Rights and Responsibilities

The Rights and Responsibilities of the Student

A student with a disability has a right to an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from programs offered at Ohio University. Students who choose to exercise these rights have a responsibility to initiate and participate in the accommodation process.

Recognizing this, students:

1. are entitled to an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from the academic community. This includes access to instruction, services, extracurricular activities, housing, and transportation at a level comparable to any student;
2. 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 adjustments in those aspects of the course (or program) to accommodate their disability;
3. have a responsibility to identify themselves as needing accommodation in a timely fashion;
4. have a responsibility to provide documentation from an appropriate professional that describes the impact of their disability in the university environment and provides a rationale for the requested accommodation;
5. have a responsibility to actively participate in the identification of appropriate accommodations and auxiliary aids;
6. have the same obligation as any student to meet and maintain the institution's academic standards, technical standards, and codes of conduct;
7. have a right to be evaluated based on their ability, not their disability. If their disability affects the outcome of an evaluation format, they are entitled to an evaluation by alternate means if the alternative measures the essential skills, knowledge or abilities;
8. have a right to appeal decisions concerning accommodations. For information on appeal processes.

Appeals, Concerns, and Discrimination

The Rights and Responsibilities of the University

Ohio University has a responsibility to identify and maintain the academic and technical standards that are fundamental in providing quality academic programs while ensuring access to students with disabilities. In meeting these obligations the university:

1. has the responsibility to insure that all of its programs are accessible;
2. has the responsibility to inform its applicants and students about the availability and the range of accommodations;
3. has the right to request and review documentation in support of accommodation requests. The Office of Accessibility Services is designated to review student documentation. The university has the right to deny a request that is unsupported by the documentation;
4. and its faculty have a right to select between equally effective methods of accommodating a student with a disability;
5. has the right to identify and establish the abilities, skills, and knowledge necessary for successful entrance into its programs and to evaluate applicants on that basis;
6. and its faculty have the right to identify and establish the abilities, skills, and knowledge that are fundamental to their academic programs/courses and to evaluate each student's performance on that basis;
7. has the responsibility to make reasonable adjustments in the delivery, instructional method, and evaluation format for a course when there is a substantial negative interaction with the impact of a student's disability;
8. has the responsibility to adjust, substitute or waive any course or program requirement in which there is a substantial negative interaction with the impact of a disability and is not fundamental to the student's academic program;
9. has the right to deny a requested accommodation that fundamentally alters an essential course or program requirement or creates an undue hardship as determined by Accessibility Services in collaboration with appropriate academic personnel.