Prospective Students
The Disability Services and Resources Office recognizes that students are unique individuals with many intersecting identities and experiences. We engage in an interactive process where we encourage you to share your previous experiences with accommodations, recognize your barriers to learning, and reflect on what accommodations have and have not worked for you in the past. Through this dialogue, we identify options for accommodations that are the right fit for you as an individual and which are reasonable within the context of Cornell.
We support students who experience a variety of disabilities, including but not limited to the following: ADHD, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, neurodivergence, psychological disorders, chronic health conditions, brain injuries, blindness and vision impairment.
We offer a range of accommodation options to meet each student’s individual needs. If you have general questions regarding accommodations and services, please contact us.
If you are considering Cornell College you have learned that we do things a little differently here. We do not have semester-long courses, but instead we have sessions or blocks so you take one course at a time for 18 days.Students take One Course At A Time, with each block covering the same amount of material as a class on the semester system. A typical day might include up to four hours of class, then potentially labs, field trips, or guest speakers. After class, students might read a few long chapters, spend time in the library doing research for a paper, and collaborate with classmates on a presentation. It is not unusual to have a small paper or homework problems due every night on top of progress towards larger ongoing projects. As you can imagine, every day counts!
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Unique to our One Course At A Time format, there is an increased pace of reading required. This makes sense when you consider a semester's worth of reading packed into 18 days. Students are regularly expected to read 50-150 pages of challenging course materials per night. If reading is a challenge for someone, whether due to disability or just comfort with reading, we will advise them to start reading their textbooks during the block break before the block begins.
Check out this helpful technologies that can help with your daily reading!
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There might be a homework assignment or writing assignment due each day. This means that it is critical to use time management skills to make the most of your time.
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A day of class at Cornell covers the same material you would cover in a week for a semester-long course, so it's important that you be present and engaged in class every day, or have a plan in place to catch up if you miss a day.
One of Cornell’s many nicknames is “the Hilltop” because our campus is situated at one of the tallest points in Mount Vernon. This means that we have some amazing views, and also some steep walkways. If you have any mobility concerns, we encourage you to be in contact with Disability Services early and often to ensure you have the tools you need to navigate campus.
We encourage admitted students to register with Disability Services as early as possible after confirming enrollment at Cornell College, preferably by August 1st for fall semester starts and December 1 for spring semester starts. The first step of this process is filling out the Disability Accommodations form in the Admitted Student Checklist.
There are many laws that guide how accommodations are implemented at the high school, college, and employment levels in the United States. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) requires primary and secondary schools to find, evaluate, and provide services to students with disabilities. In other words, high school guarantees success.
Higher education institutions are governed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires that disabled students seek out and request accommodations from the institution. Disability Services cannot implement an accommodation that would fundamentally alter the curriculum. In other words, colleges ensure access, not success.
You can find a more in-depth discussion of this difference at the Learning Disabilities Association of America, Modifications vs. Accommodations.
For some students, the transition to college may pose additional challenges. Disability Services offers an early orientation program for those students.
Visiting campus?
We’d be happy to meet with you! Please let Admissions know you’d like to meet with the Coordinator of Disability Services as part of your visit and they can coordinate that meeting for you.