Many, if not most of our Orbit readers, have undoubtedly heard of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, or the ADA. Particularly within media coverage of disability issues, the ADA is discussed and cited much more than any other disability law. However, there are other federal regulations-some which have been around much longer than the ADA, in fact-that have had a tremendous impact on the buildings and facilities that many of us frequent every day. One such law is the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Sure, it doesn’t have a nice, short acronym like ADA, but Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 has protected people with disabilities from discrimination for quite some time. Basically, the Rehabilitation Act mandates that programs that receive federal funds cannot discriminate against the disabled.
Some of the biggest benefactors of the requirements mandated by Section 504 are college students. The Rehabilitation Act requires that colleges-or any entity that receives federal funds-ensure that all programs and activities offered are accessible to persons with disabilities. Because the Rehabilitation Act dates back to 1973 and the Americans With Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines weren’t written yet, the accessibility reference standard for recipients of federal funds was (and still is today) the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standard (UFAS).
Why are most colleges covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, you might ask? Very simply, by nature of student loans and the fact that many student loans come from money that has been filtered from the federal government to a college or university. As soon as a college or university offers federal student loans, the requirement for compliance with the Rehabilitation Act’s physical accessibility requirements are triggered. Recipients of federal funds are required to make physical alterations to buildings and facilities unless doing so would create an undue financial or administrative burden, or if necessary changes would fundamentally alter the nature of the program or activity. It is important to note that the undue burden threshold is stricter than the readily achievable barrier removal standard imposed by the ADA.
Those of us in the Advocacy program have become quite familiar with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the UFAS reference standard. As part of our ongoing community outreach and education efforts, we have started performing compliance assessments for colleges to help them with identifying barriers that might prevent full compliance with 504′s requirements.
Founded by the Moravian Church in 1742, Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, educates a socially and religiously diverse group of students. Its enrollment is 1,329. Students come from a variety of socioeconomic, religious, racial, and ethnic backgrounds, and from about 25 states and 10 foreign countries.
Moravian is recognized as America’s sixth oldest college and as such, you can probably imagine, there are many historic buildings scattered throughout this campus. While the new buildings comply with federal accessibility regulations, many of the older buildings present some challenges to providing access. For this reason, the administration asked United Spinal Association to perform a site review and prepare a compliance assessment for the campus. The college would like to determine where they are in terms of compliance with Section 504. The report that Advocacy staff has provided Moravian college with will enable them to identify areas where improvements can be made, and in most cases, we have made suggestions on the order in which to make these accessibility upgrades.
Onondaga Community College (OCC) was founded in 1962 in Syracuse, New York. The college awards nearly 1,500 degrees each year. The college has an enrollment of about 7,500 full and part-time students. The campus consists of seven buildings on 181 acres.
The United Spinal Association (formerly the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association) conducted a campus wide accessibility review for OCC in 1994. As a result of the review, the college implemented many of our recommendations and improved accessibility for students with disabilities. In January 2003, OCC’s coordinator for students with special needs contacted our office and requested that we revisit the campus to ensure that previous recommendations were met and to see if campus accessibility could be improved. We conducted another review and were pleased to see the improvements and we were able to provide additional recommendations.
OCC has demonstrated a commitment to serve students with disabilities and we are always happy to provide higher learning institutions with information and suggestions to ensure that every student has an opportunity to pursue an education in an environment that is accessible.
Education is the key to success, whether you have a disability or not, and the Rehabilitation Act has enabled many people with disabilities to receive an education that might not have been available to them if it weren’t for this “lesser-known” disability law. The Advocacy staff will continue to work with colleges to help them determine if they are complying with the Rehabilitation Act’s requirements.
Should you have any questions about compliance with the Section 504, please do not hesitate to contact John Rooney in the Buffalo Regional Office at 1-800-807-0191 or Jennifer DePaul in the Philadelphia Regional Office at 1-800-807-0190.
John Rooney & Jennifer DePaul are Senior Regional Advocate.
