University of St. Thomas Enhancement Program

Services for Students with Disabilities

Mission Statement

The mission of the Enhancement Program is to ensure that all students with disabilities achieve their educational, career, and personal goals through the full range of institutional and community resources. Therefore, students with disabilities receive comprehensive support services and accommodations to allow equal access to all university programs. Our goal is to enable students to maximize their independence and self-advocacy skills to the fullest extent possible within the standard university curriculum.

Enhancement Program Overview

Students qualify for services through the Enhancement Program upon self-disclosure of a disability and the presentation of current and comprehensive documentation. Reasonable academic accommodations are arranged on an individual basis in order to provide students with disabilities equal access to all university programs. The University of St. Thomas is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Enhancing Academic Success Through Support Services

• We provide accommodations such as notetakers, books on tape, alternate exam arrangements, readers and scribes for exams, course modifications, interpreters, assistive listening devices, priority registration, and braille texts.

• We provide assistance in petitioning for course substitutions in foreign language and mathematics when warranted by documentation.

• We offer academic and personal counseling regarding students' disability-related issues.

• We offer one-on-one tutoring that emphasizes strategies to improve study skills and retention of course content.

• We foster the growth of advocacy skills for students as they discover methods to advocate for their disability-related needs and become independent learners.

• We offer students a “testing, tutoring, and technology” center which provides a quiet testing and study environment and houses our adaptive technology.

• We conduct pre-screening for students who suspect they may have a learning disability or Attention Deficit Disorder. We refer students for further assessment if necessary and collaborate with outside agencies for complete diagnostic services.

• We assist students with accessing additional campus resources.

• We meet with prospective students who want to learn more about our program.

Enhancing Academic Success Through Adaptive Technology

The Enhancement Program, along with Specialized Services, provides several adaptive technology workstations on both the St. Paul and Minneapolis campuses. On the St. Paul campus, a workstation is located in the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center and in the Learning Center in the O'Shaughnessy Educational Center. Two workstations are located in the Keffer Library on the Minneapolis campus. Our adaptive technology includes the following:

• Kurzweil 1000: a reading system that converts printed material into speech, also includes voice command recognition

• Kurzweil 3000: a reading system which includes visual and auditory presentation of printed materials, scans printed material which appears on the screen and then speaks the on-screen text

• Jaws for Windows: converts printed material into speech

• ZoomText: a low vision text enhancer

• ScanJet: scans textbooks onto CDs and projects them onto a computer screen

• TextHelp!: converts printed material into speech (including web pages), includes screen magnification, spell check, thesaurus, word prediction, automatic correction and more.

• Naturally Speaking: dictation software that allows you to speak to the computer and the dictated words appear on the screen

Student Online Exam Registration Form

Faculty Frequently Asked Questions

Faculty may refer to the faculty questions page to get answers regarding Enhancement Program policies and procedures.

Student Policies and Procedures Guide

Please review the Student Policies and Procedures Guide for detailed information regarding disability law, students' rights and responsibilities, documentation requirements, and program procedures.

Important Links

University of St. Thomas Home Page

ADA information

Association on Higher Education and Disability

Learning Disabilities Association

Brain Injury Association of MN

Children and Adults with A.D.D.

National Mental Health Association

Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic

For More Information Contact:

Kimberly Schumann
Enhancement Program
University of St. Thomas
2115 Summit Avenue, #4016
Office location: OEC 119
St. Paul, MN 55105
(651) 962-6315, (800) 328-6819 ext 6315
8:00 – 4:30 M-F