Services for Students with Disabilities at DABCC serves four purposes:

• To provide an equal educational opportunity to qualified students with disabilities.
• To protect the academic freedom of faculty members.
• To assure DABCC compliance with disability legislation.
• To protect the academic integrity of DABCC.

The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) had a great impact on postsecondary institutions. Under ADA, students who meet all admissions standards, and who are disabled, must be provided with reasonable academic accommodations in their quest for a degree. Institutions who fail to comply with the law are liable and have been successfully sued. This raises concern among faculty members regarding the standards of academic freedom and academic integrity. It is comforting to note that as ADA case law has evolved, postsecondary institutions have been granted great latitude in determining what accommodations violate these standards. Universities are not required to make any accommodations that violate academic freedom, academic integrity, or the learning of an essential element of a course.

SSD serves DABCC in balancing the rights of students with disabilities and the rights of faculty.