when a student has an obvious physical disability that requires accommodation, or when there a signs of psychological issues that may need to be addressed. We recommend speaking with the student in private. One way to approach the learning disability issue is to say, ”You seem to be having difficulty understanding material in my class. Perhaps you could talk with someone in the Disability Support Service Office to see if they can assist you.”

How does the student find out about services for disabilities?

Information and procedures for obtaining services is readily available to all students through the college catalogue, the student handbook and information posted in prominent places around campus. In addition, we ask that all faculty members include a statement in their course syllabi. We prefer a statement along the following lines: All faculty are encouraged to include the following statement on the class syllabus: "Any student with a documented disability (e.g. physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the Disability Services Office at the respective college at the beginning of each semester. Faculty are authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the Disability Support Services Office."

What are some of the major provisions of the ADA and Section 504?

Colleges and Universities may not:

• Refuse to accept an otherwise qualified student simply because the student has a disability

• Make pre-admission inquiries about student disabilities

• Use admissions tests or criteria that inadequately measure the academic qualifications of students with disabilities because accommodations were not provided for them. In other words, we are required to provide accommodations for placement tests such as TABE (workforce) and ASSET (academic).

• Limit the number of students with disabilities admitted. For example, we are not permitted to refuse to admit additional students who are deaf or hard of hearing simply because it is difficult to obtain interpreters.

• Establish rules and policies that may adversely affect students with disabilities. If a rule or policy tends to impact students with disabilities to a greater degree than would be true of the majority of students, it probably is a violation of ADA. For example, requiring a student with a disability to demonstrate that they are capable of swimming before allowing them to use the pool, when other students are not required to do so would be a violation. However, if there is reason to believe that the student’s impairment would cause a risk to self or others, we want to err on the side of safety. The key here is not to use the rule to exclude those with disabilities.

• Measure student achievement using methods that adversely discriminate against a student with a disability. This could be somewhat tricky depending on the nature of the disability and the reasonable accommodations requested. An illustration might be someone in an English Literature class who is severely dyslexic (difficulty with reading), has been approved to use a screen reader on a computer, but is required to remain in class and take the test without use of a screen reader. We probably would have difficulty defending our decision. Could we require that the student stay in class and use a scribe? Possibly, however, the courts tend to go along with the students preferred mode of learning or their preferred accommodation. On the other hand, Salome Hayward, a nationally recognized expert on ADA Law, has said that, “we are not required to provide a Cadillac if a Chevrolet will get the job done.”

• Exclude a student from a course of study or a college function or activity because of a disability. Beware of this issue, because we are required to provide accommodations for field trips, plays, concerts, and all programs or activities sponsored by the college. For example, if you have a field trip and a student with disabilities requires accommodations, it is important that you contact the Disability Support Services Office for your college to make necessary arrangements.

• Counsel students with disabilities toward more restrictive academic or career choices. Some students with severe learning disabilities register for pre-college developmental courses, even though placement scores seem to suggest little potential for success. In most cases the student and the family will make an appropriate choice; however, we are not in a position to counsel toward the “more restrictive choice. If the student chooses to go into pre-college developmental classes, we will request reasonable accommodations based on the documentation and the disability. Remember, the student must meet the academic standards of your program. You should evaluate performance on the same basis as all other students. Never pass a student just because the student has a disability.

Colleges and Universities Must:

• Provide “reasonable accommodations” on a case-by-case-basis. Accommodations are based on documentation, usually provided by the secondary school in the case of a student with a learning disability. With older students who have not been in school for some time, we work with outside agencies such as Texas Rehabilitation Commission to obtain documentation.

• Provide interpreters, note-takers, and other learning aids. The college averages approximately $10,000 per year in costs for interpreter services per student. These students are required to meet the same attendance and academic standards as any other student. When a student needs a note-taker, the faculty member is asked to assist in this process. Letters usually contain suggestions about how to arrange note-taker assistance. Some students require specialized adaptive computer equipment such as Zoomtext, a screen reader, some type of voice input, etc. Our office can usually provide specialized, adaptive equipment; however, we may need thirty to sixty days to obtain required software and/or hardware.

When would you consider an accommodation to be unreasonable?

Accommodations are considered unreasonable if they:

• Provide an unfair advantage to a student with a disability.
  Example: Open book, open notes, unlimited time for testing

• Compromise the essential elements of the program

• Cause an undue financial or administrative burden. It is difficult for major colleges and universities, with multi-million dollar budgets, to claim an undue financial burden for providing adaptive equipment that may cost two to five thousand dollars.

