Guidelines for Requesting Services from the Learning Resource Center

Learning Resources Center

The Learning Resource Center (LRC) provides individualized services for students with specific learning disabilities and attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorders (ADD/ADHD). Recommendations, along with supporting documentation, will be incorporated in an Individualized Service Plan (ISP) to be developed by the student and the LRC Director. Records will remain on file in the LRC. Incoming students should request accommodations upon completion of a class schedule. Returning students should pre-register each semester and request accommodations at that time. In all cases, students should make requests for accommodations not less than four weeks prior to the date that the services will begin.
Conduct rules and attendance policies apply to all students regardless of disabilities. Technical standards are essentials to which all students must adhere in a program of study. Students with disabilities may be eligible for accommodations; however, these students are still required to meet all of a program's technical standards. Applicants should be aware that certain programs and degrees require the ability to perform specific critical skills. Some students may not be admitted to or able to complete a program or degree because their disability cannot be accommodated in a manner that enables them to perform the required critical skills and meet the critical standards of the program. Students should, prior to applying for or beginning a program of study, review all requirements that are necessary for completion of the program.

ADA POLICY
Oglethorpe is committed to making its programs and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. Oglethorpe recognizes that this commitment permit a greater contribution of people with disabilities to our society through educational benefits, job opportunities and public access. It also provides a safer and more pleasant environment. Oglethorpe has developed a disability anti-discrimination policy to ensure compliance with relevant disability anti-discrimination laws and regulations
(see Appendix A).

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Students must register and request services from the LRC Director at the LRC 404.364.8869, which is located in Goodman Hall. Denials may be appealed to the ADA Coordinator 404.364.8325. Students registered with LRC should meet deadlines and procedural requirements established by LRC and Oglethorpe.

PROCEDURES FOR OBTAINING LRC SERVICES
The following methods have been established to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders at Oglethorpe:

1. All students must meet established university admission requirements and program technical standards.
2. The office of Admission sends a Self-Identification form in each acceptance packet sent to a student.
3. To register for accommodations, a student with a learning disability or attention deficit disorder should return the completed Self-Identity form and documentation of disability to the Learning Resource Center (LRC) Director. Denials may be appealed to the Associate Dean for Administration, who is the ADA Coordinator.
4. The LRC Director meets with the student to assess needs and develop an Individualized Service Plan (ISP). All information is kept in strict confidence.
5. The LRC Director makes arrangements with service providers and /or makes purchases of auxiliary aids and materials that are supported by documentation and determined by the LRC to be reasonable.
6. The LRC Director provides an accommodation letter to the student. To maintain confidentiality, letters are given to the instructors by the student.
7. Students should meet with each professor to discuss needs and how to implement identified accommodations. The LRC Director will be available to assist as required.
8. The professor should assist the student with identifying an in-class note taker, and make arrangements for alternate testing (e.g. extended time, distraction-free environments, etc.)
9. The LRC Director will provide or recommend other measures, such as learning strategies workshops, which will assist the student in achieving academic success.

PROCEDURES FOR ADDRESSING ISSUES OF CONCERN
Oglethorpe has developed means for persons with disabilities to seek resolution of any grievance arising out of perceived discrimination on the basis of disability. Students registered with LRC should take the following steps to resolve issues of concern and complaints of discrimination based on disability:

1. The student should discuss his/her problem with the instructor of the course or appropriate department representative (academic or non-academic) directly, unless extenuating circumstances prohibit doing so.
2. If a conversation with the course instructor or department representative does not resolve the concerns, the student should then discuss the problem with the head of that department.
3. If a meeting with the head of the department does not resolve the grievance, the student should discuss issues of concern with the LRC Director.
4. If the LRC Director is unable to assist in resolving the problem(s), the student will be advised to file a formal complaint, in writing, with the Associate Dean for Administration.

ACADEMIC ADJUSTMENTS
Except as described below, Oglethorpe University Policies shall not be waived nor exceptions made for students with disabilities. Instead, means shall be sought to assist students in meeting requirements through special accommodations and modifications of instructional techniques and testing procedures. Prior historical accommodations without documentation of clear current need does not in and of itself provide for corresponding accommodations.

