College Students with Learning Disabilities

SO your child made it through high school! It’s awesome when our kids are get what they need to succeed in school and make it to college. However, that doesn’t mean making it to college insures your child to make it through college. College Students with Learning Disabilities often need supports and services to succeed in college. Thankfully, such services are offered in colleges.

If your child has ADHD, dyslexia, Asperger’s, or another disability, make sure your child gets the help he needs. Success in college can be a real struggle without help.

Start by making sure your child has a current comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Having a current evaluation allows college students with learning disabilities to apply for accommodations.

First Steps for Your College Student

This leads to the second thing you can do to help your child. Direct your child to the disabilities office specifically for College Students with Learning Disabilities. Once your child has the contact information, he can apply for accommodations. As soon as your child decides on his college, he should start the accommodations application process.

Inform your child of his right to have equal access to the curriculum. Also explain your child’s right to have aids and services. It’s important for your child to know their rights. The information below will help you understand Aids & Services for College Students with Learning Disabilities.

Lastly, Make sure you support and encourage your child, especially during the first year of college. Starting college can be difficult for college students with learning disabilities. All of the new expectations are often overwhelming. Truly, there is so much new information to process. There are new procedures to follow, new terminology, new people and new places.

An Issue for Awareness as College Begins

It’s not uncommon for a college student with learning disabilities to head off to college with a “can do” attitude. However, that attitude turns into frustration, uncertainty, and depression about four to eight weeks into the semester. We found it’s best to call your college student with learning disabilities every other week initially.

If your child sounds discouraged, shift to calling weekly until your child feels confident again. It’s really important to provide love, support, and encouragement in the beginning.

By the second year of college, talking few weeks often works, but each college student with learning disabilities is different. If your child needs or wants to talk to you more often, by all means, call! Uplifting support is the key to surviving those first few difficult months.

Higher Education’s Obligations Under Section 504 and Title II of the ADA (applies to college students with learning disabilities).

U.S. Department of Education
Office for Civil Rights
Washington, D.C.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

In 1973, Congress passed Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). It’s a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis disability (29 U.S.C. Section 794). It states:

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 . . . .

The Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education enforces regulations implementing Section 504. They regulate programs and activities that receive funding from the Department. The Section 504 regulation applies to all recipients of this funding. This includes colleges, universities, postsecondary vocational education and adult education programs.

Failure to provide auxiliary aids to students with disabilities can be discriminatory. Therefore, it is prohibited by Section 504 to withhold services that prevent students from accessing program benefits. (This pertains to college students with learning disabilities too.)

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 providing auxiliary aids and services in colleges is described in the Section 504 regulation. The requirements are included in the nondiscrimination provisions of Title II.

Postsecondary School Provision of Auxiliary Aids

The Section 504 regulation contains the following requirements. These relate to a postsecondary school’s obligation to provide auxiliary aids to college students with documentation of learning disabilities:

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.

The Title II regulation states:

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.

Therefore, it’s the school’s responsibility to provide these auxiliary aids and services. They have to provide them in a timely manner to ensure effective participation by students with disabilities. If a student is being evaluated for eligibility under Section 504 or the ADA, the recipient must provide auxiliary aids in the interim.

College students with learning disabilities  Responsibilities

College students with disabilities, who are in need of auxiliary aids are obligated to provide notice. They have to state of the nature of their disabling condition(s) to the college. The student has to assist it in identifying appropriate and effective aids to help them learn. In elementary and secondary schools, teachers and school specialists arrange support services for students with disabilities.

However, in colleges, the students themselves must identify the need for an auxiliary aid. The student has to give adequate notice of their needs. The student’s notification should be provided to the appropriate representative of the college. Depending upon the nature and scope of the request, it 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 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 for College Students with Learning Disabilities

Some of the various types of auxiliary aids and services for college students with learning disabilities may include:

taped texts notetakers interpreters readers videotext displays television enlargers talking calculators electronic, highlighted readers computers or word processors telephone handset amplifiers

closed caption decoders open and closed captioning recording of lectures extended time testing calculators or keyboards with large buttons raised-line drawing kits assistive listening devices assistive listening systems audio or electronic textbooks.

Technological advances in electronics have improved vastly participation by college students with learning 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 college student with a disability. An institution has flexibility in choosing the specific aid or service it provides a student, as long as the solution is effective. Choosing aids in consultation with the student who will use them is the best approach.

Effectiveness of Auxiliary Aids for College Students with Learning Disabilities

No aid or service will be useful unless it is successful in equalizing access for a particular student with a disability. The key is for the student to have equal participation in the education program or activity. Not all students with a similar disability have identical auxiliary aids or services. The regulation refers to the issue of effectiveness in several sections. One section says:

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.

There are other references to effectiveness in the general provisions of the Section 504 regulation. This reference states, in part, that a recipient may not:

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.

The Title II regulation contains comparable provisions.

What’s NOT Required From Colleges

The Section 504 regulation also states:

[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.

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 varies. It depends on 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. However, in the two-way communication of a seminar, an interpreter may be needed. In determining what types of auxiliary aids and services are necessary under Title II of the ADA, college officials must give primary consideration to the requests of individuals with disabilities.

Cost of Auxiliary Aids for College Students with Learning Disabilities

Colleges receiving federal financial assistance must provide effective auxiliary aids to college students with learning disabilities. If an aid is necessary for classroom or other appropriate (nonpersonal) use, then the institution must make it available.  It’s required unless the 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. Neither can the college refuse to provide auxiliary aids because it believes that other providers of these services exist. They can’t base their 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. Sometimes help is provided by a state rehabilitation agency or a private charitable organization. However, the school remains responsible for providing the aid.

Personal Aids and Services for College Students with Learning Disabilities

The provision of personal aids and services is often misunderstood by postsecondary officials and students. Personal aids and services, including help in personal care, are not required to be provided by postsecondary institutions. The Section 504 regulation states:

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

Title II of the ADA similarly doesn’t require the provision of personal services.

Local education agencies are required to provide many services and aids of a personal nature to students with disabilities when they are in elementary and secondary schools. However, the student graduates from a high school program, providing aids, devices, or services of a personal nature is no longer an obligation of education institutions.

Personal attendants and individual devices are the responsibility of the student. For example, colleges provide readers for classroom use. However, institutions are don’t have to provide readers for personal use.

Questions Commonly Asked by Postsecondary Schools and College Students with Learning Disabilities

Q:	What are a college’s obligations to provide auxiliary aids for library study?
A:	Library materials must be accessible to students with disabilities. Students with disabilities must have the appropriate auxiliary aids they need to locate and obtain library resources. In addition, the college library’s basic index of holdings must be accessible. For example, a screen and keyboard (or card file) must be within reach of a student using a wheelchair. If a Braille index of holdings is not available for blind students, readers might be necessary assistance. Articles and materials that are course work requires must be accessible to all students in a course. This means that if a class requires materials, then its text must be accessible to a blind student, be in Braille or in audio form. A student’s actual study time and use of articles is personal study time, so 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: 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. 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 include allowing a student to give oral rather than written answers. It also may be possible for a student to present a tape containing an 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 foreign students needing auxiliary aids differently than an American student. A postsecondary institution must provide to a foreign student with a disability auxiliary aids and services that it would provide to an American student with a disability. Section 504 and the ADA require the provision of services is based on a student’s disability, and is not based on other criteria like 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 under evaluation to determine eligibility for an auxiliary aid or service, then the institution must provide help with paperwork in the interim.
Q:	Does a postsecondary institution have to provide auxiliary aids and services for a non-degree 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.

For More Information

In Conclusion, there is information on Section 504 and the ADA available through the OCR’s 12 enforcement offices. Look for the address and telephone number for the office that serves your area, or call 1-800-421-3481.  You’ll also see their application to auxiliary aids and services for college students with learning disabilities, and you can obtain additional assistance.

This publication is in the public domain. Authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted. The publication’s citation should be: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Auxiliary Aids and Services for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities: Higher Education’s Obligations Under Section 504 and Title II of the ADA, http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/auxaids.html, Washington, D.C., 2011.