Understand your Rights and Responsibilities:
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government’ programs and services.
- Visit the Transition of Students with Disabilities to Secondary Education Guide at this link: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transitionguide.html (this link opens a new page)
Thank you for contacting the MWSU Accessibility Resource Center. The Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) coordinates accommodations for students at MWSU. Students needing accommodations have the choice to self-identify, submit documentation, and make the decision about using accommodations. Accommodations are authorized after a student submits a complete application with documentation and meets with an Access Specialist in the ARC.
Students with disabilities and needing accommodations are required to provide a letter or documentation completed and signed by an appropriate professional, such as a medical doctor, psychologist, or other qualified diagnostician.
To register with ARC and submit documentation, please visit the form at this link: http://griff.vn/intake (this link opens a new page)
Documentation
Documentation must include the following:
A diagnosis of the student’s current disability, as well as supporting information, such as the date of the diagnosis, how the diagnosis was reached, and the credentials of the diagnosing professional; information on how the student’s disability affects a major life activity; and information on how the disability affects the student’s academic performance.
While an Individualized Educational Plan IEP or a 504 document may provide us with some helpful information about students’ needs, an IEP/504 is NOT a suitable or sufficient form of disability documentation in the post-secondary environment.
Documentation should provide enough information for the University to make a determination as to reasonable and effective academic adjustments, auxiliary aids, and accommodations as we work with the student throughout the interactive process
FAQ
The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a person with a disability as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. You can learn more about this by visiting this link: https://adata.org/faq/what-definition-disability-under-ada (this link opens a new page)
The Americans with Disabilities Act defines major life activities as those functions that are important to most people’s daily lives. Examples of major life activities are breathing, walking, talking, hearing, seeing, sleeping, caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks and working. Major life activities also include major bodily functions such as immune system functions, normal cell growth, digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine and reproductive functions. You can learn more about this by visiting this link: https://adata.org/faq/what-are-major-life-activities (this link opens a new page)
Documentation should be completed by a qualified professional, such as a treating or diagnosing health or mental health provider who has an established therapeutic relationship with the student. The therapeutic relationship refers to the close and consistent association that exists between health or mental health provider and the client or patient. It is the means by which a health or mental health provider and a client or patient hope to engage with each other and effect beneficial change in the client or patient.