About Us

Mission and Purpose

The Disability Resource Center (DRC) is the office designated by Purdue to provide services, resources, and programs that enable disabled students to fully participate in curricular and co-curricular offerings.

The DRC serves disabled undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at Purdue West Lafayette, Indianapolis and Polytechnic Institute Statewide Programs. This includes part-time and full-time as well as students taking online courses. The DRC strives to proactively identify and remove barriers to access and minimize the need for individual accommodations. The DRC also determines whether students are eligible for reasonable accommodations and, if so, the nature of the reasonable accommodations. The DRC does not test for, diagnose or treat disability but relies on third-party documentation when determining accommodations.

What informs the DRC's work?

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): In accordance with ADA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, no qualified person will be denied access to, participation in, or the benefits of, any program or activity operated by the University because of disability.
• Universal Design: The DRC promotes universal design, the idea that experiences should be usable by all people to the greatest extent possible, ideally without the need for individual adjustments. Identifying and removing barriers to access in the design process can result in an enhanced experience for all participants and reduce the need for individual accommodations.
• Disability Studies: Disability Studies is a multi- and interdisciplinary academic field of inquiry that defines impairment as naturally occurring on the continuum of human difference. Experts in the field challenge the dated view of disability as an individual deficit or defect, emphasizing instead that individuals are disabled by their environments, not by their impairments.