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Chaminade University of Honolulu offers accommodations for all actively enrolled students with disabilities in compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and the ADA Amendments Act (2008).
Students are responsible for contacting Kokua Ike: Center for Student Learning to schedule an appointment. Verification of their disability will be requested through appropriate documentation and once received it will take up to approximately 2–3 weeks to review them. Appropriate paperwork will be completed by the student before notification will be sent out to their instructors. Accommodation paperwork will not be automatically sent out to instructors each semester, as the student is responsible to notify Kokua Ike via email at [email protected] each semester if changes or notifications are needed.
Accommodating Students with Disabilities
Chaminade University is committed to supporting a diverse community that includes students with disabilities, and to meeting its obligations to such students under the law. Kokua Ike: Tutoring and Learning Services, a unit within Student Success, provides academic and other accommodations for students with disabilities. To assist students to be able to participate in the various programs, services and activities of the institution, Kokua Ike requires the support, cooperation and partnership of faculty, other teaching staff and administrators within the University community.
Faculty members should not seek to make arrangements on their own to accommodate student disabilities. If a student approaches you for a disability-related accommodation, please refer the student to Kokua Ike.
What are Academic Accommodations
Academic accommodations are legally-mandated modifications, adjustments, auxiliary aids, and/or services that give a student with a disability an equal opportunity to benefit from the educational process. It is useful to think of accommodations as adjustments to how things are normally done.
Academic accommodations may include:
- Changes to a classroom environment or task that permit a student with a disability to participate in the educational process
- Modifications to policies, practices, or procedures (e.g., reduced course load, extended time to degree, etc.)
- Provision of accessible instructional materials and effective communication services
- Other adaptations or modifications that enable a student to enjoy the benefits and privileges of the university’s programs, services, and activities.
Students who may require an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must register with the Kokua Ike office and initiate their requests. Because accommodations are not retroactive, students should contact Kokua Ike as soon as possible in order to ensure timely notice and coordination. Similarly, it is the student’s responsibility to notify Kokua Ike as early as possible in the event of any problems or unexpected barriers experienced in the obtaining of academic accommodations and services.
Commonly available academic accommodations include but are not limited to:
- Preferential seating in class;
- Copy of presentation slides or notes;
- Notetaker or scribe;
- Permission to make audio recordings of lectures;
- Visual aids or written supplements to spoken instructions;
- Sign language interpreter;
- Assistive technology (e.g., text to speech, noise-canceling headphones, pen e-reader, screen reader).
Commonly available test accommodations include but are not limited to:
- Extended time;
- Distraction-free rooms;
- Wheelchair-accessible testing stations;
- Screen reading technology;
- Permission to bring and take medications during the exam (for example, for individuals with diabetes who must monitor their blood sugar and administer insulin);
- Scribes to transfer answers to Scantron bubble sheets or record dictated notes and essays.
Kokua Ike Expectations and Responsibilities
Expectations
- Documentation:
- Kokua Ike must receive professional documentation of a student’s disability in a timely manner prior to services being initiated.
- Accommodations:
- Students and faculty should work collaboratively with Kokua Ike to facilitate academic accommodations.
- Kōkua ʻIke does not grant retroactive nor unreasonable accommodations, modifications, and/or auxiliary aids and services. For example, accommodations cannot impose undue hardship to, or fundamentally alter a program or activity of the University.
Responsibilities
- Documentation:
- Collect, evaluate, and securely maintain professional documentation of a disability and determine eligibility for accommodations.
- Confidentiality:
- Respect and maintain a student’s privacy about disability information and accommodations.
- Meet with the student privately in an accessible location to discuss disability-related needs.
- Accommodations:
- Assure that qualified students with disabilities have equal access to University programs and services.
- Along with the student, take a leading role in arranging and providing accommodations in a timely manner.
- Provide appropriate academic accommodations in collaboration with the instructor and the student.
- Provide print materials in accessible format once the faculty member and student identify the material to be converted.
- Recruit and hire appropriate service providers for academic accommodations as needed.
- Assist faculty to facilitate accommodations.
- Provide assistive technology applications, equipment as required and based upon an assessment of the student’s needs
- Policy and Procedures:
- Maintain the academic and conduct standards of the University.
- Develop written policies/procedures to meet the University’s responsibilities to students with disabilities.
- Disseminate information about needs and rights of students with disabilities to the campus community.
- Communication:
- Communicate policies/procedures clearly to the student and the faculty.
- Consult and/or provide training assistance to campus constituents.
