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Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, students with disabilities are due reasonable accommodations in their academic pursuits. A student’s disability should not unfairly interfere with his or her learning process or evaluation and grading.
The primary mission of the Fairmont State Disability Services Office (DSO) is to provide leadership and facilitate equal access to all institutional opportunities for students who have disabilities, so they may achieve their academic, personal and professional goals in preparation for responsible citizenship. DSO provides institution-wide advisement, consultation, and training on disability-related topics, including legal and regulatory compliance, universal design, and disability scholarship. We identify and work to remove barriers to foster an all-inclusive campus, and provide individual services and facilitate academic accommodations to students with disabilities. Our staff collaborates with students, instructors, staff, and community members to create diverse learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive and sustainable by:
- Advocating for students with disabilities to have access to the same level of service from campus offices as is available to non-disabled students and to receive from DSO only those services not provided elsewhere by the institution.
- Fostering the development of a campus culture that values the diversity of disability and that values disability as a core component of diversity.
Encouraging the design of campus environments that welcome students with disabilities, and advocate for inclusion of a commitment across institutional departments.
- Through guidance and technical assistance to the institution on disability-related laws and regulations, DSO fosters academic experiences that are as similar as possible to the experiences of non-disabled students by:
- Providing guidance, advice, and technical assistance that informs and enables the institution to meet applicable laws and regulations.
- Apprising key administrators of emerging issues relative to disability and access that may impact the institution.
- Ensuring that students with disabilities receive reasonable and appropriate accommodations, aids, and services to have equal access to all institutional programs, services, and activities.
- Collaborating with others across the institution in ways that benefit students.
- Providing guidance to faculty members in providing reasonable and effective accommodations, and by consultation and training for faculty members on disability related topics.
The Disability Services Office is located in 316 Turley Center and can be reached at (304)333-3661. For more information please visit our website www.fairmontstate.edu/access.
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