• Endanger the safety of self or others. A blind student working alone in a chemistry laboratory might be an example of this.

• Require the provision of services off campus. The college is not required to go to someone’s home to test them for a distance education class.

• Involve personal attendants. We do not provide personal attendants for students. Normally, attendants are provided by outside agencies. In most cases, the attendant would be expected to wait outside of the classroom. If the attendant is needed in the classroom, faculty should notify the ADA office

• Involve service animals that can not abide by standards of conduct. We are required to allow service animals in the classroom, in most cases, but the service animal must remain quiet and not be walking around the classroom. Also, students and staff should not pet the animal or interact in any way with the animal because that would distract the animal from its primary function.

• Fundamentally alter the nature of the service program or activity

Do students have any responsibilities under the ADA?
Yes, they must:

• Self-identify to the Disability Support Service Office (DSSO) at the college they plan to attend and request reasonable accommodations for their disability. If the student chooses not to self-identify to the designated office, the college is not obligated to provide accommodations. In fact, we ask faculty to provide only those accommodations requested by the DSS Office.

• Provide documentation of a qualifying disability in order to access support services. For learning disabilities, we require a full psychological evaluation that is not more than five years old, preferably within the last three years.

• Request accommodations early to allow time to obtain appropriate documentation and prepare a letter for reasonable accommodations. This is critical for students who may need interpreters or specialized adaptive equipment for their classes.

• Inform the assigned counselor if the accommodations are not adequate, need to be adjusted, or are not being provided in accordance with the letter for reasonable accommodations

How does a student obtain assistance?

• Self-referred
• Referred by faculty, administration, or staff
• Referred by outside agencies or individuals

What process and procedures are used to qualify students for support services from the DSSO?

Every student who comes to the disability support service office for assistance will participate in an intake interview to determine eligibility for assistance from the DSSO. If no documentation is available the counselor may refer the student to an outside agency for assistance. Some of the outside agencies we use include: Texas Rehabilitation Commission (TRC), Mental Health and Mental Retardation Agency of Harris County (MHMRA), The Commission for the Blind (TCB), The Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TCDHH) the Neuhaus Learning Center, and the University of Houston. In addition, we have a list of qualified diagnosticians that we give to students if they need to have a full psychological evaluation to determine whether or not they have a learning disability. The college is not required to provide psychological testing for learning disabilities and does not do so. If we have reason to believe that the student may be eligible for services, we ask the student to completes the following forms:

• Participant Profile - Intake Form. This form contains basic demographic information such as: Name, address, telephone number, agencies the student is working with, and other personal information provided by the student.

• Support Services Checklist. This form ultimately will be used to establish reasonable accommodations for the student. It contains a list of the most commonly requested reasonable accommodations and some of the direct support service a student might need.

• Information Release Form. This is required in order to allow the DSSO to communicate with faculty regarding reasonable accommodations. A second part of the form allows us to keep documentation of the disability on file.

• Placement Testing Accommodation Form. Students with appropriate documentation may be eligible for accommodations on the TABE or ASSET placement tests. This form is completed and sent to the testing office in order to provide accommodations.

• Medication Form (if any). Students who are using medications are asked to complete this form and keep it up-to-date. This information is needed in the event a student experiences a medical emergency on campus.

• A follow-up session (usually after placement testing) with the student focuses on the documentation, review of test scores, identification of an appropriate program (workforce, academic, or special) for the student, and establishment of a set of reasonable accommodations designed to address the specific learning or physical needs of the student, on a case-by-case basis. The counselor prepares a letter requesting reasonable accommodations for the student. The student presents a copy of the accommodation letter to each faculty member and self-advocates for the accommodations: If the student chooses not to present the letter, faculty members should not provide accommodations. Providing accommodations for a student who has not presented a letter may create what the courts consider a “past practice” for the institution and could jeopardize the college in the event of an Office of Civil Right (OCR) hearing or a court case. Faculty should not ask specific questions about the students disability. However, it is appropriate to ask, in private, “what do you want me to know about your disability”. If the student says, “nothing”, the faculty member should not pursue additional information. By law, students are not required to reveal information about their disabilities. Call the Disability Support Services Office if you have questions about accommodations or feel that an accommodations is inappropriate or will not work for you or the student. Please protect the confidentiality of student information, confidentiality is a major provision of the ADA.