Accessing Disability Services & Determining Eligibility

• Be sure to start early. Ideally students should apply one semester before he or she wants to take classes.

2.      Apply for Financial Aid.

• Visit our website for information about financial aid and to fill out the federal application www.fafsa.ed.gov.

• If students require testing accommodations, contact the OSD at 352-365-3589 to make arrangements.
• The test is multiple choice and is not timed. Proper documentation is required in order to utilize an accommodation.
• If students require the use of a sign language interpreter, please contact the OSD to make this arrangement.

• If students are new to OSD, please call 352-365-3589 to discuss potential services and the type of disability documentation you need to provide to the OSD for the determination eligibility for services.
• Obtain a copy of the documentation guidelines for the type of disability that you are disclosing. 
• Provide the OSD with your disability documentation for review.
• If the documentation provided supports a student's eligibility for services then an intake appointment will be set up with the OSD Manager to discuss an accommodation plan.
• After the intake process is completed and the student is registered for classes, the student will need to request "Instructor Notification Letters".  These letters detail the accommodations that the student may use.  When instructors receive these letters it contains contact information and instructions on how to assist students with the accommodations he or she is eligible to receive.
• It is the student's responsibility to submit an "Instructor Notification Letter Request Form," along with the copy of a "detailed schedule" from LOIS.  Forms must be submitted each term if students wish to utilize  accommodations for the upcoming semester.  
• A link to the form is listed below and copies of the form are also available at the South Lake and Sumter Campus Front Desks and at the Academic Advising Desk on the Leesburg Campus.
• It is the student's responsibility to contact his or her instructor about accommodation needs and the student must present the Instructor Notification Letter in order to receive accommodations. 
• While the OSD makes every effort to arrange services and accommodations quickly, it is important to note that once a request is made, it can take several weeks to make all arrangements.
• It is also important to understand that services or accommodations can only be provided for a student who provides proper documentation.  

Students with Disabilities at Lake Sumter have the right to:

•  Access courses, programs, services and facilities offered through the College;
• An opportunity to learn,  to receive reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services;
• Appropriate confidentiality of all information regarding their disabilities;
• Academic information, reasonably available in accessible formats.

Students with Disabilities at Lake Sumter have the responsibility to:

• Meet qualifications and maintain institutional standards for courses, programs, services and facilities;
• Identify as an individual with a disability when an accommodation is needed and to seek information, counsel, and assistance as necessary;
• Demonstrate and/or document (from an appropriate professional) how the disability limits their participation in courses, programs, services and facilities;
• Follow published procedures for obtaining reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services.

Lake Sumter STATE College has the right to:

• Identify and establish essential functions, abilities, skills, knowledge, and standards for courses, programs, services, facilities for students, and to evaluate and determine reasonable accommodations on this basis;
• request and receive, through the Office for Students with Disabilities, current and appropriate documentation that supports requests for accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services;
• deny a request for accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services if the documentation demonstrates that the request is not warranted, or if the individual fails to provide appropriate documentation;
• select among similarly effective accommodations, adjustments, and/ or auxiliary aids and services;
• refuse an unreasonable accommodation, adjustment, and/or auxiliary aid or service that creates an undue burden for the College, or imposes a fundamental alteration of a program or activity of the College.

Lake Sumter STATE College has the responsibility to:

• provide academic information to students with disabilities in accessible formats upon request, unless to do so would constitute an undue burden for the College;
• ensure that courses, programs, services, and facilities for students, when viewed in their entirety, are available and usable in integrated and appropriate settings;
• evaluate students and applications on their abilities and not their disabilities;
• provide or arrange reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services for students with disabilities in courses, programs, services and facilities;
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality of records and communication.

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE