Disability Support

Learning Support Services provides accommodations and academic support services ensuring equal access to students with documented learning disabilities, mental health issues, medical disabilities, and mobility issues. Some of these disabilities include dyslexia, dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder, non-verbal learning disability, Autism, Asperger’s, ADD, ADHD, acquired brain injury, speech, hearing or visual impairment, PTSD, Lupus, and depression and anxiety disorders.

Eligibility for Services

The first step toward receiving accommodations is to provide our office, located on the first floor of the JMC building, with the most current documentation of your disability. The guidelines below provide information about the type of documentation needed to provide reasonable accommodations. Learning Support Services reviews documentation on a case-by-case basis. All documentation provided to Learning Support Services is filed and secured in our office and a specific disability is never disclosed to faculty or staff without prior consent.

Documentation Guidelines

The documentation you provide should include the following:

• A clear, specific diagnosis
• Credentials of the licensed professional providing diagnosis
• An explanation of the current manifestations or functional limitations of the disability
• A description of current and past accommodations, services and/or medications and their effects
• Recommendations for accommodations or support services that relate directly to the current functional impact of the disability.

These guidelines are based on the best practices established by the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD). 

Individual Education Plans and/or 504 plans from secondary and elementary schools alone may not be adequate documentation to determine eligibility; however they do provide useful information in addition to other more comprehensive psycho-educational and/or medical evaluations or reports.

Accommodations

Students with qualifying documented learning disabilities are eligible, on a case-by-case basis, to the following:

• Faculty notification of general learning difference
• Extended testing time
• Oral / scribed exams
• Note-taking assistance
• Executive function support
• Books on CD/MP3
• Assistive technology:
• Text-to speech software
• Voice recognition software
• Brain-mapping software
• Audiobooks

Students with medical or mobility-related issues can receive preferential scheduling, seating, and specific in-class accommodations arranged with individual professors based on medical necessity.

LD Orientation

In addition to the accommodations detailed above, the Learning Support Services Office offers a one-day summer orientation program to incoming students with documented learning disabilities. The program is offered in conjunction with StART—the overnight summer orientation program sponsored by CIA’s Office of Student Life and Housing. During our LD Orientation, you and your parents meet the Learning Support Services staff and are provided with an overview of accommodations, training on various assistive technologies, and time management and study skills workshops specific to the unique demands of the CIA student experience.