Policies and Procedures

Student Rights and Responsibilities

Every student with a documented disability has the following rights:

1. Equal access to courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities available through the University.
2. Reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids determined on a case-by-case basis.
3. Appropriate confidentiality of all information pertaining to his/her disability with the choice of whom to disclose his/her disability to except as required by law.
4. Information reasonably available in accessible formats.

Every student with a disability has the responsibility to:

1. Meet the University'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 an appropriate professional source that verifies the nature of the disability, functional limitations, and the need for specific accommodations.
4. Follow specific procedures for obtaining reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids.

Institutional Rights and Responsibilities

The University of Connecticut, through its Disability Contact Persons has the right to:

1. Maintain the University's academic standards.
2. Request current documentation from a student completed by an appropriate professional source to verify the need for reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids.
3. Discuss a student's need for reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids with the professional source of his/her documentation with the student's signed consent authorizing such discussion.
4. Select among equally effective and appropriate accommodations, adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids in consultation with students with disabilities.
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 10 the requested services, or the documentation is not provided in a timely manner.
6. Refuse to provide an accommodation, adjustment, and/or auxiliary aids 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; or
   • pose undue financial or administrative burden on the University.

The University of Connecticut through its Disability Contact Persons has the responsibility to:

1. Ensure that University 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 students with disabilities and assure its availability in accessible formats upon request.
3. Evaluate students on their abilities, not their disabilities.
4. Provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids for students with disabilities upon a timely request by a student.
5. Maintain appropriate confidentiality of records and communication concerning students with disabilities except where disclosure is required by law or authorized by the student.

More specifically, the University's Disability Contact Person has the responsibility to:

1. Assist students with disabilities who self-identify and meet University criteria for eligibility to receive reasonable and appropriate accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids determined on a case-by-case basis.
2. Assure confidentiality of all information pertaining to a student's disability.
3. Inform students with disabilities of University policies and procedures for filing a formal grievance through the Office of Diversity and Equity and/or through external agencies (e.g., Office of Civil Rights).