[nfbmi-talk] important auxilliary aids and services basics

Sat Jun 26 01:52:41 UTC 2010

Here is what the law and OCR says about the responsabilities of postsecondary institutions. It is a bit dated for the new technological era, but the principles apply. (Moreover they apply to the provision of auxilliary aids and services to MCB itself, but Cannon apparently hasn't read anything like this though he is the great state ADA coordinator)....

I'll send this out to the Board as well...

Joe
Auxiliary Aids and Services for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities

http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/auxaids.html

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Auxiliary Aids and Services for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities

Higher Education's Obligations Under Section 504 and Title II of the ADA

U.S. Department of Education

Office for Civil Rights

Washington, D.C.

Revised September 1998

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

In 1973, Congress passed Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of physical or mental

disability (29 U.S.C. Section 794). It states:

Block quote start

No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation

in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance . . . .

Block quote end

The Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education enforces regulations implementing Section 504 with respect to programs and activities that

receive funding from the Department. The Section 504 regulation applies to all recipients of this funding, including colleges, universities, and postsecondary

vocational education and adult education programs. Failure by these higher education schools to provide auxiliary aids to students with disabilities that

results in a denial of a program benefit is discriminatory and prohibited by Section 504.

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits state and local governments from discriminating on the basis of disability. The

Department enforces Title II in public colleges, universities, and graduate and professional schools. The requirements regarding the provision of auxiliary

aids and services in higher education institutions described in the Section 504 regulation are generally included in the general nondiscrimination provisions

of the Title II regulation.

Postsecondary School Provision of Auxiliary Aids

The Section 504 regulation contains the following requirement relating to a postsecondary school's obligation to provide auxiliary aids to qualified students

who have disabilities:

Block quote start

A recipient . . . shall take such steps as are necessary to ensure that no handicapped student is denied the benefits of, excluded from participation in,

or otherwise subjected to discrimination under the education program or activity operated by the recipient because of the absence of educational auxiliary

aids for students with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills.

Block quote end

The Title II regulation states:

Block quote start

A public entity shall furnish appropriate auxiliary aids and services where necessary to afford an individual with a disability an equal opportunity to

participate in, and enjoy the benefits of, a service, program, or activity conducted by a public entity.

Block quote end

It is, therefore, the school's responsibility to provide these auxiliary aids and services in a timely manner to ensure effective participation by students

with disabilities. If students are being evaluated to determine their eligibility under Section 504 or the ADA, the recipient must provide auxiliary aids

in the interim.

Postsecondary Student Responsibilities

A postsecondary student with a disability who is in need of auxiliary aids is obligated to provide notice of the nature of the disabling condition to the

college and to assist it in identifying appropriate and effective auxiliary aids. In elementary and secondary schools, teachers and school specialists

may have arranged support services for students with disabilities. However, in postsecondary schools, the students themselves must identify the need for

an auxiliary aid and give adequate notice of the need. The student's notification should be provided to the appropriate representative of the college who,

depending upon the nature and scope of the request, could be the school's Section 504 or ADA coordinator, an appropriate dean, a faculty advisor, or a

professor. Unlike elementary or secondary schools, colleges may ask the student, in response to a request for auxiliary aids, to provide supporting diagnostic

test results and professional prescriptions for auxiliary aids. A college also may obtain its own professional determination of whether specific requested

auxiliary aids are necessary.

Examples of Auxiliary Aids

Some of the various types of auxiliary aids and services may include:

List of 10 items

• taped texts

• notetakers

• interpreters

• readers

• videotext displays

• television enlargers

• talking calculators

• electronic readers

• Braille calculators, printers, or typewriters

• telephone handset amplifiers

list end

List of 10 items

• closed caption decoders

• open and closed captioning

• voice synthesizers

• specialized gym equipment

• calculators or keyboards with large buttons

• reaching device for library use

• raised-line drawing kits

• assistive listening devices

• assistive listening systems

• telecommunications devices for deaf persons.

list end

Technological advances in electronics have improved vastly participation by students with disabilities in educational activities. Colleges are not required

to provide the most sophisticated auxiliary aids available; however, the aids provided must effectively meet the needs of a student with a disability.

An institution has flexibility in choosing the specific aid or service it provides to the student, as long as the aid or service selected is effective.

These aids should be selected after consultation with the student who will use them.

Effectiveness of Auxiliary Aids

No aid or service will be useful unless it is successful in equalizing the opportunity for a particular student with a disability to participate in the

education program or activity. Not all students with a similar disability benefit equally from an identical auxiliary aid or service. The regulation refers

to this complex issue of effectiveness in several sections, including:

Block quote start

Auxiliary aids may include taped texts, interpreters or other effective methods of making orally delivered materials available to students with hearing

impairments, readers in libraries for students with visual impairments, classroom equipment adapted for use by students with manual impairments, and other

similar services and actions.

Block quote end

There are other references to effectiveness in the general provisions of the Section 504 regulation which state, in part, that a recipient may not:

Block quote start

Provide a qualified handicapped person with an aid, benefit, or service that is not as effective as that provided to others; or

Provide different or separate aid, benefits, or services to handicapped persons or to any class of handicapped persons unless such action is necessary to

provide qualified handicapped persons with aid, benefits, or services that are as effective as those provided to others.

Block quote end

The Title II regulation contains comparable provisions.

The Section 504 regulation also states:

Block quote start

[A]ids, benefits, and services, to be equally effective, are not required to produce the identical result or level of achievement for handicapped and nonhandicapped

persons, but must afford handicapped persons equal opportunity to obtain the same result, to gain the same benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement,

in the most integrated setting appropriate to the person's needs.

