SAS Student Handbook

Know Your Rights and Responsibilities

Students with disabilities have the right to expect:

• Full and equal participation in the services and activities of College of the Siskiyous (College) and Student Access Services office (SAS).
• Reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids and services in response to documented disabilities.
• Confidential information about their disability will not be shared without their prior consent unless permitted by law and then only on a "need-to-know" basis.
• Limited access to anecdotal information maintained by SAS.
• Information about SAS policies, procedures, accommodations, and services will be readily available in alternate formats upon timely request.

Students with disabilities have the responsibility to:

• Meet qualifications and maintain essential institutional standards for courses, programs, services, jobs and activities.
• Read the current College of the Siskiyous catalog section entitled College Behavior Standards. All College of the Siskiyous students, including students with disabilities, will be held to the same standards of personal conduct, decorum, and behavior.
• Self-identify and self-advocate for accommodations, services, and auxiliary aids.
• Provide SAS acceptable documentation of disability prior to the authorization for any accommodation, service, or academic adjustment.
• Demonstrate and/or provide documentation how their disability limits their participation in courses, programs, services, jobs and activities.
• Follow established policies and procedures for obtaining accommodations, services, auxiliary aids or when requesting the removal of an architectural barrier.

College of the Siskiyous has the right to:

• Establish essential functions, abilities, skills, knowledge, and standards for courses, programs, services, and activities.
• Determine the appropriate standards in developing, constructing, remodeling, and maintaining physical facilities.
• Confirm disability status on a student (for accommodation purposes) after requesting, receiving, and reviewing current and appropriate documentation. The documentation must support any request for accommodations, academic adjustments, auxiliary aids, and services.
• Discuss and develop accommodation strategies for students with disabilities.
• Deny a request for an accommodation, academic adjustment, auxiliary aid, or service, if the student's documentation of disability does not corroborate the need or support the student's request.
• Select among equally effective accommodations, academic adjustments, auxiliary aids, and services.

The College has the responsibility to:

• Develop an Academic Accommodation Plan (AAP) for each student who provides documentation and is eligible for services with SAS.
• The College delegates to SAS the responsibility for developing AAP's. The AAP will authorize certain accommodations, academic adjustments, auxiliary aids, and service that may mitigate the impact of a student's disability in the major life activity of learning.
• Provide readily accessible information to faculty, staff, students, and community agencies regarding disability policies mandated by law (state and federal) and implementing procedures available by the College and SAS.
• Ensure that courses, programs, services, jobs, activities, and facilities, when viewed in their entirety, are accessible in the most integrated and appropriate settings.
• Evaluate student performance based on ability, not disability.
• Respond to requests for accommodations, services, academic adjustments, and auxiliary aids in a timely manner.
• Maintain all documentation verifying disability in a secure environment that ensures confidentiality.

After the receipt of appropriate documentation, an AAP will be developed based on the following criterion:

1. Does the student have a disability? "Disability" is defined in the Americans with Disability Act 1990 (ADA) as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. A physical impairment is a physiological condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss that affects one or more of the basic body systems (e.g., neurological, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, etc.). A mental impairment is a "mental or psychological disorder such as an intellectual disability, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities."
2. Does the disability substantially limit a major life activity? (e.g. walking, seeing, speaking, hearing, breathing, learning, performing manual tasks, caring for oneself, working, sitting, standing, lifting, reaching, thinking, concentrating, interacting with others, and sleeping).
3. Is the student "otherwise qualified" for the course, program, or activity?
4. Did the student initiate a request for an accommodation, academic adjustment, auxiliary aid, or services?
5. Did the request for an accommodation, academic adjustment, auxiliary aid, or services follow established SAS policy and procedure?
6. Is the request reasonable and readily achievable? Does it impose a financial or administrative burden on the college?
7. Does the requested accommodation fundamentally alter the nature or expectations for a course, program or an activity?