Congress passed Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act in 1973. It is a civil rights statute designed to prevent discrimination against individuals with disabilities. It provides that:<\/p>\n
Section 504 only applies to entities that receive federal financial assistance. Whereas the ADA covers most establishments whether privately owned or assisted with state and\/or federal funds.<\/p>\n
In most instances, yes. However, to the extent that the ADA provides greater protections to individuals with disabilities, the college\/university must comply with the ADA.<\/p>\n
Students must be able to meet the technical and academic qualifications for entry into the school, program or activity in order to be considered otherwise qualified.<\/p>\n
A person who:<\/p>\n
It is also unlawful to discriminate against someone solely because of his\/her association with an individual with a disability.<\/p>\n
Major life activities include, but are not limited to, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, caring for oneself and performing manual tasks.<\/p>\n
All conditions which entitled a student to receive special education while attending grade school (e.g., mental retardation, learning disabilities, serious emotional disturbances), AIDS, cancer, alcohol or drug addiction (so long as the student is not a current user of unlawful drugs), environmental illness, attention deficit disorder, diabetes, asthma, physical disabilities, behavior disorders, etc., so long as the condition substantially limits a major life activity.<\/p>\n
In order to enjoy the protections of Section 504 and the ADA, the student has an obligation to self-identify that s\/he has a disability and needs accommodation. The institution may require that the student provide appropriate documentation at student expense in order to establish the existence of the disability and the need for accommodation.<\/p>\n
The institution must provide reasonable accommodations to the student\u2019s known disability in order to afford him\/her an equal opportunity to participate in the institution\u2019s programs, activities, and services (including extracurricular activities). A college or university may not discriminate against an individual solely on the basis of disability.<\/p>\n
An institution of higher education must provide student academic adjustments to ensure that s\/he receives an equal opportunity to participate. Examples of academic adjustments may include:<\/p>\n
An institution of higher education must also provide auxiliary aids and services to persons with disabilities such as:<\/p>\n
An institution is not required to provide attendants, individually prescribed devices, readers for personal use or study or other devices of a personal nature. A college or university is only obligated to provide tutorial services to students with disabilities in the same manner it provides such services to non-disabled students. The institution may choose the methods by which the auxiliary aids will be supplied so long as the methods offered provide the student an equal opportunity. The institution may not charge the student for necessary accommodations.<\/p>\n
No. Public institutions must give primary consideration to the communication preferences of the student with a disability. Moreover, both public and private institutions have the responsibility to provide effective accommodations. Nonetheless, a college or university is not required to provide academic adjustments or auxiliary aids and services if such provision would fundamentally alter the nature of the program or when the academic requirements are essential to a program of study or to meet licensing prerequisites. An auxiliary aid may also be denied when the provision of such would place an \u201cundue burden\u201d on the institution. An undue burden is defined as \u201csignificant difficulty or expense.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. An institution is not required to accept or retain a student who poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others. \u201cDirect threat\u201d is defined as a \u201csignificant\u201d risk of \u201csubstantial\u201d harm that cannot be eliminated by reasonable modifications or the provision of auxiliary aids or services. The assessment of whether a student poses a direct threat of harm must be individualized and based on current medical knowledge or on the best available objective evidence.<\/p>\n
Yes. The institution may not generally conduct pre-admission inquiries as to whether an applicant has a disability. If a student takes an admissions test under nonstandard conditions, the institution may not devalue the student\u2019s score or treat the application in an adverse manner solely on this basis.<\/p>\n
An institution is entitled to apply its general disciplinary policies with students who are chemically dependent with respect to the possession, use and sale of drugs and alcohol on campus, so long as students are treated fairly and consistently. A student who is a current user of illegal drugs, is not considered to be a qualified individual with a disability. However, if the individual has successfully completed or is enrolled in a supervised treatment program and is no longer using illegal drugs, the individual is protected from discrimination under Section 504 and the ADA. Additionally, it is a violation of federal law to erroneously regard a student as being addicted to illegal drugs.<\/p>\n
Institutions of higher education must provide students with notice of the nondiscrimination requirements of Section 504 and the ADA. Colleges and universities must adopt and publish grievance procedures that provide the student with due process. Under Section 504, institutions must have a Section 504 compliance officer. Public institutions must also have an ADA compliance officer and conduct a self-evaluation to determine their compliance with the ADA.<\/p>\n
No. The institution may not discriminate against any individual because of his\/her exercise of these rights or against individuals who participate in an investigation pursuant to these regulations. It is important to note that an individual claiming discrimination need not prevail on the underlying claim in order to prove retaliation.<\/p>\n
Facilities constructed prior to June 3, 977 need not necessarily be made accessible so long as the program or activity, viewed in its entirety, is readily accessible to persons with disabilities. However, the student must be afforded an equal opportunity to enjoy the full range of services offered by the institution. If an institution modifies one of these buildings, it must make the modifications accessible, to the maximum extent feasible. Buildings constructed after June 3, 1977 must be readily accessible and usable to individuals with disabilities. All programs and services must be provided in a manner that affords the student maximum integration with his\/her non-disabled peers.<\/p>\n
From \u201cAn Overview of the Rights and Responsibilities of Students\u201d by Jeanne M. Kincaid, Esq.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504: As Applied to Colleges & Universities An Overview of the Rights and Responsibilities of Students With Disabilities Congress passed Section 504 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":575,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"class_list":["post-578","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n