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Accommodations
Allegheny recognizes that no two students are alike. Every candidate for admission exhibits different combinations of skills, abilities, experience, and potential. Students with learning, physical, or psychological disabilities may need services or accommodations to ensure equal access to Allegheny’s educational programs. Student Accessibility and Support Services provides a central resource for students who might need individual accommodations.
Procedures for Requesting an Accommodation
1. Disclose your disability to Student Accessibility and Support Services. This can be done by contacting the Associate Dean for Academic Support & Director of Student Accessibility and Support Services (via Student Success (814) 332-2898; jmangine@allegheny.edu). Every student admitted to Allegheny by the Office of Admissions will receive a Self-Disclosure for Disability Form with his or her admittance packet. Students who would like to disclose a disability should fill this form out and return it to Student Success. Though it is best to disclose a disability prior to admission, students may disclose a disability at any point during their time at Allegheny.
2. After the student has disclosed a disability, Student Accessibility and Support Services will give or mail that student information regarding the appropriate documentation that is needed to verify a disability and to qualify for services.
3. We will review the documentation and determine the following:
- Does the student’s condition rise to the level of a disability as defined in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act?
- What are the functional limitations of the disability in an educational setting?
- What, if any, accommodations would be reasonable and appropriate for the student?
4. We will notify you as to whether the documentation submitted is sufficient or if more information is needed.
5. The Associate Dean for Academic Support & Director of Student Accessibility and Support Services will meet with the student if the student would like to receive accommodations.
6. If the student would like to receive accommodations, SASS will email a link to an accommodation form that the student will need to fill out. SASS will then share accommodation spreadsheets with their professor. These spreadsheets will verify the disability and list reasonable accommodations.
7. It is then the student’s responsibility communicate the logistics of your accommodations with your professor based on the format of the course.
8. If a student has problems relative to the provision of accommodations, the student should contact Student Accessibility and Support Services.
9. In subsequent semesters, the student needs to contact SASS and fill out an additional accommodation form (this will be emailed from Student Accessibility and Support Services). SASS will not assume that the student will need these accommodations for all classes until the form is filled out for the semester.
Implementation of an Approved Accommodation
Once the College has approved the accommodation, SASS will send an electronic notification of approval to the appropriate faculty members for that student. The student should inform the Associate Dean for Academic Support & Director of Student Accessibility and Support Services when the accommodation is not being implemented, when it is not effective or necessary, when it might need to be adjusted, or when it is no longer being utilized. Further, the student should follow through and be on time with any accommodation which impacts other individual’s schedules, such as tutors, readers, signers, test administrators, aides, or, if necessary, canceling them with adequate notice. Even though SASS notifies instructors regarding approved accommodations, it is still a student’s responsibility to arrange logistics for certain accommodations, such as extended time on exams/quizzes. Students are required to remind faculty at least (7) days before each in-class test/quiz.
Accommodations are not retroactive; that is, they do not impact tests or work completed prior to the student’s submission of medical documentation and the College’s determination of any necessary accommodation.
Students needing support services have the same responsibility as other students to meet the College’s academic and behavioral standards and to follow the College’s general policies and guidelines regarding standards of conduct.
Listed below are the specifics for how each approved accommodation is implemented at Allegheny unless other specific arrangements have been agreed upon:
Extended Time on Exams/Quizzes
Reduced Distraction Area for Testing
Examples of Reasonable Accommodations
Reasonable accommodations are adjustments to policy, practice, and programs that “level the playing field” for students with disabilities and provide equal access to Allegheny’s programs and activities. This adjustment must be made without altering fundamental goals of a course or lowering the standards in a class.
Upon receipt of documentation and approval from the Associate Dean for Academic Support & Director of Student Accessibility and Support Services, accommodations can be established. Examples of reasonable accommodations include:
- Special classroom seating
- Note-taking assistance
- Extended time for tests
- Recording of lectures
- Pre-recorded texts or, when these are not available, readers
- Special housing arrangements
Housing Accommodation Requests
A major part of the college educational experience is for students to learn to live on their own. Allegheny College provides on-campus housing to enhance intellectual, social, and cultural development through the experience of living with other individuals who bring a variety of social and cultural backgrounds to the community.
Occasionally, a student may feel that he or she needs special consideration in residence hall assignments due to a disability. When such a situation occurs, the student should contact Student Accessibility and Support Services to discuss the request for special consideration.
Housing accommodations are viewed as part of an active treatment plan. The College requires supporting documentation from an appropriately licensed professional that outlines how a special housing assignment supports your medical needs. Please be aware that a diagnosis of a medical condition in and of itself does not automatically qualify you for a housing accommodation.
Special requests for residence hall assignments should be made as soon as the student has decided to attend or continue at Allegheny College. Every effort will be made to meet the student’s needs.
| New Students: If you believe you have such a need, you and your treating professional must submit the below Housing Accommodation form for review by June 15th.
Returning Students: The Housing Accommodation form below needs to be completed by February 15th. |
Meal Plan Accommodation Request Form
Grievance Procedure and Appeals
Allegheny College has an internal grievance procedure providing for prompt and equitable resolution of complaints alleging violations of Section 504, the ADA, or other aspects of its non-discrimination policy. Students may use this grievance procedure to appeal the College’s decisions regarding requests for accommodation. To file a grievance or to otherwise lodge an internal complaint regarding an alleged violation of the College’s non-discrimination policy, students should contact the Dean of Students.
Contact information for the Dean of Students is as follows:
Trae Yeckley
deanofstudents@allegheny.edu
Allegheny College
520 North Main Street
Meadville, PA 16335
814-332-4356
