Learn more about the rights and responsibilities of students with disabilities, and of Emerson College regarding its disabled students.
Rights and Responsibilities of Students with Disabilities
Emerson students with disabilities (as defined under the ADA) have the right to the following:
- Equal access to the College’s programs, activities, and services;
- Reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services that they may need to have equal access to the College’s programs, activities, and services;
- Appropriate confidentiality of information concerning their disability as required by federal and state law;
- Reasonably accessible and available information concerning the College’s disability services.
Emerson students with disabilities have the responsibility to do the following:
- Meet the College’s qualifications and maintain essential technical, academic, and institutional standards;
- Inform Student Accessibility Services (SAS) if they require an accommodation to have equal access to any of the College’s programs, activities, or services;
- Provide SAS with appropriate documentation indicating how their disability limits their participation in any of the College’s programs, activities, and services;
- Follow SAS procedures for requesting and obtaining reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services.
Rights and Responsibilities of the College
Emerson College has the right to do the following:
- Maintain the College’s academic standards;
- Enforce the College’s Code of Conduct;
- Request and receive appropriate documentation supporting students’ requests for accommodation, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services;
- Defer action on a student’s request for accommodation until the student provides appropriate documentation supporting the existence of his or her claimed disability and the appropriateness of the requested accommodation(s);
- Offer students the most cost-effective accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services that are responsive to the student’s particular needs;
- Decline to provide an accommodation that would require a waiver or alteration of an essential element of a course or program, provided that the appropriate academic officer or department chair first identifies the course or program’s essential elements and concludes that the requested accommodation is incompatible with the essential elements of the course or program;
- Refuse to provide a requested accommodation, adjustment, and/or auxiliary aid and service, if providing the requested accommodation would impose an undue burden on the College.
Emerson College has the responsibility to do the following:
- Provide information to students concerning the resources and services available for students with disabilities and provide that information in accessible formats upon request;
- Ensure that the College’s programs, activities, and services, when viewed in their entirety, are accessible to qualified students with disabilities in an integrated and appropriate setting;
- Work with students who request accommodations to identify reasonable and effective accommodations for each student’s needs within the context of a particular course or program’s essential elements;
- Respond to all requests for accommodation in a timely manner;
- Provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids for students with disabilities;
- Maintain appropriate confidentiality of the student’s documentation, records, and communications in accordance with federal and state law.