Special Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

Students requiring special accommodations are urged to apply to the College prior to the College's late registration process (call 215-751-8010 to receive this information) or no later than one month before the start of the semester. The Center must be provided with sufficient notice for timely and effective service provision. Students must allow time for: the provision and receipt of appropriate documentation, documentation review by appropriate staff members, the scheduling of interviews with a counselor, placement testing and registering for courses and the scheduling and arranging of auxiliary services. Without sufficient time and notice, students may encounter a delay in the delivery of services.

All students have different abilities and needs. The Center On Disability will work with students to assess their individual needs and determine which accommodations are most appropriate in meeting those needs. Students with disabilities may be entitled to accommodations such as the use of assistive technology, tape recorders, readers, notetakers, scribes and/or professional interpreters for the deaf. In addition, some students may require accommodations for testing which involve extended time, alternative testing formats, technological assistance or privacy of a quiet setting.

In order to receive classroom accommodations at Community College of Philadelphia, students are required to submit to the Center On Disability official documentation stating the nature of their disability. Documentation may be obtained from previous schools, hospitals and agencies such as the state Office of Vocational Rehabilitation or from the offices of professional clinicians. The Center On Disability can assist students who may encounter difficulty obtaining the necessary documentation.

Once documentation is received, the Center On Disability will work with students to define their needs and to suggest and arrange accommodations. With the student's permission, the Center will provide additional information to their instructors.

Please note that Community College of Philadelphia is not responsible for the provision of personal attendant care. Students are responsible for personal needs as related to eating, using restroom facilities, taking medication, and transportation. The College does not provide assistance in these areas.

Please be aware that part of the College's deliberative process for evaluating and determining accommodations requires an interview with a counselor in the Center on Disability. This interview will take place on the Main Campus, located at 1700 Spring Garden Street in the Center On Disability, Room M1-22.

Special Accommodation Procedures

Students who are eligible to receive services through the Center On Disability will be provided with accommodation sheets each semester documenting for them and their instructors the specific accommodations to which they are entitled.
Students are responsible for submitting the accommodation sheets to their instructors, preferably during the first week of class, in order to ensure that the necessary accommodations will be provided. One copy of the accommodation sheet is given to the instructor, and a second copy is retained by the student.
Students should arrange for a private discussion with each of their instructors to explain why they need the recommended accommodations.
In addition to the accommodation sheets, students are provided with Instructor Notification Forms and are required to submit these forms to their instructors along with the accommodation sheets. Instructors are asked to acknowledge receipt of the accommodation sheets by filling out the notification forms and returning them to the Center On Disability.

Students should not wait until they begin to have serious problems in class to discuss accommodations with an instructor. Faculty members are not expected to make adjustments unless given adequate notice of students' needs.

Provision of Special Accommodations Through the Direct Services of Disability Aides

The primary role of disability aides at Community College of Philadelphia is to provide direct services to students with disabilities that require accommodations. The types of services provided by disability aides include the following:

Classroom Assistant: A classroom assistant is assigned to accompany a student to classes and handle specific tasks as required. They may take board notes, set up lab stations and, at the direction of the student, perform lab experiments, and set up technical equipment for student use.

Reader: Some students with disabilities need the services of readers to assist them with their academic coursework. At times, a reader may accompany students to class in order to read materials presented during lecture, or they may spend a designated amount of time outside of the classroom reading books onto audiotape for student use at a later time.

Students with visual impairments and learning disabilities who require books on tape or digitally recorded books should register for membership with the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) in Princeton, N.J., (866-732-3585), or the Library for the Blind located at 919 Walnut Street in Philadelphia (215- 683-3213). The Library for the Blind lends material in Braille, large print or on tape. They also lend play back machines that play the four-track tapes from RFB&D. Because it usually takes several weeks for orders to be processed, try to get information about your required texts well before classes begin. There is a membership fee to register with RFB&D.

Scribe: The role of the scribe is to take direct dictation from students who are significantly impaired from performing the physical task of writing for themselves.

Notetaker: The role of the notetaker differs from that of the scribe. The notetaker does not take dictation from students, instead, she/he copies board notes or extracts important information from lecture notes.

* Using Notetakers - Students requiring the services of notetakers are responsible for getting a notetaker for each class. At the beginning of the term, students should meet with their instructors and explain that they will need a notetaker and would like the instructor's help in identifying a volunteer from the class to provide this service. Once a volunteer is identified, students receiving the service need to pick up a Notetaker Reimbursement Form from the Center On Disability and fill out the necessary information. The top portion of the form should be submitted to the Center On Disability, and the bottom portion should be submitted to the notetaker. At the end of the semester, students who served as notetakers should take the bottom slip to the Center On Disability, and they will receive a gift certificate to our College bookstore as reimbursement for their services.

