Rights and Responsibilities

Accommodations for individuals with a disability are required by law to ensure equal access to the opportunities at Ithaca College. Through the interactive process students, staff, SAS, and faculty all have a role to play in ensuring equal and effective accommodations.

What is the interactive process?

The “interactive process” is the process by which accommodations are requested, discussed, implemented, and refined.  Documentation from relevant outside professionals is considered as part of this process.   

Initially, it involves a student advocating for or requesting specific accommodations with Student Accessibility Services and may expand to include relevant faculty and staff.  It is important to note that through the interactive process, accommodations can also be declined if they are not supported by documentation, are unreasonable requests, would result in an alteration to a fundamental course requirement, or would result in a direct threat to the health or safety of the IC community.   

Faculty may expect from SAS:

  • to be notified of accommodations by the Office of Student Accessibility Services, once a plan has officially been created 
  • to receive certain limited information pertaining to the need of the student so that teaching and advising responsibilities can be fulfilled.   
  • to be able to consult with and received support from SAS, to understand and implement planned accommodations. 
  • to engage with SAS in the interactive process to refine or deny accommodations that may fundamentally alter requirements of the college, department, or major in which a student is enrolled.   

Faculty must:

  • Direct a student to SAS if the student requests a disability-related accommodation.   
  • Discuss concerns about being unable to fulfill accommodations with SAS before raising the concern with the accommodated student. SAS must be consulted before a requested accommodation is denied because it would fundamentally alter requirements of the college, department, or major in which a student is enrolled.   
  • Faculty can normalize the accommodation process for students by including an accommodation statement in their syllabuses.  A recommended syllabus statement is available online, and faculty may consult with SAS on other ways to communicate with students about the process. 
  •  Faculty should never individually insist or require that a student meet with Student Accessibility Services, nor assume that the student has a disability before they volunteer such information. 
  • Respect the privacy of a student with a disability by not asking for private information related to their disability and not identifying the fact they are a student with a disability publicly.  
  • Faculty are encouraged to consider disability when developing educational experiences or curating resources