The Student Disability Services office is here to help students with disabilities obtain access to academic and programmatic services at the university. Our goal is to provide quality service in a supportive, courteous and timely manner. This section of the website is designed to provide a thorough understanding of the policies and procedures, as well as rights and responsibilities of students with disabilities.

We welcome any questions of comments, and encourage current and prospective students to contact us if we can be of any assistance.

Disability Defined

A person with a disability is anyone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, such as walking, seeing, learning, hearing, speaking, or breathing. A person is also protected under the ADA if he or she has a record of a disability or is regarded as having a disability and is thus discriminated against. It is important to know that disabilities can be both visible and hidden; that is, many disabilities may not be obvious to an observer. These can include epilepsy, diabetes, and certain vision-based disabilities. People can also have multiple disabilities, such as being both legally blind and hard-of-hearing.

The ADA and Section 504

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 were developed to help individuals avoid discrimination based on their disability status. These laws provide guidelines for public and private agencies to provide access to individuals with disabilities. The ADA upholds and extends the standards covered in Section 504, including the definition of what constitutes a disability, what is a reasonable accommodation in terms of providing equal access, and an explanation of the civil rights’ protections of individuals with disabilities.

Notifying Students of Services

Students are notified of services for disabled students through brochures, this website and MyNewSchool, statements in the handbooks and bulletins, and through other means. Instructors are strongly encouraged to help with this notification process by informing students about available services and related procedures. A good two fold strategy is to include on your syllabus a statement about disability services and to announce to the class at the start of each semester that any student with a disability who needs accommodations or related services can see you in private to discuss how this will be done. This will help students with disabilities feel more comfortable in speaking with you about their needs and also show a good faith effort on your part to make students aware that the school does have a system set up to help them obtain equal access.