Eckerd College is committed to providing an equal opportunity for all persons and will not discriminate in regard to education, including in admissions, athletics, program offerings, and organizations, and any other educational function or service offered at the College, on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, ethnicity, sex, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other classification protected by local, state, or federal law, with respect to any person who meets the College’s admission criteria and is willing to abide by the College’s standards of conduct.
Eckerd College will not discriminate in employment, including hiring and all other conditions of employment, on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other classification protected by local, state, or federal law. Eckerd College operates within the regulation of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, as amended; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended; and the requirements of any other local, state, and federal laws prohibiting discrimination.
Inquiries concerning the application of this policy may be directed to the Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator at Eckerd College, 4200 54th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, Florida 33711, or by email at ec-titleix@eckerd.edu or by telephone at 727.864.7810.
Section 504/ADA Title III
Eckerd College operates within the regulation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended; Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as amended; and the requirements of any other local, state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability. Section 504 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
In compliance with state and federal laws and regulations and in accordance with the requirement of 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), Eckerd College will not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability in its services, programs, or activities. Eckerd College does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its hiring or employment practices and complies with all regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Labor.
The laws and regulations may be examined in the office of Michelle Espinosa, Coordinator, Title IX, Section 504, and Equal Opportunity, who has been designated to coordinate the efforts of Eckerd College to comply with Section 504/ADA Title III. Her office is located in Fox Hall, Eckerd College, 4200 54th Avenue S, St. Petersburg, Florida 33711; and she may be contacted by telephone at 727.864.7810 and email at espinoml@eckerd.edu.
Resources for Accommodations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act
Students
Student requests for accommodations and auxiliary aids should be directed to the Office of Accessibility (OA) in the Center for Academic Excellence. In addition to classroom-based academic accommodations, the Office of Accessibility also oversees accommodations granted in on-campus residence halls and dining plans due to a disabling condition. Eckerd College has developed specific protocols for managing these accommodation requests so that concerns can be reasonably accommodated and students can participate fully in the College’s academic and co-curricular programs.
Employees
Qualified employees with disabilities may make requests for reasonable accommodations to Human Resources.
Filing Complaints at Eckerd College
Eckerd College has adopted internal procedures to report and resolve many types of complaints. Useful resources are found on these College websites: ReportIt; Student Complaint Policy; and the Human Resources Grievance Policy. The Eckerd College Community Standards outline policies, procedures, community standards and the process for disciplining students. As a general proposition, the Section 504/ADA Title III grievance procedure set forth is solely for disability-related grievances.
Digital Accessibility
The Eckerd College website, www.eckerd.edu, is managed by the Office of Marketing & Communications and supported by Information Technology Services. Content is developed and maintained by managers across campus. College news is published online and available via RSS feed.
Additional College websites using other domains are managed by other units and supported by the Office of Marketing & Communications and Information Technology Services.
Guidelines and Policy
Eckerd Web pages are designed to be viewed by all modern standards-compliant Web browsers, accessible by those with disabilities, and minimally readable by Web-reading software.
The pages are built to conform to the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. In addition, pages are designed to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Please view our Digital Accessibility policy and read an evaluation of the accessibility support levels for the eckerd.edu website from a third-party independent audit.
Alternate Access
To request an alternate format of content that appears on an Eckerd College Web page, please contact our 24-hour Web Accessibility Help Desk by email webaccessibility-group@eckerd.edu or by phone at 727.864.8260.
Portable Document Format Files
Some website files are available in Portable Document Format (PDF) and served from the Google Drive file storage service. Visitors can view these files using the (free) built-in Google Drive PDF viewer or download the files for viewing with (free) PDF viewing software from Adobe.
Low-Vision Support
- Zooming
Eckerd recommends using the zoom feature available with modern browser software to increase the size at which content, including text, appears on Eckerd websites. For example, these browsers offer built-in zoom capability: Google Chrome zoom, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox zoom - Contrast
Eckerd recommends using (free) browser software to view Eckerd websites with customized high contrast color combinations or custom color palettes. For example, the Google Chrome browser offers high contrast and custom color support with free add-ons including extensions such as Change content colors, which allows the user to specify custom color combinations, and themes such as BitNova Dark that permit the user to control the color scheme of the Chrome user interface.
Screen Reader Support for Calendars
Eckerd websites Google Calendars on various pages. These calendars are accessible with common browser/screen readers. Keyboard shortcuts are also available after adding our calendars to your personal Google Calendar; click the link at the bottom right corner of our calendars to add them.
Privacy Statement
This privacy statement explains the type of information collected from visitors accessing all Eckerd College websites. The data is used to improve website quality as permitted under campus policies or as required by law.
