services for students with disabilities

Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) recognizes the importance of encouraging and helping students with disabilities to reach their full potential. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the College ensures that its admission requirements are uniformly applied, and that its services, activities, facilities and academic programs are accessible to and usable by qualified students with disabilities.

A person with a disability is defined as an individual who has a physical, mental, or learning disability, which substantially limits one or more major life activity (i.e., seeing, hearing, speaking, performing manual tasks, walking, caring for oneself, or learning); or who has a record of such impairment; or who is regarded as having such impairment. The six categories of disabilities utilized to determine academic accommodations include:

Chronic systemic conditions affect one or more of the systems of the body and include conditions such as cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, and HIV-AIDS.
Hearing disabilities can range from students who have difficulty hearing, have lost hearing in one ear, or are completely deaf.
Learning disabilities refers to significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, and/or mathematical abilities, with the presence of at least average intelligence. This includes conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, and can be extended to include attention deficit disorder.
Mobility impairments range from very limited stamina to paralysis of the lower or upper extremities and may include conditions such as arthritis, back disorders, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, and neuromuscular disorders.
Psychiatric disabilities refer to a diagnosis of a mental disorder from a licensed professional and may include conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and schizophrenia.
Vision disabilities include low vision, total blindness, and partial sight such as impaired field of vision.

Academic adjustments are available to students who identify themselves as having a disability and as being otherwise qualified for admission to the College. Each student is responsible for providing documentation of their disability and requesting appropriate accommodations. The intent of academic accommodations is to provide students with disabilities similar opportunities for success and for mastery of academic skills. Each student’s case is assessed individually based on documented evidence from appropriate medical and clinical professionals regarding the student’s disability. The following are accommodations and academic adjustments which are used at FCCJ.

Reasonable Accommodations/Academic Adjustments Defined