The LRC Director will consider requests for academic adjustments in campus policy, and will make recommendations based on a diagnosis of a specific learning disability and/or ADD/ADHD. Students will be required to provide evidence of evaluations that substantiate the disability. Each student requesting services because of learning disabilities must provide sufficient diagnosis from a qualified clinician with expertise in assessing such disorders in college-aged adolescents or adults. Evaluations will be used only to assist the university in determining accommodations. Information received directly from a provider will not be released to a student/applicant.
If a student's disability precludes the acquisition of a foreign language, appropriate substitutions may be made. Recommendations may contain skills-building for mastery of tasks and/or compensatory measures that will assist the student in achieving academic success including, but not limited to:

• Early/Priority registration
• Learning-strategies workshop
• Alternate-testing format
• Auxiliary services
• Auxiliary aids

THE ACCOMMODATION OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES AND ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDERS
Existing documentation of learning disability shall be reviewed as a part of the evaluation process if it meets the "Criteria For Accepting Evaluations" described below. Secondary education eligibility reports, individualized educational plans and provision of special education services in and of themselves are not sufficient documentation for college-level accommodations, although this information should be included with reports from any comprehensive evaluation. If no prior services or accommodations have been provided, this needs to be carefully explained as learning disabilities and related disorders are not typically newly identified in adulthood. Additional diagnostics may be required.

TESTING FOR LEARNING DISABILITIES AND ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDERS
Prior to receiving services, accepted or enrolled students who do not have appropriate documentation that meets the "Criteria For Accepting Evaluations" must obtain an evaluation and assessment from a qualified clinician with expertise in assessing such disorders in college-aged adolescents or adults. The student will be responsible for the cost of the evaluation.

INFORMATION FOR EVALUATORS - DEFINITION AND EVALUATION CRITERIA
Oglethorpe University (OU) Learning Resource Center (LRC) has established criteria to define and evaluate learning disabilities that are generally consistent with locally recognized general guidelines. In addition, clinicians might also review the Association of Higher Education Administrators of Disabilities (AHEAD) Guidelines for Documentation of a Learning Disability or the Guidelines and Questionnaire for Test Accommodations for Examinees with Disabilities prepared by the United States Medical Licensing Examination Board (www.nbme.org), as they provide similar but more detailed guidance regarding the criteria used for evaluating documentation of learning disabilities for these organizations. The OU policies are generally consistent with these nationally recognized general guidelines, although specific criteria within the OU policy may differ. A definition that was originally published by the Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities (1987) has been adopted as being in keeping with current practices of most state and federal guidelines. The following definition shall serve as the basis for diagnosis at Oglethorpe University:

Learning disabilities is a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities, or of social skills. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual and presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction. Even though a learning disability may occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions (e.g., sensory impairment, mental retardation, social and emotion disturbance), with socio-environmental influences (e.g., cultural differences, insufficient or inappropriate instruction, psychogenic factors), and especially with attention deficit disorder, all of which may cause learning problems, a learning disability is not the direct result of those conditions or influences. (Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities [1987]).

This definition may be modified in the future to be consistent with any changes made by the Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities. The current definition does not include social skills deficits and attention deficit disorders as learning disabilities, and it supports the cognitive or information processing deficit model of learning disabilities in that deficits in basic academic areas are due to an underlying deficit in a related cognitive or information processing system. Academic area deficits that do not have a correlated cognitive or processing deficit are not considered to represent a specific learning disability. Therefore, learning disabilities may be identified in the following academic areas: reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, and language. Deficits in specific course topics would not be expected, although a student with a reading and/or writing disability may have difficulty in any course with heavy reading or writing requirements.

The following cognitive or processing domains are typically identified as areas of specific deficits in such students:

Language - including auditory discrimination or processing, phonological awareness, comprehension, expression, naming, or related linguistic functions.
Visual-Spatial - including analysis and synthesis of spatial information, visual perception/processing.
Memory - including auditory, visual, verbal, or spatial modalities. Deficits may appear in either short-term, sequential, working or long-term memory functions
Fine motor/dexterity skills.
Executive Functions - including concept formation, problem solving, processing speed, mental flexibility, and organizational/planning abilities.
Attention - including the ability to focus on relevant information to the exclusion of irrelevant information, ability to switch attention and maintain attention.

The criteria a student must exhibit are one or more, but not all, areas of specific academic deficits as stated above; a correlated cognitive or processing deficit which is related to the academic deficit; and average intellectual ability.

To be considered an area of academic deficit, a student's individually administered standardized achievement test results must fall at least a standard deviation below the student's intellectual abilities, or a standard deviation below the student's other academic abilities as assessed by the same measures.

Average intellectual abilities will be defined as the student's best verbal or nonverbal domain score (for example, either the Performance IQ or Verbal IQ on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) on a standardized global measure of intelligence. A standard IQ score of 90 or above will be considered in the average range.

