Funding for Reasonable Accommodations

Limited funds are available to assist Penn State departments for costs associated with requests for reasonable accommodations that enable people with disabilities to participate in Penn State programs and events.  The funds are intended to be used for reasonable accommodations that do not involve classroom or work related accommodations, although exceptions in either of those cases will be considered in situations that involve unusual expense or unique accommodation needs.

Penn State complies with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which mandates providing reasonable accommodations to ensure equal access to all Penn State programs, activities, services and facilities.  All academic and administrative units at the University are required to provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities who make such requests.

Individual administrative units have primary responsibility for costs associated with reasonable accommodations that are requested for the programs they are providing.  It is advised that units maintain sufficient funds in their budget to cover any costs associated with reasonable accommodations (e.g., sign language interpreter, real-time captioning, Brailing services, etc.).  However, it is recognized that there are times when the costs associated with some reasonable accommodation requests might be unusually high or unexpected.  In those situations, the University Access Committee Reasonable Accommodation Fund (UACRAF) is available to provide assistance in situations where an individual unit/department is experiencing a financial hardship as a result of a request for reasonable accommodation.  Typically, funds from the UAC Reasonable Accommodation Fund are matching and will be limited to a maximum of 50% of the actual cost for the reasonable accommodation(s).

UAC Reasonable Accommodation Funding Request Form (MS Word)

UAC Reasonable Accommodation Funding Request Form (PDF)

Contact ADA/504 Coordinator, at 814-863-0471, or adainfo@psu.edu for questions or more information.