Accessibility Services
Overview of Services
Franklin is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in its academic and co-curricular programs to students with disabilities. Accessibility Services helps foster success by coordinating need-specific accommodations and by offering additional support for students who qualify. In a small community of lifelong learners, Franklin routinely offers individualized, student-centered assistance in the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Title III) and Section 504 of the United States Rehabilitation Act.
How to Request Accommodations
The process of obtaining accommodations at the university level is generally different from that typically found at high school. At Franklin, it is the student's responsibility to seek disability-related accommodations and services, and to disclose a disability in order for the institution to make reasonable accommodations. Typically, this documentation is presented to the institution within the first semester of attending Franklin. Students should contact Accessibility Services for more information about timing and documentation options.
If you think you may need accommodations, or have had them in the past and would like to continue receiving them, start the process by contacting accessibility.services@fus.edu. Accessibility Services will set up a meeting with you to discuss your individual situation. Bring to this meeting any documentation that you have about your disability. The documentation required to register for accommodations must be produced by a qualified evaluator.
Qualified evaluators may include licensed educational psychologists, medical doctors, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, learning disabilities specialists, and speech and language pathologists. The evaluating signature, name, address, phone number, title, and qualifications of the evaluator need to be clearly indicated in the report. The report should include specific information about the student's diagnosis, functional limitations within an academic setting, and specific recommendations for accommodations or exemptions. It should also include an intake history and specify what kind of testing was conducted to determine that the student is disabled. The testing itself must be comprehensive, using statistically valid and reliable instruments, standardized with age-appropriate norms. Testing should have been conducted within three to five years of the initial request for accommodations at Franklin.
Accommodations at Franklin are determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the nature of the disability, the student's own concerns, and the content of the documentation provided. All information is handled with strict confidentiality.
To use accommodations in a classroom setting, please refer to the policy Academic Accommodations. For specific housing-related deadlines and details, please refer to the housing accommodations policy. For further information or clarification of the process, contact accessibility.services@fus.edu.