A correlated cognitive or processing deficit must be demonstrated on multiple independent tests of cognitive functioning in a specific cognitive or processing area (as listed above), which is documented with measures in addition to and evidence obtained from the global IQ test. The deficit must represent a logical basis for the academic deficit. For example, one would not expect a specific fine motor deficit to be directly linked to a reading disability.

Professional clinical judgment and interpretation must be part of any assessment made by a clinician with expertise in assessing such disorders in adults. This is particularly important in the case of minority or international students involved in standardized testing. Consideration of a student's cultural, linguistic, and international status must be included in any evaluation results. The use of any particular eligibility formula for learning disabilities at the post-secondary educational level has not been validated in research at this time. Therefore, the use of any such objective formulas using just test scores is unwarranted and problematic.

CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTING EXISTING EVALUATIONS

1. Documentation must be within 3 years of the student's application for assistance. (The exception to this guideline in some instances is if the evaluation was completed after the student was 18 years of age and the evaluation utilized appropriate adult standardized tests and is still considered by the LRC to adequately represent an individual's current functioning.) Documentation must be comprehensive, including history, diagnostic interviews, test results (including standardized test scores when available), differential diagnosis, details regarding a student's functional limitations, and recommendations for accommodations which are appropriate in college, graduate or professional educational settings.
2. A specific learning disability must be stated within the documentation submitted. The criteria a student must exhibit are one or more, but not all, areas of specific academic deficits; a correlated cognitive or information processing deficit; and average intellectual ability. If another diagnosis is applicable, it should be stated. The evaluation must be signed by a professional with expertise in evaluating adult populations and appropriately licensed by the state.
3. One of the following individually administered general intelligence tests must have been utilized.
   
   Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III)
   Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III)
   Stanford Binet IV
   Kaufman Adult Intelligence Test (KAIT)
   Differential Ability Scales (DAT)
   
   Please list subscale scores.
4. Cognitive or information processing strengths, weaknesses, and deficits should be specifically discussed. Clear documentation of deficit areas is necessary in order for colleges to provide appropriate modifications. Please discuss all of the following processing areas:
   a. Visual-spatial abilities
   b. Memory
   c. Fine motor/dexterity
   d. Executive Functions (It is also helpful to know about the student's cognitive or processing flexibility and automaticity with cognitive and academic tasks.)
   e. Attention
5. The correlated cognitive or processing deficit must be demonstrated on multiple independent tests of cognitive functioning in a specific cognitive or processing area (as listed above), which is documented with measures in addition to and evidence obtained from the global IQ test. The deficit must represent a logical basis for the academic deficit. For example, one would not expect a specific fine motor deficit to be directly linked to a reading disability.
6. Oral language skills should be assessed and discussed. Formal language evaluation and/or an informal analysis of a language sample are appropriate. Colleges are primarily interested in whether or not a student's language disability is impacting oral or written language and/or if a separate speech disorder is also present. The assessment of auditory comprehension is also helpful.
7. Social-emotional status should be assessed and discussed. Formal assessment instruments and/or clinical interview are appropriate. LRC needs to know differential diagnoses of psychological disorders that impact upon academics from learning disabilities (e.g., anxiety, mood disorders, substance abuse). College is typically quite stressful for students who have learning disorders. In an attempt to best serve students, it is also helpful to know about their personality characteristics, psychological welfare, self-esteem and stress level.
8. Achievement assessment in the following areas is required:
   a. Written Language (spelling and written expression). If a written language sample is available to review, this is most helpful.
   b. Reading (decoding, word attack, and comprehension). Please indicate the student's ability to comprehend longer passages, more typical of college text than some assessment instruments provide, and their automaticity and fluency in reading appropriate level texts.
   c. Mathematics (applied word problems, calculations, algebra). Please indicate whether or not the student was successful with algebra problems. Scores rarely provide this. For example, students can score within the low average range on the WRAT without attempting any of the algebra problems.
9. Assessment instruments must have age appropriate norms for high school seniors/college freshmen or older nontraditional students. All standardized measures must be represented by standard scores and percentile ranks based on published norms. These can certainly be supplemented by informal assessment.