Testing Accommodations

The Center On Disability coordinates special testing accommodations for students who are eligible for alternative testing environments and formats. Students with disabilities requiring the privacy of a distraction-reduced setting, extended time testing, access to assistive technology or the services of a disability aid during testing may be scheduled to take their exams in the Center On Disability or in one of our reserved testing rooms. Test procedures are monitored to ensure that students are abiding by the instructor's testing guidelines and taking tests in an ethical and appropriate manner.

If you are eligible for testing accommodations and need to schedule a test date with the Center On Disability, you will be required to follow the test administration procedure below:

As soon as you become aware of your test date, pick up a "Test Administration Form" from the secretary in the Center On Disability.
Complete the upper portion of the form and take it to your instructor. Have the instructor fill out the appropriate portion of the form, and return it to the secretary in the Center On Disability.
The secretary will schedule your test date once the form has been returned. In order to ensure room availability, assistive technology, and/or disability aid services, the Center On Disability requires at least two days notice prior to the scheduled test date.

PLEASE NOTE: Students with disabilities are not required to take their tests/exams in the Center On Disability. Faculty can administer tests/exams to students with disabilities as long as they provide the appropriate accommodations.

Course Substitutions

Course substitutions are occasionally requested when a disability directly restricts a student's ability to fulfill a course requirement. A student experiencing extreme difficulty in an area of study deemed nonessential to specific majors and College coursework requirements should meet with the counselor in the Center to discuss alternatives and procedures. Appropriate documentation is needed to process course substitution requests. Approval of academic department heads and the vice president of Academic Affairs is required for substitution requests.

Center On Disability Provision of Books on Tape

If one of a student's accommodations is to receive books on tape, there are several methods by which this service is provided:

Directly requesting books on tape from The Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) and/or the Library for the Blind at the Free Library of Philadelphia, 919 Walnut Street, 215-683-3213, through your own individual membership plan.
Requesting books on tape through the Center On Disability: the Center will attempt to access the books on tape through its RFB&D institutional membership or utilize its own reader service.
The student can access assistive technology that allows for reading capability (Kurzweil System or the Reading Edge), located in the Center On Disability or the College's Library. If you are requesting books on tape through the Center On Disability, it is important for you to follow the procedures below in order to ensure efficient and timely receipt of your required readings:
Once you know the required books, submit your book list, which needs to include title, author, publisher and edition, to the Center On Disability. The Center will first attempt to get your books on tape from the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic through its institutional membership plan.
While the Center On Disability is attempting to access your books on tape from RFB&D, there will be a delay of perhaps a week or two; therefore, it may be necessary to have someone from the Center initially record the first few chapters. If this is the case, you must submit a copy of the book(s) to the Center, along with your syllabus. You can also inquire about utilizing the available text-to-voice technology as an alternative method of having books read to you or taped onto audiotape.
If RFB&D does not have your book(s) in their inventory, the Center On Disability will have the books read and recorded by a reader in the Center. In order for the reader to tape your books, you must submit a copy of the book and corresponding syllabus to the Center at the time of the request. It is important to indicate any special instructions you may have regarding the material being read on the request form.
You can pick up the completed tapes in the Center On Disability as required. If at any point you will need to take your book from the Center and do not supply us with another copy of the material you want recorded, you will cause a delay in the recording process, and the tapes will not be ready according to the scheduled due dates.

The recorded texts are considered the property of the Center On Disability and are expected to be returned at the end of each semester. Failure to do so may result in a hold being put on your College record and interruptions in books on tape being provided to you in the future until the tapes are returned. In the event that the tapes are lost, you will be held responsible for any fee due to RFB&D related to your lost tapes.

Books supplied to you through RFB&D will require the use of a four-track tape recorder. The student is responsible for purchasing the tape recorder.

Assistive Devices

The Center On Disability has a limited inventory of assistive devices that are available for students with disabilities to borrow depending upon special circumstances. The specific purpose of extending this service is to allow students to have access to necessary devices while they are in the process of purchasing these items for themselves or waiting for repairs.

Students interested in borrowing specific equipment may speak to the Disabilities Resource Assistant in the Center On Disability. Short-term loans are made for a single class or for a day. Long-term loans are granted up to one week with administrative approval pending availability of the item requested.

Students who borrow equipment are not charged a fee; however, they are responsible for the safe and prompt return of the items borrowed. If equipment is damaged or lost, students are responsible for the replacement cost.

Students who would like to borrow assistive/adaptive technology for an extended period of time should contact the Pennsylvanian Institute on Assistive Technology (PIAT), the assistive technology lending library, at 1-800-204-PIAT.

Current Inventory

Tape recorders
Four-track tape recorder
Spell checkers
Talking calculators
Portable braillers
Stereo-amplified listener
Track ball
Adaptive mouse equipment