Accommodations and Access
At Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), our goal is to remove disability related barriers for students in the learning and living environments.
We strive to mximize access and opportunity, and we tailor accommodation plans to the needs of individual students. We use a combination of self-reported disability history and health provider documentation to determine barriers to access and identify reasonable accommodations.
The following broad categories represent common accommodations supported at Virginia Tech. These are not exhaustive. To request accommodations, please follow the instructions on our How to Connect page.
Some accommodations may not be considered reasonable when there are concerns of safety or a fundamental alteration to course learning outcomes. Instructors should reach out to us at ssd@vt.edu if they have questions about how to implement specific accommodations. Students should schedule a consultation appointment to revisit any current or desired accommodations.
Resources
- Reasonable Accommodations Explained, American Psychological Association
- Getting Practical: ADA and Accommodation Issues on Campus, Michael C. Harrington, Esquire
- Barriers to Accommodations for Students with Disabilities in Higher Education: A Literature Review, Christopher Toutain
Examples
Students will work with an access specialist to discuss disability related barriers and identify accommodations. As stated above, the categories below are not exhaustive. They describe in broad terms some common accommodations.
Please note: this is not a menu of accommodations students can choose from. It is provided for informational purposes only. Instructors are invited to reach out to us if they need guidance on how an accommodation might be implemented in their course. Likewise, students are welcome to reach out to their access specialist if they are unsure if or how an accommodation might apply to a particular course.