Disability Support Services
The Academic Resource Center (ARC) works to ensure that students with disabilities have access equal to that of other students across their collegiate experience. Toward this mission, we provide individual accommodations and services that are designed to build an accessible and inclusive campus community. In conjunction with Disability Support Services, the ARC staff supports all students in developing academic skills, learning about campus resources, and empowering students with ownership as they navigate their collegiate education. If you have inquiries regarding Disability Support Services, continue reading below for an overview of our accommodation processes and deadlines.
As Disability Support Services represent an ongoing process throughout your education, there are several points in which students will need to engage with the Academic Resource Center and its procedures.
- If you are a student who has not yet registered accommodations with the ARC, please navigate to our Students New to ARC Disability Support page for details on how to connect with our office and begin the accommodation process.
- If you are a student who has and would like to use approved accommodations on-file with the Academic Resource Center, please refer to our Renewing Academic Accommodations page. This section contains details on how to make use of your accommodations each semester as well as how to keep your instructors informed each semester with our renewal process.
- If you are already approved for academic accommodations but are seeking to add and/or alter current accommodations, new documentation may be required. If you have this documentation, please upload it to your ClockWork Portal and make an appointment to discuss this information with Amber Larson or Carly Jones.
When Applying for Accommodations, Please Keep in Mind:
- The purpose of disability accommodations is to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability: Specific barriers that significantly impact the student and impede access to the same opportunities as their peers.
- A provider’s letter with a diagnosis and a recommendation of accommodations does not automatically guarantee that that accommodation can/will be granted. Provider’s suggestions are not prescriptions.
- The doctor, therapist, or provider is welcome to provide suggestions for accommodations per their medical perspective.
- Members of the Academic Resource Center and Housing Accommodation Committee will review any provider recommendations, but will make accommodation decisions based upon the interactive process with the student; and based on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the ADA and its amendments, and the Fair Housing Act as they apply to higher education institutions; and in accordance with their institutional knowledge of opportunities provided to all students at the College of Wooster.
- Accommodations are not determined to ensure success (as is the law for K-12 institutions). Higher Education disability laws ensure equal access to the same features/programs/facilities as all other students. The College wants all students to succeed, but at the Higher Education level, success is up to the student.
- Reasonable accommodations, by their nature, are designed to increase inclusion for a student with a disability so that they have access to the same opportunities as their peers. Reasonable accommodations are not intended to excuse the responsibilities or expectations the College holds for all students.
Reasonable Accommodations
- Disability accommodations are deemed “Reasonable”, under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, if they are necessary to ensure equal access to the same opportunities as provided to all College of Wooster students.
- Accommodations are not considered Reasonable if they are merely to improve chances of success. The College certainly wants all of its students to succeed, however now that the student is an adult, success is the responsibility of the student, not the institution.
- Disability accommodations are only appropriate when there is a barrier to equal access.
- Accommodations are reasonable when they include the student in the same opportunities everyone else has. Accommodations are not reasonable if they let students with disabilities out of the responsibilities or expectations the College holds for everyone else.
*Please see the Academic Resource Center’s Policies and Procedures Handbook for the definition of a qualified licensed professional.