Academic Accommodations

Students are never obligated to self-disclose issues which may impact their studies to Disability Resources, other staff members or faculty. However, students who require accommodations to course expectations, testing, or require auxiliary aids and/ or services, must self-disclose and document their issues with the office of Disability Resources in the Office of Student Affairs at CIM. An appointment can be made with the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs.

In order to proceed with a determination of eligibility for services and the provision of applicable and reasonable accommodations, students must disclose their disability. Newly admitted students are also encouraged to disclose any accommodation needs as early as possible in order to ensure that resources are in place as early in the student’s tenure at CIM as possible.

While students can disclose a disability and request an accommodation at any time during their enrollment, students a re encouraged to disclose the need for accommodation(s) as soon as possible.Time for documentation review and arrangement of accommodation(s) may take up to four weeks (perhaps longer for CWRU course accommodation) and accommodations may not be granted retroactively for work already completed.

Temporary Disabilities

CIM is not obligated to provide accommodations for students with temporary disabilities, but attempts to do so when feasible. As a courtesy, CIM attempts to provide services to students who experience acute illness or injury that will allow them to continue to access the physical campus as well as the academic curriculum. For instance, if a student breaks the wrist of his/her dominant hand, CIM may be able to provide a scribe for a test, or make arrangements for notes to be taken in class for the student. However, as is the case for permanently disabled students, the student would be responsible for all out of class work product.

Documentation

In order to seek appropriate accommodations for a disability, students are required to provide written documentation of their disability. Documentation must be from a qualified professional who has knowledge of the disability and of the specific student. The professional must be trained and qualified to render a diagnosis and to recommend accommodations for that particular disability.

Complete documentation should include as much of the following as possible:

• A diagnosis of the root cause(s) of the issues facing the student and a prognosis indicating the current status of the disorder/disability as well as the expectation for the stability of the condition.
• Information should also include an explanation of the nature of the physical or mental impairment and its impact on any major life activity.
• Any psychological or physical test data relevant to the diagnosis.
• Any history and/or recommendations for accommodations should be part of the documentation.

Students are responsible for obtaining and providing CIM with the documentation from a qualified professional. In addition, students may be asked to sign a release of information form, authorizing the qualified professional to disclose information to the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs.

Determining Eligibiltiy and Accommodations

Upon receipt of the documentation, the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs will review it to determine:

• that the source of the documentation is appropriate,
• that the documentation is complete,
• that the information in the documentation is current,
• that the student is a qualified person with a disability, and
• that the documentation supports the requested accommodations.

The Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs will ordinarily have an initial meeting with the student to obtain complete information on the disability and the requested accommodations. If the documentation is incomplete or insufficient to make a determination, the staff member will either request that the student obtain and submit additional documentation or contact the student's health care provider for additional information. The Assistant Vice President may consult with appropriate University or health care professionals when considering eligibility and reasonable accommodations. The Assistant Vice President will then determine the student's eligibility and interact with the student as outlined in the following section to determine any necessary and reasonable accommodations.

Notification to CIM Faculty of Accommodations

Within two business days of the determination that accommodations are warranted, the Assistant Vice President will create a Notice of Accommodation for the student. Once a student is registered for accommodations at CIM, the student is to schedule a meeting with the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs upon completion of pre-registration for all subsequent semesters. At such time the student will notify the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs of all faculty to whom they wish the Notice of Accommodations to be sent for the subsequent term of enrollment.

Student and CIM Faculty Member Meeting

• In circumstances where the student is seeking accommodation in a currently enrolled class, the faculty member should schedule a meeting with the student within three business days of receipt of notification in order to discuss the manner in which the accommodation may best be realized and which meet the expectations set forth in the Notice of Accommodations.
• If notification is being provided to a faculty member for a course in which the student is pre-registered, and the course has yet to meet, the faculty member is expected to communicate with the student prior to the first day of classes and arrange a meeting within the first week of the new semester.
• Should the faculty member have questions as to whether their proposed method of accommodation for the student is consistent with the documentation, the faculty member may confer with the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs.
• Accommodation must be offered for any form of graded assessment as soon as notification has been presented to the faculty member.

Please note: The faculty member is in the best position to understand the nature of the course material and the learning modes required by the student to gain functional ability with the material. The faculty member is charged with defining for the student the level of accommodation which will be considered "reasonable." [i.e. if the student is permitted flexible attendance as one form of accommodation, the faculty member is advised to clearly define the degree of flexibility of attendance which is reasonable. This is then documented in the Class Flexible Attendance Agreement signed by both student and faculty member.]

Notification to CWRU Support Services

If the student is seeking accommodation for classes at CWRU in which they are currently enrolled, or for which they are pre-registering:

• The student meets with the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs who will send a copy of all documentation to the Office of Disability Services at CWRU.
• The student will set an appointment to meet with a professional staff member at the university’s Office of Disability Services and complete all necessary processes to be registered for accommodation at CWRU. An appointment can be made by calling the office at 216.368.5230 or emailing disability@case.edu. CWRU will communicate accommodation notices to all faculty of university courses in which the student is seeking accommodation in accord with university procedures.