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Download a copy of your Student Welcome Packet.

40 scholarship opportunities for students with disabilities, along with a set of valuable resources and support groups to further help throughout their college and career journey. .

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Information on ACCESS-VR for University Students

to be directed to the ACCESS-VR website.

Center of Academic Excellence and Innovation (CAEI)

The CAEI can help you with writing support, math, tutoring, science tutoring, general education support and much more! You can click the link above to bring you to the CAEI page where you can book an appointment and view the resources that you can utilize. 

Students with disabilities must apply to 91�� through the regular admissions procedure. There are no special admissions procedures. A student may, however, apply to the companies that administer the standardized admission exams (such as Educational Testing Services and The College Board) for provision of accommodations when taking standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT and GRE. Contact the exam administration companies for further information on how to apply for and make arrangements for standardized exam accommodations.

If you suspect you have a disability that is impacting your academic performance, you will need to provide documentation of that disability to the Office of ACCESSibility (ACCESS). This documentation must be supplied by a qualified professional who is licensed or certified to diagnose the disability in question. An appointment ACCESS to discuss your potential need for services and to gather resource and referral information.

Colleges are required to provide any reasonable accommodation that may be necessary for equal access to education. They are not required to design special programs for students with disabilities or have Individualized Educational Plans (IEP’s).

In college, students with disabilities are covered under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). IDEA no longer applies. Since this is the case, the legal obligations change. There is no special education in college. Colleges do not have to seek out students with disabilities. It is the student's responsibility to seek out services through the Office of ACCESSibility.

Students who are 18 years old or older are legally recognized as adults. In this case, the student is responsible for his or her own accommodation requests and disability-related decisions. However, students are encouraged to have an open dialogued with their parents. Parents can be a wonderful source of support.

Students with physical disabilities are encouraged to register with the Office of ACCESSibility every semester so that the office can help them with access to buildings and other university activities. ACCESS partners with Facilities Services to maintain an accessible campus.

Colleges are not required to conduct or provide testing. The student is responsible for providing current documentation, and any additional testing to support the requested accommodations, if necessary. However, ACCESS does provide referral information for local evaluators and counselors.

To notify your instructor about your accommodations, email them a copy of your Accommodation Memo. If you need a copy of your Accommodation Memo, please log on to the to request one . Please keep in mind, that Accommodation Memos are semester specific. You will need to get an updated memo each term.

Send your Accommodation Memo to all you instructors to ensure you receive your testing accommodations online. If your instructor is concerned about meeting your accommodations online, please encourage them to reach out to the Office of Accessibility at accessibility@mercy.edu.

Natural Reader is a free text to speech software. For information on how to use ReadSpeaker, please reach out to the Office of ACCESSibility at accessibility@mercy.edu . There are many other options for text to speech, such as: Balabolka, PanopreterBasic, WordTalk, and Zabaware.