Cornell Student Disability Services

Rights and Responsibilities

As a student with a disability at Cornell University you have the right to:

Equal access to courses, programs, services, and activities offered through the University.
Reasonable accommodations and adjustments which will be provided when needed to achieve equal access.
Determine who will receive student released disability-related materials and information within and outside the University.
All other rights and privileges available to other students at Cornell University.

As a student with a disability at Cornell University you have the responsibility to:

Meet qualifications and maintain essential institutional standards for courses, programs, and activities.
Self-identify as an individual with a disability when an accommodation is needed and to seek information, counsel, and assistance as necessary in a timely fashion.
Demonstrate and/or provide documentation (from an appropriate professional) on the manner in which the disability limits participation in courses, programs, services, and activities.
Follow university procedures for obtaining reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services.

Cornell University has the right to:

Identify and establish essential functions, abilities, skills, knowledge, requirements, and standards for courses, programs, services, and activities, and to evaluate students on this basis.
Request and receive, through SDS, current 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 you fail to provide appropriate documentation.
Select among equally effective accommodations, adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services.
Refuse an unreasonable accommodation, adjustment, and/or auxiliary aid or service that imposes a fundamental alteration of a program or activity of the University.

Cornell University has the responsibility to:

Provide information to students with disabilities in accessible formats upon request.
Ensure that courses, programs, services, and activities, when viewed in their entirety, are available in the most integrated and appropriate settings.
Evaluate students on their abilities and not their disabilities.
Provide or arrange for reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids and services for students with disabilities in courses, programs, services, and activities.
Maintain appropriate confidentiality of records and communication except where permitted or required by law or when the student requests that such information be shared.