Students with Disabilities
A student who has been diagnosed with a disability, or who believes that he or she may have a disability requiring accommodation, must register as soon as possible with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD). (Faculty and staff members do not diagnose or evaluate disabilities.) Requests for accommodation must be made prior to the course,exam or other academic activity to enable the affected academic program to respond.
Office for Students with Disabilities
OSD facilitates student development, independence and access to campus programs, services and facilities through disability awareness events, disability management counseling, support groups, note takers, sign language interpreters, real-time captionists, readers, e-text, typists, library/laboratory assistants, adaptive equipment loans/minor repair, priority registration/enrollment assistance, on-campus housing coordination, exam arrangements, and on-campus transportation/parking coordination. OSD serves as liaison with academic departments, and with off-campus disability-related agencies and facilitates disability awareness through maintenance of a resource library of books, periodicals, articles, films and video formats about disability issues. With sufficient advance notice, OSD will provide on-campus disability workshops. Besides assisting students with disabilities with their academic growth, OSD also sponsors a Peer Mentoring Program to ease disabled students' transition into UCSD and facilitate independence, confidence and self-advocacy.
The OSD Director serves as advisor to the student organization for disabled students, which is an integral part of the UCSD community. OSD and the student organization welcome the participation/involvement of all students (with or without disabilities) in coordination of: disability awareness and Community Advocates for Disability Rights and Education (CADRE) events, leadership opportunities, community service, educational programs and sports/social events. For more information, contact (858) 534-4382.
Accommodation Requests and Complaints about Disability Issues
It is OSD's responsibility to verify the current presence of a student's disability and related limitation(s) in the academic environment. A student must present an OSD letter of certification/an accommodation recommendation to the appropriate faculty member in order to initiate a request for accommodation in classes, examinations, or other academic program activities. A course instructor, dissertation/thesis advisor, or examiner must have the OSD forms in order to consider accommodation. Accommodations can not be made retroactively and can not fundamentally alter an academic requirement.
Details of the process for seeking accommodation, and for appealing the denial of accommodation requests is found in the UCSD Academic Senate Policy on Students with Disabilities and Steps for Academic Accommodation, which can be found online at http://www-senate.ucsd.edu/manual/appendices/apxtoc.htm - app1. Academic accommodations are defined as adjustments or modifications to coursework, course requirements (such as final examinations) and program requirements (such as comprehensive or qualifying examinations) that allow students with disabilities to accomplish the fundamental and essential components of the course of study. As noted, OSD is the source for assistance and guidance in using these procedures. For more information and assistance, contact the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), 202 University Center, http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/osd, (858) 534-4382 (Voice/TDD), (858) 534-9709 (TDD+TDD Mail).
A student who disagrees with the response to a request for academic accommodation may appeal the decision or action at any time during the quarter to the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) Subcommittee on Appeals for Accommodation of Students with Disabilities, as further described in the UCSD Academic Senate Policy described above. This subcommittee may be contacted through the Academic Senate Office, 214 University Center, (858) 534-3640.
Issues relating to physical access to facilities at UCSD are addressed in the UCSD Disability Access Guidelines, which can be found in the Policy and Procedures Manual, Section 200-9, available online at http://adminrecords.ucsd.edu/ppm/docs/200-9.HTML.
Complaints regarding discriminatory practices based upon disability may be filed following the procedures outlined in the Student Conduct Code, Section 23.10 "Student Grievance Procedures", which is available online at http://ugr8.ucsd.edu/judicial/23_00.html#23.10.
For procedural assistance and information on any matters pertaining to disabilities and accommodations, contact the Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Affairs at the Office of Graduate Studies.