Working With Students With Disabilities

Ursinus College is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to students with physical and/or learning disabilities who have met the College’s admissions requirements and are eligible to receive accommodations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our goal is to ensure that students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to succeed in our rigorous and competitive environment. Compliance with the law does not mean that our admissions standards have been lowered or that our academic demands have been or will be reduced.

Accommodation Process

Students with a disability who are requesting accommodations must self-identify to the Office of Disability and Access, provide the appropriate documentation, and complete the accommodation process. 

The Disability and Access team will review the accommodation requests and documentation, meet with the student and approve reasonable academic accommodations. Disability and Access will send the Accommodation Approval Letter via email, and it will also be made available on the Bear Accessibility Portal.

If you are concerned you have not received an Accommodation Approval Letter for one of your students, please contact disabilityandaccess@ursinus.edu.

Students must approve and request their accommodations each semester. Once requested and approved by the student, Disability and Access will provide information about appropriate accommodations and discuss possible reasonable accommodations. 

A student’s diagnosis/disability will not be disclosed. The student has a right to confidentiality and Disability and Access will make every effort to maintain the confidentiality of the individual’s diagnosis. The team will share functional impacts that the student is dealing with in order to best support the student.

“That quote, ‘the only disability in life is a bad attitude’, the reason that’s bullshit is … No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp. No amount of standing in the middle of a bookshelf and radiating a positive attitude is going to turn all those books into braille.”

– Stella Young, comedian, journalist and activist. TEDx, 2014.