Summary

In accordance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), Greenfield Community College and its faculty and staff are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of disability. Faculty must provide appropriate reasonable accommodations based on students’ disabilities and individual needs when necessary to avoid discrimination.

The Office of Disability Services (ODS) staff carefully review student documentation and work collaboratively with students to determine reasonable accommodations. Identified accommodations are documented in an Accommodation Agreement and it is the student's responsibility to provide instructors with the copy of their Accommodation Agreement. It is the faculty member’s responsibility to:

1. Maintain student confidentiality;
2. Provide reasonable accommodations;
3. Make classroom materials and environment accessible.

Faculty are under no obligation to satisfy a student’s request for an accommodation unless that accommodation is listed in the student's Accommodation Agreement.

Students are responsible for requesting accommodations; however, we encourage you to refer students to the Wellness Center to seek support and information about possible accommodations if they disclose a disability to you or if you observe that they are struggling and they have not provided you with an Accommodation Agreement. If accommodations are not appropriate, Wellness Center staff will refer students to other support services on campus.

It is the student's choice to disclose their disability to their instructor. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) do not allow staff external to the ODS, faculty, or others access to student disability-related information unless the student has given written permission. The ODS will not discuss or disclose student medical information unless they have received student written permission to do so. When the ODS talks with instructors, we can only discuss how student accommodations can be implemented.

Faculty governed by the Day Agreement are required to include the Institutional Disability Services statement in their syllabus. Adjunct instructors are strongly encouraged to include a statement in their syllabus suggesting that students with disabilities discuss their needs with them.

Additional information

Instructors may not establish specific requirements for courses that inadvertently discriminate against students with disabilities. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the ADAAA prohibit any kind of discrimination against students with disabilities that would prevent them from having access to any course, program, or service offered by the College. The law also requires that no students be prevented from taking courses offered by the College solely because of their disability. In establishing course requirements, instructors should be aware of the following:

1. There should be no course requirements which discriminate on the basis of a disability.
2. Students with disabilities should expect the same class experiences which are available to students without disabilities. These experiences include field trips, guest speakers, and audio-visual presentations.
3. Any course which requires off-campus experiences, including clinical fieldworks and internships, must be arranged so that the experience for students with disabilities is comparable to that of the students without disabilities.
4. All course materials must be made available to students with disabilities in an appropriate usable format (e.g. individual who is legally blind may require large print or electronic handout.) All videos shown in class should have closed captions enabled when the video is shown. All other video content, including voiced-over slide presentations, should have grammatically accurate captions. Transcripts should be available for audio content.
5. Modification in degree or course requirements may be necessary to meet the requirements of some students with disabilities. Some examples of such modifications are as follows:
   1. Prohibitive rules, such as those banning audio recording devices (including potentially cell phones) from the classroom, must be waived for some students with disabilities.
   2. Personal care attendants, scribes, or interpreters must be permitted in the classroom when they are required to insure the participation of students with disabilities. Note: Students must be registered with Disability Services in the Wellness Center when using these auxiliary aides.
   3. Alternate testing and evaluation methods for measuring student achievement will be necessary for students with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills (except where those are the skills being measured).
   4. Classes may have to be relocated to permit access for students with mobility impairments.
   5. Equipment or devices used in the classroom (and in some cases teaching techniques that rely upon the sight, hearing, or mobility of students) may require adaptation in individual cases. Students should contact the Coordinator of Disability Services immediately to discuss arrangements for use of adaptive equipment.
6. It is discriminatory to counsel students with disabilities toward more restrictive careers than students without disabilities, unless such counsel is based on strict licensing or certification requirements in a profession.