Vivianne Salgado

The question of whether a student with disabilities meets the technical standards required by the program can only be asked once the student has been admitted--not before.

Access vs. Success: Access means providing accommodations to ensure students with disabilities have equal opportunity alongside their non-disabled peers. Success refers to how well these students perform academically once they have received the accommodations needed. While accomodations help level the field, it is up to each student, disabled or not, to achieve the outcomes that they see fit. In other words, accomodations for disabled students do not and should not guarantee that they will be successful academically--that is entirely up to each individual.

I found it helpful to reflect upon and review examples of different functionality--the fact that people with similar disabilities and even backgrounds often have widely different strengths, coping strategies or support needs. 

Interesting to find out more background to the ADA. Both Section 504 and the ADA are essential in higher education (public and private institutions) ensuring students with disabilities receive fair treatment and the necessary accommodations to have equal access to facilities, programs, activities, academic materials and opportunities that are normally available to their non-disabled counterparts.