The DSS Office serves various student populations including undergraduate , post-baccalaureate, graduate, extension, and doctoral candidates. Support is offered to students registered with our office through various services and accommodations.
General Services
- Maintains confidential student records regarding their disabilities
- Receives and evaluates documentation provided by students verifying disabilities
- Consults with students and arranges appropriate individualized accommodations based upon documentation
- Serves as an advocate for students with faculty and/or administrators
- Arranges for students' use of auxiliary aides (i.e. ASL Interpreters or Captionists, assistive technology, etc.)
- Provides information and individual counseling to students regarding disability issues, their legal rights, and responsibilities
- Conducts informational and training programs across the university
- Consults with faculty regarding the instructional needs of individual students with disabilities
- Consults with other campus departments regarding the needs of students with disabilities (e.g. Facilities Management, Financial Aid, Registrar's Office, Student Accounts, Student Housing, the Dean of Students Office, etc.)
- Network referral system which may further assist a student with a disability
Common Accommodations
- Priority registration. Please note, due to pre-requisite requirements or restrictions set by the College, students with this accommodation may not be able to register for their first-choice classes. It is important that students work with their Academic Advisor to select classes from which they are eligible.
- Assistance in relocating classes in accessible locations
- Permission to be under registered
- Permission to audio record lectures. To use this accommodation, students must consent to an Audio Recording Agreement that states the terms under which recordings may be used. Recordings are used to help students capture information which they may have missed when taking in-class notes.
- Note taking assistance. This may be through assistive technology or peer note taking. Note taking assistance does not replace class attendance.
- Extended testing time
- ASL Interpreters
- Realtime Captioning. This is primarily for students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing. A real-time captionist does not substitute for a student attending a particular class.
- Access to assistive technology programs including Kurzweil 3000, ZoomText, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and JAWS
- Consideration for attendance or extensions on assignments
- Housing. Please note a housing accommodation does not guarantee on-campus housing. If a housing accommodation is approved through the DSS Office, and the student is eligible to live on campus, there is no guarantee that the approved accommodation will be provided due to space limitations. The Student Housing Office will do its best to accommodate all students, but availability is limited based on occupancy and availability.
Accommodations Not Provided Under the ADA
- The ADA does not require colleges to provide personal assistants or personal assistive technology - this includes transportation services for students with disabilities.
- Accommodations are not made which would reduce academic expectations, standards, or which would eliminate essential components of any course.
Disability Services for Non-Students
The DSS Office's primary responsibility is to provide services for LMU students with documented disabilities. Individuals (visitors, parents, conference guests, etc.) with disabilities attending events at LMU should contact the event organizer at least 10 days in advance of the event to inquire about the accommodations process.