The Cleveland Institute of Art is dedicated to ensuring that all students have equal access to the educational experience at CIA. The Wellness and Accessibility Services office provides accommodations to students with disabilities, including learning disabilities, mental health diagnoses, sensory impairments, mobility issues, and chronic health conditions.
We work in close partnership with students and faculty to determine appropriate accommodations, and we look forward to working with you. Please don’t hesitate to contact our office (disabilityservices@cia.edu) with any questions or concerns.
New Accommodations Request (for new students or returning students who are newly requesting)
Step 1: Complete CIA's Intake Form and return to disabilityservices@cia.edu
Step 2: Submit provider verification of your disability to disabilityservices@cia.edu (see below for additional information about documentation)
Step 3: Share your official accommodations letter with your faculty via email
Step 4: Renew your accommodations each semester
The Disability Services Office reviews documentation on a case-by-case basis. All documentation provided to our office is secured, and a specific disability is never disclosed to faculty or staff without prior consent.
Students with a disability must be otherwise qualified and meet the same academic standards for admission as any other student. In order to receive disability-related accommodations, students must disclose the disability to the Disability Services Office.
The Cleveland Institute of Art does not provide personal services including, but not limited to:
In order to best prepare for students’ arrival on campus, CIA appreciates as much advanced notice as possible of requests for accommodations. CIA does not provide retroactive accommodations.
In accordance with guidelines established by the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), the documentation of a disability should include the following:
All documentation must be submitted on official letterhead of the professional/service provider describing the disability. An Individual Education Plan (IEP) and/or a 504 plan from secondary and elementary schools, along with a psycho-educational evaluation team report (ETR) completed by a psychologist or school psychologist, constitute acceptable documentation. Either document is acceptable, but both are preferred. Alternatively, psycho-educational assessments from a private psychologist and/or medical evaluations or reports are also acceptable documents. Individual “learning styles,” “academic problems, “and “test difficulty or anxiety,” in and of themselves, do not constitute a learning disability.
If you do not have the documentation detailed above, please use our Disability Verification Form as an alternative way to provide acceptable documentation. This must be filled out by your doctor or licensed therapist/counselor.
Documentation can be emailed to DisabilityServices@cia.edu.
Source: Academic Achievement & Access Center. “Comparison of ADA, Section 504, & IDEA.” Student Access Services, The University of Kansas , 21 Dec. 2015, https://access.ku.edu/sites/access/files/2021-07/Comparison%20of%20the%20IDEA%2C%20Section%20504%2C%20ADA%20%281%29%20Updated%2007-07-21.pdf.
In addition to the accommodations described on this page, the Wellness and Accessibility Services office offers individual consultations to incoming students with documented disabilities. These intake meetings can be conducted in person or remotely. During the consultation, students and parents meet the Disability Services staff who will review the student’s disability documentation, establish accommodations and direct students to resources specific to the unique demands of the CIA experience. Please email disabilityservices@cia.edu to schedule your appointment.
Students with qualifying documented learning disabilities are eligible, on a case-by-case basis according to their individual needs, to accommodations that may include:
Students with specific medical or mobility-related issues can receive preferential scheduling and/or seating as well as specific in-class accommodations arranged with individual professors based on medical necessity.
CIA also has a Writing + Learning Center. This facility is available to all CIA students who need assistance with writing. It also serves as the main hub for specialized software for students with documented learning disabilities.
The information in this pamphlet, provided by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U. S. Department of Education, explains the rights and responsibilities of students with disabilities who are preparing to attend postsecondary schools.
This is a of the comparison of ADA, IDEA, and Section 504 by the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
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