Student Accessibility Services

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) provides accommodations and support for students with disabilities. Our goal is to provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to competitively pursue a college education.

Types of Disabilities may include: Medical/physical (e.g., cerebral palsy, cancer, traumatic brain injury); Sensory (e.g., hearing or visual impairment); Psychological (e.g., ADHD, ASD, Depression); Learning (e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia).

If you would like assistance with accommodations, you must contact Student Accessibility Services. Documentation and verification of disability are required. Specific information regarding documentation and accommodations, as well as other applicable information about SAS and our services, can be found here on our website alternatively, students can contact our office by emailing sas@jcu.edu.

Students are encouraged to apply for services well in advance of their first semester. An intake appointment with an SAS staff member is necessary before any accommodations are granted.

The Student Accessibility Services office at JCU coordinates all services for students with disabilities. To register for services follow our registration procedures. The services include, but are not limited to:

Testing Consultation/Referral
Intake/Needs Assessment
Accommodations (i.e. Academic, Housing, Meal Plan, ESA)
Advocacy
Adaptive Technology

Academic accommodations include services like extended test time, audio recording lectures, or a quiet testing location. These services are designed to overcome deficits created by the disability and allow the student to display his/her mastery of the material.

These accommodations are academic adaptations that do not compromise academic standards or the mastery of essential course elements, but provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to succeed. Academic Accommodations provide equal access to facilities (e.g., wheelchair accessibility) and academic information.

Since the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 guarantee equal access, not success; individual success is up to each student. We encourage students to develop self-advocacy, empowerment, responsibility, independence, personal growth, and to develop and use compensatory skills.

Student Rights & Responsibilities

Qualified students with disabilities have the right to an equal opportunity to participate in programs offered through John Carroll University. Students who choose to exercise these rights have the responsibility to initiate and participate in the accommodation process. Recognizing this, students:

Have a responsibility to identify themselves as needing accommodation in a timely fashion. Each student must provide documentation from an appropriate licensed professional.
Have a responsibility to document how their disability affects a particular delivery system, instructional method, or evaluation criteria when requesting accommodation.
Have a responsibility to actively participate in the search for accommodations and auxiliary aids.
Have the responsibility of notifying their instructors of their disability and providing them with letters of accommodation (LOA’s).
Have the responsibility to communicate to their professors their individual needs and work with their professors on methods of accommodation.
Have the responsibility to schedule exams 7 days in advance of test date.
Have the same obligation as any student to meet and maintain the institution’s academic and technical standards.
Have a right to be evaluated based on their ability, not their disability. If their disability affects the outcome of an evaluation method they are entitled to an evaluation by alternate means.
Are entitled to an equal opportunity to learn. If the location, delivery system or instructional methodology limits their access, participation, or ability to benefit, they have a right to reasonable alterations (to be determined by University officials) in those aspects of the course (or program) to accommodate their disability.
Are entitled to an equal opportunity to participate in all aspects of the academic community at a comparable level that is provided to any student.
Have a right to appeal decisions concerning accommodations.

Contact Us

SAS Email: s as@jcu.edu

Office Location: Grasselli Library & Breen Learning Center, Room G116 (down the hallway from the main library entrance, behind the Information Desk)

Phone: 216.397.4967

Resources

Policy on Disability Related Grievances