遵循美国残疾人法案(ADA), 1973年康复法案第504条, 修订的, 以及适用的州法律, St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM) does not discriminate against any individual on the basis of handicap or disability. 结果是, SMCM will consider requests for reasonable accommodations for students who self-discloses a disability or disabling health conditions. 可及性服务 works with students, faculty, and staff to promote access on our campus.
OUR MISSION
The 无障碍服务办公室 (OAS) provides and facilitates reasonable accommodations for students with qualifying disabilities or disabling health conditions. These accommodations are designed to facilitate equitable access to the student experience as they intersect with academic, dining, 和SMCM的住宅尺寸.
We work with our students to actively problem-solve the barriers they encounter on our campus, 使用一个专注于自主和自我倡导的过程. OAS also works with faculty and staff to ensure equitable and compliant processes, materials, and training around issues that affect academics and student life. 我们办公室的目的是为圣. Mary’s College as a resource and conduit for accessible and inclusive practices.
OUR VALUES
The values that shape our mission, vision and outlook as an office are simple. We look at each student as an individual with skills and strengths that can be highlighted when they are provided access. We know our students come to us with a set of 经历 that are unique to them. Our students’ intersectionality develops how they see the world and affects how they navigate it. 我们办公室力求公平, 在所有过程和交互中都是可访问的和公正的, meaning we look to understand our students as a whole to hopefully allow students to unlock their utmost potential in the SMCM community and classroom.
OUR VISION
Facilitating accessibility and inclusivity requires ongoing attention to the context and structures in which students live and learn at St. Mary’s. 这需要定期与学生合作, faculty, staff, 甚至是校园外的社区, to ensure we have access to the most recent and relevant information for informed decision-making and support. Attention to accessible and inclusive practices requires us to respond to existing barriers on our campus and to proactively engage in conversations and endeavors that allow us continuously expand our scope of inclusivity. 在很多方面, our work is iterative and highly dynamic; expanding accessibility and inclusive practices around the academic and campus experience at SMCM means that we are constantly uncovering barriers, 应对这些挑战, 规划更广泛的普遍获取.
Promoting equitable campus 经历 means supporting our students in a holistic manner. This includes considerations of how barriers related to ability and health intersect with race, 种族, 性, gender, age, 社会经济地位, 或者其他身份. 我们努力了解每个学生的长处, needs, 经历, and interests so that their customized accommodation plan mindfully addresses the barriers they will most likely or consistently encounter. We recognize that we may not be able to provide accommodations that address barriers beyond disability, but we will actively advance conversations around other barriers that become known to our office. It is our ethical duty to call out practices that may not be inclusive to all and try to work on actively changing those practices. This means looking at our own practices and approaches with a critical lens. Our office strives to create an environment where students feel valued for their strengths and empowered to navigate the barriers around our campus. We look to open our office to each of our students in such a way that they can continually work with us and engage in additional conversations in regards to new or different barriers they may encounter during their time at St. Mary’s.
美洲国家组织的工作旨在补充, but be identifiably different from the work of other offices committed to support of the student experience on campus. Our central focus is on the barriers to student learning and living experience and help them navigate these barriers.
