Rights & Responsibilities

Student Rights & Responsibilities

Individuals with disabilities at Bucknell University have the right to:

• Equal access to courses, programs, services, jobs, activities and facilities offered through the University.
• An equal opportunity to learn and to receive reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids and services (as necessary).
• Appropriate confidentiality of all information regarding the disability, except as disclosures are required or permitted by law.
• Information in accessible formats.

Individuals with disabilities at Bucknell University have the responsibility to:

• Meet qualifications and maintain or exceed essential institutional standards for courses, programs, services, activities and facilities.
• Identify as an individual with a disability when an accommodation is needed and to seek information, counsel and assistance as necessary.
• Demonstrate, explain and provide documentation (from an appropriate professional) of how the disability limits their participation in courses, programs, services, activities and facilities.
• Assume personal responsibility for meeting with the Office of Accessibility Resources (OAR) and requesting assistance for obtaining reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids and services.
• Be a self-advocate. Learn and gain a better understanding of your disability and your needs associated with the disability and advocate for these.

University Rights & Responsibilities

Bucknell University has the right to:

• Identify and establish essential functions, abilities, skills, knowledge and standards for courses and to evaluate and determine reasonable accommodations on this basis.
• Request and receive, through the OAR, 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 University or imposes a fundamental alteration on a program or activity of the University.

Bucknell University has the responsibility to:

• Provide academic information to students with disabilities in accessible formats and upon request.
• 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.

Retention of Disability Documentation

For Bucknell University graduates who have provided documentation of disability to the Office of Accessibility Resources, this documentation will be kept on file in the OAR for up to five years after the student graduates. Additionally, documentation supplied to the OAR by students who left the University prior to graduation will be kept on file in the OAR for five years. Former students wishing to request a copy of documentation should submit a written request to the OAR director.