Mount Aloysius College makes every reasonable effort to provide qualified services to students with disabilities in order to create equal access for academic success. The Accessibility Services Director works in collaboration with members of the campus community to ensure that the student is integrated into the academic setting that will best help them reach their academic goals. Reasonable accommodations can be provided to students with a documented disability.
Students seeking accommodations from Accessibility Services on the basis of a disability are required to submit documentation to verify eligibility for services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Protection under these civil rights is based upon documentation of a current disability that substantially limits a major life function.
Services Provided
- Academic and environmental accommodations
- Access to adaptive equipment for academic use
- Meeting with faculty and students to support nondiscriminatory classroom policies
- Working with faculty, staff, and students to increase disability awareness
Hours
Early appts. available: 7:30 – 8:30 a.m.
Normal business hours: 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Walk-in’s are welcome, but appts are highly recommended.
Test Anxiety and ADA
Test anxiety has been determined by the courts to NOT be a disability under ADA unless it clearly can be shown to be associated with a mental “anxiety disorder.”
Non-specific diagnoses such as “individual learning styles, learning differences, academic problems, computer phobias, slow reading, and test difficulty or test anxiety” do not constitute a disability or impairment.
What constitutes a disability?
A disability is defined in the Americans with Disability Act of 1990, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as a mental or physical impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities. Learning is an example of a major life activity. If you have a mental or physical condition, a history of such a condition, or a condition which may be considered by others as substantially limiting, you may have a legally defined disability.
What does substantially limiting mean?
According to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, substantially limiting is defined as being unable to perform a major life activity, or significantly restricted as to the condition, manner or duration under which a major life activity can be performed, in comparison to the average person or to most people.
What is a major life activity?
According to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a major life activity is defined as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working.
The ADA Amendment Acts of 2008 expanded this list to also include eating, sleeping, standing, lifting, reading, bending, concentrating, thinking and communicating. In addition, it also includes major bodily functions (e.g., “functions of immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive functions”).
What is the note taking service?
Students at Mount Aloysius College with documented disabilities can receive a variety of academic accommodations, which are determined on a case-by-case basis. A common accommodation gives the student access to notes taken in class by a fellow student.
If you have a documented disability and need a note taker, please contact Disability Services.
In order to obtain a Pennsylvania Parking Placard for a documented disability, please print a copy of the Parking Placard Form, submit it to your medical professional and mail it to the address stated on form.
Once you receive your parking placard in the mail, please provide Disability Services with a copy of your parking placard.
Disability Services will then notify the Campus Safety Office of your placard.
You cannot park in handicap accessible spaces until a copy of your placard is on file and Campus Safety is notified. Otherwise, you may receive a parking violation.
Email the Disability Services office for a form that will need to be completed if you are applying for medical accommodations due to a documented medical condition.
Email the Disability Services office for a form that will need to be completed if you are applying for housing or meal plan accommodations due to a documented medical condition.
Please have your medical professional complete and return to the Disability Services office.
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