The Disability Access office (DA) serves all students with disabilities (undergraduate, graduate, and law). Providing for reasonable accommodations is federally mandated under ADA and 504 law and is central to our Jesuit values of inclusion and social justice as a fundamental dimension of human diversity.
As a faculty member instructing at Gonzaga, you may receive an Accommodation Eligibility Letter via email through the Disability Access office’s myDA accommodation management portal. The Accommodation Eligibility Letter indicates you have a student with a documented disability enrolled in your class, and lists the student's approved accommodations to be implemented in the course you are instructing. Students are encouraged to meet with their professors to discuss how their approved accommodations (listed in the Accommodation Eligibility Letter emailed to you) will be managed and implemented in your course. Additionally, instructors may receive a Faculty Notification Letter from the DA office, reporting on a student in your course who may be experiencing a temporary disability or an exacerbation of a preexisting condition; This letter will provide guidance for supporting the student as they progress within your course.
If you have a concern that an accommodation is inappropriate for your course, please reach out to the Disability Access office to explore that concern, and to identify alternative accommodations if appropriate. If you would like to learn more about how to best implement accommodations or support students with disability, the DA office will work with individual faculty and can provide department trainings as requested. To schedule a training please email disability@gonzaga.edu or call x4134 (off campus 509-313-4134)
Progress in Partnership
The DA office strives to provide useful information to faculty as we work together to create an inclusive community for students with disabilities on campus. We welcome the opportunity to visit with individual faculty or departments and benefit from your perspective and collective wisdom as we move toward greater inclusion for students with disabilities with a universal design of instruction.
Strategic planning initiatives on the campus and recommendations on the national level authored and endorsed by the Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), indicate a paradigm shift in the expectations of enforcement agencies and the disability community; as we are 30 years post the enactment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 and 15 years post the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The emphasis has changed from one of reactive accommodations and retrofits to one of systematic design and inclusion in all areas of the campus from the physical environment to program and course development to student life.
A sample set of the recommendations included in the AHEAD Program Standards and Performance Indicators is listed below:
- Work collaboratively with academic affairs on policy regarding course substitutions and foster an institutional commitment to promoting student abilities rather than a student's disabilities.
- Disseminate information through institutional electronic and printed publications regarding disability services and how to access them and ensure access to information about disabilities to students, administration, faculty and service professionals.
- Promote universal design in instruction and communication.
- Provide faculty/staff awareness training to enhance the understanding of faculty's responsibility to provide accommodations to students and how to provide accommodations and modifications as well as enhancing the institutional understanding of the rights of students with disabilities.