Department of Social Justice

Documentation of Deafness and Hard of Hearing

All qualified WVU Tech or the C&T at WVU Tech students must provide appropriate documentation of deafness and hardness of hearing in order to receive academic accommodations based upon that disability.

It is the student’s responsibility to initiate contact with the Office of Disability Services and to provide appropriate documentation of the disability and its impact on the academic tasks for which they are requesting accommodations. The cost of obtaining professional documentation is the student’s responsibility. This process follows the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973*, and current case law and is designed to assure that reasonable, effective accommodations are provided to all qualified students in a timely manner.

Documentation of Deafness or Hard of Hearing must meet all of the following:

A clear statement of deafness or hearing loss, with a current audiogram that reflects the current impact the deafness or hearing loss has on the student's academic functioning;
A summary of assessment procedures and evaluation instruments used to make the diagnosis and a narrative summary of evaluation results, if appropriate;
Medical information relating to the student's needs, the status of the individual's hearing (static or changing) and its impact on the demands of the student’s academic program;
A statement regarding the use of hearing aids (if appropriate);
5. A statement of the functional limitations of the hearing loss.

Each student’s academic accommodations will be determined on an individual basis and will be based on appropriate documentation. All new, transfer, or transient students must provide appropriate documentation in order to receive disability-based accommodations.

*In order to meet the adult criteria of “disability” under these federal laws a person must provide documentation of how their significant impairment “substantially limits” their functioning. A significant impairment means below average functioning. An IEP is not documentation of a disability for the purposes of providing accommodations at the college level.