Contact Us

Disability Services

400 East College Street

1^st floor Highbaugh Hall

Georgetown, KY 40324

Phone: 502.863.7073

Email: [email protected]

Fax: 502.868.8882

What is a Disability?

A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. In other words, a condition of the body or mind that prevents, impairs, interferes, or limits a person’s ability to engage or participate in certain tasks or actions compared to their peers.

What are Accommodations?

Accommodations are adjustments made to a policy and/or to the environment to ensure students with disabilities have equal access to course material, information, activities, programs, housing, and other campus facilities. In other words, accommodations try to circumvent barriers that interfere with a disabled student’s ability to have an equal experience as students without disabilities.

Registering with Disability Services

If you are facing disability-related barriers that prevent access to education and an equitable campus experience, Disability Services (DS) would like to engage in a conversation with you. Please contact DS as soon as possible as accommodations are not retroactive. To get this process started, please complete and submit the DS Student Information Form, found below.

Requesting Accommodations

Accommodations can be requested for all facets of the College experience, including for academics, housing, dining, on-campus work, parking, etc. The documentation requirements for different requests may differ, but the Disability Services Coordinator is available to walk you through the process.

Accommodations are not automatic and a meeting is essential. Together we will explore how your disability impacts you in the living and learning environment of Georgetown College, which accommodations circumvent barriers, address the specific limitations of your disability, and how to notify the appropriate department/s.

Accommodations are not retroactive, so it is in your best interest to seek accommodations early.

It should be noted that accommodations will not lower academic standards, compromise the integrity of, or fundamentally alter any program. Therefore, academic accommodations may vary, depending on the learning outcomes and design of a course.

Documentation

Documentation will help guide the conversation, but we encourage you to reach out even if you currently do not have any documentation. You, the student, are the primary source of information regarding your disability. Although documentation is needed to support and substantiate accommodation requests, the lack thereof should not delay you from seeking support.

If you have a medical or psychological condition, your healthcare provider or therapist can complete the DS Verification Form, found below, or use it as a guide for writing a statement that gives enough information to make an informed decision about your accommodation request/s. IEP or 504 Plans from high school are not transferable to college, but they may offer helpful information. If you have a learning disability and were tested in K-12, the school psychologist might have a copy of the assessment you can share with us.

Documentation must be completed by a credentialed healthcare professional or licensed therapist to (1) verify the presence of a disability (a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits at least one major life activity), (2) describe the severity and functional limitations or the current impact, as well as (3) confirm the relationship between the disability and the requested accommodation/s.

Appeals and Grievances

Students who are concerned that they have been denied equal access or disagree with a denied accommodation for their documented disability may follow our grievance process.

For more details, please see the GC Accommodation Resolution and Grievance Process for further details.

Animals on Campus

Georgetown College is committed to assuring equal access to all persons, as required by law. The College permits Service Animals, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act, access to all areas where persons are normally allowed to go with some exceptions. The College reserves the right to restrict service animals from certain locations where the animal would pose health or safety hazards. Access to these areas will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For more information about service animals, please refer to the Service Animal process below.

While Georgetown College’s Student Housing Policy does not allow pets (with the exception of small fish), the College will allow exceptions to the no-pets policy in Student Housing and permit Assistance Animals, as defined by the Fair Housing Act, to qualified students with disabilities who require the use of such support. Emotional Support Animals are a type of assistance animal that is prescribed by a healthcare provider or therapist as part of an individual’s treatment plan and deemed necessary for the individual’s mental health. Assistance animals, including emotional support animals, are not allowed in Student Housing prior to their approval by Disability Services. Students requesting this accommodation should refer to the Assistance Animals process below for more information. The ESA Request Form can be found here: Assistance Animal-ESA Policy Acknowledgment Form.docx.

Privacy

Documentation and sensitive student information will be kept private by Disability Services. As a general rule, the nature of a student’s disability is not shared with others. Limited information, such as disability-related needs or approved accommodations, will be disclosed to appropriate campus partners (e.g. Residence Life, Faculty, Chef, etc.) on a need-to-know basis in order to coordinate accommodations. All information shared is subject to FERPA guidelines.