Disability Accommodations Process

Penn State Dickinson Law is fully committed to making its programs accessible to all qualified individuals, regardless of disability and making reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities.

The Office of Student Disability Resources (SDR) is the designated office for ensuring the university’s legal compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). Qualified Penn State students with disabilities are covered by the ADAAA and Section 504, which entitles them to non-discrimination, reasonable academic accommodations, auxiliary aids and services for effective communication, and accessible facilities. SDR is responsible for coordinating support services, reasonable academic accommodations, and promoting disability awareness in the university community.

Students seeking accommodations must follow the steps outlined by SDR. Each of the steps below is explained in more detail below:

1. Complete a short online introductory questionnaire.
2. Provide necessary documentation. Please consult SDR’s documentation guidelines.
3. Meet with an SDR representative. Students may schedule this meeting by calling 814-863-1807 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by emailing upsdr@psu.edu.

SDR reviews the documentation submitted by the student and develops plans for the provision of reasonable accommodations. SDR will send written notification regarding recommended accommodations to the law school’s Office of Academic & Student Services. SDR maintains all official records regarding disability accommodations.

Accommodations for disabilities are facilitated solely by the Office of Academic & Student Services. Faculty members are not authorized to grant or deny disability accommodations.

The process for requesting and receiving approval for accommodations is as follows:

1. Any student with a disability requesting an accommodation must meet with SDR. The meeting should occur within the first two weeks of the student’s first semester in law school. In the case of a disability discovered after the student has begun law school, the meeting should be scheduled within two weeks of the student’s discovery of the disability. Students are strongly encouraged to submit necessary documentation and meet with SDR as soon as possible to ensure timely implementation of the accommodation sought. After the initial meeting, SDR will inform the Office of Academic & Student Services that the individual has provided the required documentation and propose specific accommodations for the student.
2. Any student requesting an accommodation must present appropriate documentation, from a qualified professional, establishing (a) that the disability exists and (b) that the requested accommodation is necessary to provide the student with the opportunity to achieve or participate in the program to the same extent as a similarly-situated person without a disability. Please refer to SDR’s Documentation Guidelines for the most up-to-date information on acceptable documentation, acquiring documentation, and submitting documentation.
3. SDR reserves the right to determine whether submitted documentation supports the need for reasonable accommodations based on the functional impact of the disability in the educational environment.

DETERMINATION OF APPROPRIATE ACCOMMODATION

Once documentation has been submitted as described above and approved, the Office of Academic & Student Services will receive from the requesting student an approved classroom and/or exam accommodation plan. The student will submit to each applicable faculty member their approved classroom accommodation plan. The Office for Academic & Student Services will retain the exam accommodation plan; students should not share exam accommodation plans with faculty members.

A faculty member who is notified of an accommodation which is available to a student in the faculty member’s course or program may inform the Office of Academic & Student Services of special circumstances which the faculty member believes make the accommodation unreasonable or inappropriate. The Office of Academic & Student Services, in consultation with the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the relevant location and SDR, shall consider such information and, where consistent with ADA standards, suspend or modify the established accommodation for the particular situation involved.

CONFIDENTIALITY

No details regarding the nature of any student’s documented disability shall be made available to any person except for the information described immediately above. The law school will make best efforts to conceal the identity of any student who is receiving an exam accommodation to any professors or other persons.  However, the law school may reveal the identity of a student receiving an accommodation when it is not reasonably feasible to maintain confidentiality or when a student waives confidentiality.  Instances in which a professor or other staff member working with a professor may be made aware of the student’s name, the requested services, and the fact that the requested services are being made in order to accommodate a documented disability include but are not limited to:

• Accommodations for non-degree seeking students;
• Classroom accommodations;
• Accommodations for formative assessments delivered through electronic means; and
• Final exam accommodations delivered through electronic means.

EXAMINATIONS & ASSESSMENTS

A Testing Accommodation Access Request must be submitted for each quiz, midterm, final exam or other assessment for which a student seeks to access their testing accommodations.

Faculty members shall ensure that our disability accommodation policies are followed where applicable, including the application of these policies to midterms and quizzes. Where a disabled student is entitled to an accommodation on a midterm and/or quiz or series of quizzes, the Office of Academic & Student Services shall perform its normal functions (including exam administration) regarding such accommodations.  Where a disabled student is entitled to an ADA accommodation on an online midterm and/or quiz or series of quizzes, the faculty support staff shall consult with the Office of Academic & Student Services to coordinate such accommodations and to ensure anonymity is preserved. The Office of Academic & Student Services will coordinate student disability accommodations for final examinations.<

RECERTIFICATION IN SUBSEQUENT SEMESTERS

Each student shall, at the beginning of each academic semester, provide the Office of Academic & Student Services and applicable faculty members with an approved classroom and/or exam accommodation plan.

Contact the Office of Academic & Student Services at StudentSuccess@dickinsonlaw.psu.edu with questions.

Accommodations Request (Language-Related) - Translation Dictionary Request for International Students

International students for whom English is not a first language may request the use of a hard-copy English language and/or translation dictionary during timed, in-class assessments. In circumstances where a hard-copy translation dictionary is not available, the student may request the use of a foreign language translating dictionary in electronic form, provided it has no memory capacity, contains no other functions besides language translation, and does not connect to the internet. Legal dictionaries are not permitted for use during timed, in-class assessments.

Contact the Office of Academic & Student Services with questions regarding language-related exam accommodations.

Please contact Giselle Santibanez-Bania, Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Services, with questions regarding accommodations at gps5491@psu.edu.