Rights and Responsibilities

Rights of Disabled Students

1. Access to courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities available through the college.
2. Accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids determined through a collaborative, interactive process.
3. Appropriate confidentiality of all information pertaining to their disability with the choice of whom to disclose their disability to, except as required by law.
4. Information reasonably available in accessible formats.

Responsibilities of disabled students

1. Meet the college’s qualifications and essential technical, academic, and institutional standards.
2. Identify themselves in a timely manner as an individual with a disability when seeking an accommodation.
3. Provide documentation from a professional source that verifies the nature of the disability, functional limitations, and the need for specific accommodations.
4. Follow specific procedures for obtaining accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids:

1. Login to Titan’s AIM at the beginning of each semester in order to request accommodations in a timely manner (within the first two weeks of each semester, within the first week for a summer session course). Students can access their accommodations at any point in the semester. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive.
2. After sending accommodations, meet with professors to discuss how accommodations can be utilized in their course.
3. Meet the timelines and procedural requirements established by the Accessibility Services office for scheduling exams, requesting assistance, auxiliary aids and services, etc. Typically, such service declarations should be made as soon as the student is informed. If the student fails to provide adequate notice of the need for space and/or assistance they are still entitled to the accommodation, but there is no guarantee that it can be provided in the fullest measure.

Institutional Rights and Responsibilities

County College of Morris has the following rights:

1. Maintain the college’s academic standards.
2. Request current documentation from a student completed by a professional source to verify the need for accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids.
3. Discuss a student’s need for accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids with the professional source of their  documentation. The student’s signed consent will be needed to authorize such a discussion.
4. Select among equally effective accommodations, adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids in consultation with disabled students.
5. Deny a request for accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids if the documentation does not identify a specific disability, the documentation fails to verify the need for the requested services, or the documentation is not provided in a timely manner.
6. Refuse to provide an accommodation, adjustment, and/or auxiliary aide that is inappropriate or unreasonable, including any that:
   • pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others;
   • constitute a substantial change or alteration to an essential element of a course or program

County College of Morris Responsibilities

1. Ensure that college courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities, when viewed in their entirety, are offered in the most integrated and appropriate settings.
2. Provide information regarding policies and procedures to disabled students and assure its availability in accessible formats upon request.
3. Provide accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids for disabled students upon a timely request by a student.
4. Maintain appropriate confidentiality of records and communication concerning disabled students except where disclosure is required by law or authorized by the student.

The Accessibility Services office has the specific responsibilities to:

1. Determine eligibility for participation of disabled students in the academic accommodations process based upon a review of  documentation and through self-report. Meet with the student for an interactive collaborative intake meeting to discuss accommodations.
2. Ensure disabled students who self-identify and meet college criteria for eligibility to receive accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids as based upon the individual’s need.
3. Ensure confidentiality of all information pertaining to a student’s disability.
4. Inform disabled students of college policies and procedures for filing a formal grievance through internal offices and/or through external agencies (e.g., Office of Civil Rights).
5. Interact with faculty as is appropriate to support accommodations.

Faculty Specific Responsibilities

1. Discuss any concerns related to the accommodation(s) or arrangements that have been requested by the student in their initial contacts with the Accessibility Services Office.
2. Determine the conditions under which the exam is to be administered (e.g., open book, use of notes, formula sheet, calculator, scrap paper, dictionary).
3. Assure that accommodations are provided, either by providing the accommodation themselves or by making appropriate arrangements with the Accessibility Services office.
4. Assure the timely delivery of the exam, along with all necessary instructions and materials for proper administration, whenever the exam is to be administered by the Accessibility Services office. The exam may also be delivered and returned via campus mail or emailed.