ATTENTION DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDERS (ADHD)
In order to be eligible for accommodations because of ADHD, students must meet the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and must meet the following criteria for documentation adopted by the Learning Resource Center (LRC):

1. Assessment on which the documentation or evaluation is based must have been completed no more than three years prior to the student's application for academic assistance, OR must have been completed as an adult (18 years old or older) and still be considered current.
2. Developmental history that is documented, using independent sources, of appropriate symptoms and problem behaviors across multiple settings (i.e., past evaluations, school records, teacher report).
3. Documentation of current symptoms that meet diagnostic criteria (clinical interview, behavior rating scales).
4. Documentation of both childhood and current adult behavior on rating scales of ADHD symptoms that have appropriate age norms (Norms-based behavior rating scales -- actual data required).
5. Corroboration of current ADHD symptoms across multiple settings by two independent observers with knowledge of the student's functioning (e.g., parent, spouse, teacher, supervisor, co-worker, relative, and/or clinician observation).
6. Clear evidence and documentation of interference with developmentally appropriate academic, social, or vocational functioning.
7. All other psychiatric or medical disorders that may cause problems with inattention are differentially evaluated, documented, and considered in the differential diagnosis. This is particularly important when mood, anxiety, or substance abuse disorders are involved. Other causes of problems with attention and concentration must be considered and discussed (i.e., test anxiety). A positive response to medication is not by itself considered diagnostic.

All documentation must include a specific diagnosis of ADHD and provide the evidence used to meet the above seven criteria. It is important for all evaluations to state clearly how ADHD functionally impacts the student's life across settings, creates a substantial limitation in learning, and provide a clear rationale why specific accommodations are needed to mediate its impact.

ACCOMMODATION OF STUDENTS WITH OTHER (Non-LD/ADHD) DISABILITIES
The ADA Coordinator serves students with disabilities other than those diagnosed as specific learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders. The following procedures are for the accommodation of students with other disabilities.

ACQUIRED BRAIN IMPAIRMENT
Students with acquired brain impairment may be eligible for the same accommodations to University Policy and Procedures as students with developmental learning disabilities. Students requesting accommodations must provide to the LRC appropriate documentation of their medical history and cognitive deficits/abilities as related to academic functioning. The LRC may review each student's existing documentation and may require additional testing.

VISUAL, HEARING, MOTOR OR MOBILITY IMPAIRMENTS
Course and testing accommodations will be made for students with a documented visual, hearing, motor or mobility impairment. Students with such disabilities must provide appropriate documentation from a qualified professional that verifies a condition that substantially limits a major life activity in the academic setting.

PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS
Students with psychiatric disorders, as defined by the DSM IV, may be eligible for appropriate course and testing accommodations according to University Policy and Procedures if there is a documented impact on their academic and related functioning. For consideration for accommodations, students must provide current documentation that includes an evaluation by an appropriate licensed professional (psychiatrist, licensed psychologist, neurologist) with expertise and training in psychiatric diagnosis. This documentation must make a definitive diagnosis, state the nature of the functional impairment involved, and document the differential diagnoses that were considered and ruled out. Documentation must also address the length and severity of impairment, how it currently manifests in substantial limitations in academics, and include suggestions for appropriate accommodations.

OTHER DISABILITIES
Students with documented permanent or temporary disabilities as defined in ADA/504 who are other qualified and are not covered by the existing procedures described above may be eligible for accommodations. Existing documentation will be reviewed; however, additional documentation may be required.

STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES UNRELATED TO A DISABILITY
Students without documented disabilities who are experiencing learning difficulties may participate in LRC skills-building courses, workshops and seminars as appropriate.

DISABILITY ANTI-DISCRIMINATION POLICY FOR PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
It is the policy of Oglethorpe to ensure that all university goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations are meaningfully accessible to qualified persons with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and other pertinent federal, state and local disability anti-discrimination laws.

Oglethorpe will provide persons with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from programs and services as afforded to other individuals. This is done in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of the individual with a disability.

Where readily achievable, architectural and communication barriers will be removed. New structures will comply fully with all accessibility requirements. Alterations will comply to the maximum extent feasible. Oglethorpe will make available auxiliary aids and services, as appropriate to the individual and required by the ADA, at no cost to the individual, provided that such auxiliary aids and services do not require significant difficulty or expense.

Oglethorpe does not discriminate against any person who is related to or associated with a person with a disability. Oglethorpe will comply with any federal, state or local laws that provide individuals with disabilities greater protection, and take other actions necessary to ensure equal opportunity for persons with disabilities.

This policy applies to the goods, services, privileges, advantages and accommodations offered by Oglethorpe either directly or through contractual, licensing or other arrangements. This policy is neither exhaustive nor exclusive.

Reasonable accommodations will be made on an individualized basis. It is the responsibility of persons with disabilities, however, to seek available assistance and to make their needs known.