What is a Disability?
Federal law defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits or restricts the conditions, manner, or duration under which an average person in the general population can perform a major life activity, such as walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, or taking care of oneself. An impairment or diagnosis, in and of itself, does not constitute a disability: it must "substantially limit" activities of daily living.
Disabilities do not necessarily impair the individual's performance but may require the individual to seek alternate methods of carrying out a given task. As a recipient of federal funding, the University of Chicago is required by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide effective auxiliary aids and services for qualified students with documented disabilities if such aids are needed to provide equitable access to the University's programs and services. This includes academic programs as well as extracurricular activities.
