Essential Functions
All individuals, including persons with disabilities, who apply for admission to UT Southwestern Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health must be able to perform specific essential functions. Essential functions are the basic activities that a degree candidate must be able to perform to complete a program curriculum. No applicant who has the ability to perform the school's essential functions – either with or without reasonable accommodations – will be denied consideration for admission.
A candidate for a degree at UT Southwestern O’Donnell School of Public Health must be able to perform these functions:
a. Observation: Candidates must be able to accurately observe demonstrations close at hand and at a distance to learn skills and to gather data. Candidates must also possess functional use of the sense of vision.
b. Communication: Candidates must be able to communicate in English orally and in writing and must be able to read and comprehend written material in English.
c. Psychomotor Skills: Candidates must have sufficient motor function to obtain experimental data using tactile, auditory, and visual maneuvers. Candidates must be able to execute motor movements to perform experiments that are reasonably required of public health researchers.
d. Intellectual and Cognitive Abilities: Candidates must be able to measure, calculate, reason, analyze, synthesize, integrate, and apply information.
e. Behavioral and Social Attributes: Candidates must possess the emotional health required to use their intellectual abilities fully. Candidates must be able to tolerate physically taxing workloads and to function effectively under stress. Integrity, interest, and motivation are all personal qualities that should be assessed during the admissions and education processes.
f. Ethical Standards: A candidate must demonstrate professional demeanor and behavior, and must perform in an ethical manner in all dealings with peers, faculty, and staff.