Our Mission
In supporting the college’s mission to be the preferred provider of talent for a global marketplace, Counseling and Accessibility Services (CAS) ensures equal access to all campus programs and activities. Any student with a learning, physical, psychological, or other disability that significantly impacts their academic pursuits is potentially eligible to receive accessibility services and the facilitation of auxiliary aids and services. Any students in need of personal, career, educational, or crisis intervention counseling are eligible for free counseling services.
Role of Counseling & Accessibility Services
CAS provides intake, assessment of needs on campus, and the facilitation of academic and other accommodations for students with disabilities attending BRCC. CAS also provides training for faculty and staff to increase a greater understanding of the needs and the advantages of a team approach to serving students with disabilities within the BRCC community.
Diversity Statement
CAS promotes the celebration of diversity and multiculturalism, as well as differences in age, ethnicity, gender, language, mental and physical ability, race, sexual orientation, social and economic status, spirituality, and worldview.
Requirements for Eligibility
According to the Americans with Disability Act, to be enrolled with the Office of Counseling & Accessibility Services, a person must meet each aspect of the criteria listed below:
- The person must be regarded as one who has a disability.
- The person must identify themselves to the institution.
- The person must present the institution with documentation regarding their disability. The documentation must reflect the student’s need for academic accommodations.
Definition of a Disability
Section 504 defines a person with a disability as:
- Someone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities
- A person who has a record of the disability
- Someone who is regarded as having the disability.
Physical Impairment
Any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfiguration, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the following body systems:
- Neurological
- Musculoskeletal
- Special Sense Organs
- Respiratory (including speech organs)
- Cardiovascular
- Reproductive
- Digestive
- Genitourinary
- Hemic and Lymphatic
- Skin and Endocrine
Psychological Impairment
Any psychological or neurological disorder such as organic brain syndrome, emotional, or mental illness and specific learning disabilities.
Major Life Activity
Any function such as: caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working.
Confidentiality
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 states that any information regarding a person’s disability gained from medical examinations to the appropriate post-admission investigation shall be considered confidential and shall only be shared with others within the college or university on a need-to-know basis. In other words, faculty members do not need to have access to information regarding a student’s disability; faculty ought only to know the accommodations that are appropriate and necessary to meet the student’s needs.