About SAS

As highlighted with "equal access," SAS' role is providing access versus success. Dartmouth students are fortunate to have many success resources (such as the Academic Skills Center, Teaching Science Fellows, and other academic resources) available to them, but SAS' role is to work with students to identify what is required for access and, if appropriate, to provide reasonable accommodations to remove disability-based access barriers. At the same time, there are a number of requirements that are integral to individual courses as well as to a student's overall undergraduate program, and reasonable accommodations should not fundamentally alter essential elements of any course or program.

Disabled students start by applying for services and meeting with SAS Advising. Advisors and students work together via an interactive process to determine disability eligibility and, if appropriate, what accommodations may be needed.

Sometimes, advisors can get all the information they need to establish eligibility for services and approve accommodations by asking detailed questions of the student. Other times, advisors may need additional information from the provider who has evaluated and/or is treating a student.

In addition, SAS may need additional information from a faculty member about their course or a staff member about their program to refine accommodations and maintain requirements. As such, in contrast to the common view of offices like SAS being student-advocates, SAS advisors should be viewed as neutral, walking back and forth across a bridge between students and their Dartmouth program when determining whether an accommodation is reasonable. If an accommodation has been determined to be reasonable and is not being implemented appropriately, however, SAS does indeed advocate for a timely resolution.

The other functions of SAS are related to implementation of accommodations. For instance, disabled students approved for testing accommodations such as extended time are likely to use our A11y Testing Center although some faculty administer their own tests and provide accommodations in the process. Students needing additional support for notetaking, text in alternate format (such as electronic or enlarged), captioning, and support with physical campus access (to name a few) work with our Assistive Technology team. A small number of students who require a peer notetaker or classroom/lab assistant work also with our Notetaking specialist; however, to promote autonomy and strengthening of independent skills, SAS recommends and provides access and training to assistive technology options whenever appropriate.

Grass-roots efforts and other advocacy throughout history have been essential at getting laws such as Section 504 and the ADA passed and otherwise making strides toward disability justice. However, as is the case for other systematically marginalized identities, there is still much work to be done to achieve disability equity. SAS is proud to focus on what aspects of disability justice are in its scope:

• increasing awareness
• maintaining compliance
• and promoting meaningful inclusion for disabled students at Dartmouth.

While SAS endorses the social/identity model of disability, our role is to implement indvidualized accommodations according to the legal/medical model of disability. More broadly, SAS also supports disability and other identity-based justice efforts by partnering with offices specializing in this work such as Equal Opportunity, Accessibility, & Title IX, Institutional Diversity and Equity, the Office of Community Life and Inclusivity, and the Dartmouth Center for Advancing Learning (especially through its Accessible Dartmouth/Universal Design Initiative).