Providing accommodations to individuals with disabilities is a collaborative process involving the campus as a whole. Distributing the cost and coordination of accommodation throughout campus is well established at UW–Madison. This method ensures that including individuals with disabilities in campus life is a responsibility shared by all campus members.
Roles & Responsibilities
- The McBurney Disability Resource Center has authority for determining if students are “qualified disabled persons" and with assisting in identifying reasonable accommodations.
- The McBurney Disability Resource Center is a primary provider of classroom‐based accommodations, including interpreting, captioning, notetaking, and document conversion for enrolled students taking courses for credit.
- Facilities, Planning and Management (FP&M) has primary responsibility for barrier‐removal and facilities access, as well as individual student accommodations related to the physical environment including but not limited to an accessible classroom table or chair, door openers, and Braille signage.
- Faculty works with students to discuss and coordinate some recommended classroom accommodations (e.g., test accommodations, class notetakers, etc.).
- Developers of web‐based content are responsible for making that content, including multi‐media content, accessible.
- The McBurney Disability Resource Center and the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) coordinate accommodations requested by students participating in registered student organizations (RSOs).
- Units offering co‐curricular or non‐credit activities are responsible for the associated accommodations (per VCA Torphy and Bazzell, see Appendix D Memoranda).
Funding Accommodations
The budgets of the McBurney Center and FP&M cover most of the costs associated with accommodations and campus access for students with disabilities (see Appendices A and B). Additionally, the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) funds accommodations for students related to participating in RSOs. Costs associated with student accommodations outside the scope of the McBurney Disability Resource Center, FP&M, and ASM are the responsibility of the school, college or division (e.g., Recreational & Wellbeing, Enrollment Management, Divisional of Information Technology, Athletics, etc.) offering the activity for which the accommodation is requested (see Appendix C). This includes but is not limited to producing accessible media (transcripts for podcasts, captioning for video content), and creating accessible web‐based instruction or web‐based services. Accommodations for conferences, lectures, seminars, etc., for which there is an attendance fee, should be paid from the respective fee income.
Contingency (Guarantee Reserve) Funding
To ensure that student accommodations are not denied and to provide a guarantee that costs incurred in providing accommodations from Fund 101/GPR do not adversely affect the budgets of individual units on campus, the Madison Budget Office has established a guarantee reserve to offset any fiscal year‐end deficits that result from providing necessary accommodations. Allocations will be made from this reserve, at fiscal year end, under the following conditions:
- the school, college or division offering the activity/program pays for the accommodations from their existing 101/GPR funds. This includes costs incurred at the departmental level for providing accommodation for a departmentally offered activity/program (e.g., media captioning costs for a Communication Arts class is the responsibility of the College of Letters and Sciences).
- the type and cost of accommodations being provided are reported to the Madison Budget Office prior to, or at least at the time the activity takes place;
- the 101/GPR fund budget from which the accommodations are paid must have a fiscal year end deficit and the costs of the accommodations must have contributed to that deficit;
- the allocation will be limited to the amount of the fiscal year end deficit or the cost of the accommodations, whichever is smaller.
For More Information
For more information on disability determinations and/or assistance with reasonable accommodations, contact McBurney Disability Resource Center Director, (608) 263‐2741, mcburney@studentlife.wisc.edu.
For more information about facilities access, contact Top Tantivivat, FP&M Facilities Access Specialist, (608) 263‐3021, top.tantivivat@wisc.edu
Budget related questions should be directed to the Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration at (608) 263‐2467.
Appendix A: McBurney Disability Resource Center Funded Services and Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
- Captioner services for lectures, discussions, labs, field placements, and other required classroom activities/credit‐based academic activities
- Class notetakers and notetaker supplies
- Document conversion services (e.g., costs associated with the delivery of audio, large print, or Braille materials)
- Interpreter services for lectures, discussions, labs, field placements and other required classroom/credit‐based academic activities
- Test accommodation proctor and technology costs
- General, adaptive and/or specialized equipment needed to deliver the above‐named services
- Maintenance and repair costs and contracts associated with adaptive and/or specialized equipment to deliver the above‐named services
Appendix B: Facilities Planning and Management Funded Services and Accommodations
- Ensure physical accessibility of over 900 acres, 300 buildings and 13,000 parking stalls
- Conduct facility access audits, develop recommendations on facility access needs and, assist with the scope of prioritization of project requests
- Review plans for new buildings and building renovation projects for accessibility code compliance as well as for connectivity with accessible pedestrian routes on campus
- Respond to requests for accommodations involving facilities and parking
- Maintain current information on accessible pedestrian routes shown on the Campus Map
- Provides current information about life safety and emergency planning for people with disabilities
- Partner with Physical Plant employees to clear snow from pedestrian routes for people with disabilities in winter
- Partner with the Division of Information Technology and departments on accessible telecommunications
Appendix C: School, College and Program‐funded Accommodations
- Transcription and captioning costs for purchasing or otherwise making classroom‐based or program media accessible (e.g., video, podcast, lecture capture, etc.)
- Developing accessible on‐line content (e.g., navigation features, text in formats accessible to screen readers, image tagging, closed/open captioning, etc.)
- Accommodations (accommodations include but are not limited to sign language interpreters, speech-to-text converters, document conversion, room or event relocation and accessible transportation) needed to attend campus events that may be recommended but are not required in a credit‐based course a student is enrolled in. These include but are not limited to lectures, forums, performances, conferences and trainings
- Accommodations needed to participate in non‐registered student organization (RSO) events
- Accommodations needed to attend campus events sponsored by a department, school, college or program
- Common adaptive hardware or software that remains in computer labs, libraries or other campus and/or community spaces