Block quote end

The institution must analyze the appropriateness of an aid or service in its specific context. For example, the type of assistance needed in a classroom

by a student who is hearing-impaired may vary, depending upon whether the format is a large lecture hall or a seminar. With the one-way communication of

a lecture, the service of a notetaker may be adequate, but in the two-way communication of a seminar, an interpreter may be needed. College officials also

should be aware that in determining what types of auxiliary aids and services are necessary under Title II of the ADA, the institution must give primary

consideration to the requests of individuals with disabilities.

Cost of Auxiliary Aids

Postsecondary schools receiving federal financial assistance must provide effective auxiliary aids to students who are disabled. If an aid is necessary

for classroom or other appropriate (nonpersonal) use, the institution must make it available, unless provision of the aid would cause undue burden. A student

with a disability may not be required to pay part or all of the costs of that aid or service. An institution may not limit what it spends for auxiliary

aids or services or refuse to provide auxiliary aids because it believes that other providers of these services exist, or condition its provision of auxiliary

aids on availability of funds. In many cases, an institution may meet its obligation to provide auxiliary aids by assisting the student in obtaining the

aid or obtaining reimbursement for the cost of an aid from an outside agency or organization, such as a state rehabilitation agency or a private charitable

organization. However, the institution remains responsible for providing the aid.

Personal Aids and Services

An issue that is often misunderstood by postsecondary officials and students is the provision of personal aids and services. Personal aids and services,

including help in bathing, dressing, or other personal care, are not required to be provided by postsecondary institutions. The Section 504 regulation

states:

Block quote start

Recipients need not provide attendants, individually prescribed devices, readers for personal use or study, or other devices or services of a personal nature.

Block quote end

Title II of the ADA similarly states that personal services are not required.

In order to ensure that students with disabilities are given a free appropriate public education, local education agencies are required to provide many

services and aids of a personal nature to students with disabilities when they are enrolled in elementary and secondary schools. However, once students

with disabilities graduate from a high school program or its equivalent, education institutions are no longer required to provide aids, devices, or services

of a personal nature.

Postsecondary schools do not have to provide personal services relating to certain individual academic activities. Personal attendants and individually

prescribed devices are the responsibility of the student who has a disability and not of the institution. For example, readers may be provided for classroom

use but institutions are not required to provide readers for personal use or for help during individual study time.

Questions Commonly Asked by Postsecondary Schools and Their Students

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Q:

What are a college's obligations to provide auxiliary aids for library study?

A:

Libraries and some of their significant and basic materials must be made accessible by the recipient to students with disabilities. Students with disabilities

must have the appropriate auxiliary aids needed to locate and obtain library resources. The college library's basic index of holdings (whether formatted

on-line or on index cards) must be accessible. For example, a screen and keyboard (or card file) must be placed within reach of a student using a wheelchair.

If a Braille index of holdings is not available for blind students, readers must be provided for necessary assistance.

Articles and materials that are library holdings and are required for course work must be accessible to all students enrolled in that course. This means

that if material is required for the class, then its text must be read for a blind student or provided in Braille or on tape. A student's actual study

time and use of these articles are considered personal study time and the institution has no further obligation to provide additional auxiliary aids.

Q:

What if an instructor objects to the use of an auxiliary or personal aid?

A:

Sometimes postsecondary instructors may not be familiar with Section 504 or ADA requirements regarding the use of an auxiliary or personal aid in their

classrooms. Most often, questions arise when a student uses a tape recorder. College teachers may believe recording lectures is an infringement upon their

own or other students' academic freedom, or constitutes copyright violation.

The instructor may not forbid a student's use of an aid if that prohibition limits the student's participation in the school program. The Section 504 regulation

states:

Block quote start

A recipient may not impose upon handicapped students other rules, such as the prohibition of tape recorders in classrooms or of dog guides in campus buildings,

that have the effect of limiting the participation of handicapped students in the recipient's education program or activity.

Block quote end

In order to allow a student with a disability the use of an effective aid and, at the same time, protect the instructor, the institution may require the

student to sign an agreement so as not to infringe on a potential copyright or to limit freedom of speech.

Q:

What if students with disabilities require auxiliary aids during an examination?

A:

A student may need an auxiliary aid or service in order to successfully complete a course exam. This may mean that a student be allowed to give oral rather

than written answers. It also may be possible for a student to present a tape containing the oral examination response. A test should ultimately measure

a student's achievements and not the extent of the disability.

Q:

Can postsecondary institutions treat a foreign student with disabilities who needs auxiliary aids differently than American students?

A:

No, an institution may not treat a foreign student who needs auxiliary aids differently than an American student. A postsecondary institution must provide

to a foreign student with a disability the same type of auxiliary aids and services it would provide to an American student with a disability. Section

504 and the ADA require that the provision of services be based on a student's disability and not on such other criteria as nationality.

Q:

Are institutions responsible for providing auxiliary services to disabled students in filling out financial aid and student employment applications, or

other forms of necessary paperwork?

A:

Yes, an institution must provide services to disabled students who may need assistance in filling out aid applications or other forms. If the student requesting

assistance is still in the process of being evaluated to determine eligibility for an auxiliary aid or service, help with this paperwork by the institution

is mandated in the interim.

Q:

Does a postsecondary institution have to provide auxiliary aids and services for a nondegree student?

A:

Yes, students with disabilities who are auditing classes or who otherwise are not working for a degree must be provided auxiliary aids and services to the

same extent as students who are in a degree-granting program.

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For More Information

For more information on Section 504 and the ADA and their application to auxiliary aids and services for disabled students in postsecondary schools, or

to obtain additional assistance, see the list of OCR's 12 enforcement offices containing the address and telephone number for the office that serves your

area, or call 1-800-421-3481.

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Last Modified: 03/10/2005

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