Shashank Atre

Provide equal access to students with disabilities.  Be ready to help people with disabilities if they do ask for help.  Not all the help will be there all the time, using common sense to help students with disability is the way to go.

People with physical and mental disabilities need to have the same level playing field.  The educational institutions should provide reasonable accommodations for the students with disabilities.

A student's written consent is very important.  As an institutional officer, it is better to err on the side of caution and not release info about a student without their consent, and even with the consent, always document the details of the release of the docs.

I understand that it is very important to protect the students' privacy rights and info can be only disclosed if written authorization is given by the student or the school thinks the privacy of the student takes a backseat because of threats to the bigger community.

Yes, I strongly feel that the college should be held liable.

It is very important that as an educator I need to know my role, and the Do's and Don'ts and my limitations when dealing with students with disabilities; even though my intentions may be right and my heart may be in the right place it is not my place to make suggestions, recommendations, and promises that neither I nor the institution may be in the position to deliver. 

It is important to make the student with disability feel that he is being treated the same way as other students in the class.  It is important to focus on their abilities.

What can I/ we do?  How can I/ we help?  Helping people with disabilities is and should be a humanitarian act, to begin with.  Providing fair and just treatment and the same opportunity and access to those who are at a disadvantage physically and academically should be normal behavior for us all, however, sometimes a legal mandate is needed to spurn people into action.  So as educators we have to be mindful of this in our classrooms.  We (educators and administrators) have to make sure that we provide access for our disabled students to the accommodations that make a "level… >>>

This module reminds us, the instructors that DISABILITY exists among our students - both that may be visible and the one that is/ may not be visible to us.  Our job is to recognize it, acknowledge it, and work with the institutions' administrators and be prepared to accommodate all those students in a "reasonable" fashion and ensure that there is equal opportunity for all students.

FAIR AND JUST TREATMENT to ensure Equal Opportunity for all and any student with a disability.  The institution is required to make "reasonable" accommodations in a "timely" manner.  ADA of 1990 is one of the more important Civil Rights Law.  It ensures that not only people with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations but also are protected from being discriminated against.