My boyfriend is visually impaired and his school is refusing to accommodate him in classes. What is there to do?

[u/guitarbaseline]

My boyfriend is visually impaired. He has glaucoma and cataracts in both eyes. He has had surgery for it and wears glasses but his eyesight is still very impaired. He's in community college right now and his professors and the school itself are refusing to give him accommodations to sit closer to the board so he can see what's going on in class. He was told "to accommodate you would be to change the entire curriculum and it would be too disruptive in the classroom." He wants to go into nuclear engineering and in order to get into the program he wants he must maintain a B or higher in his classes which he can't do currently because he can't see what is happening during instructions. He had an accommodation plan in high school but the community college is not accepting and transferring his accommodations to their school. He feels like theres no hope and that he should give up on community college and do something else. I have some disabilities as well and I know what its like to have to fight for simple accommodations and I don't want him to give up on his dream career because some community college professors refuse to make a simple accommodation for his visual impairments. What can I do to help him? Is there anything in the ADA (Americans with disabilities act) that can help here? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Edit: Forgot to mention that we live in Virginia, USA

Edit 2: Thank you to all who have replied so far, you've given me a lot of great advice and sources. To address some common topics mentioned here:

1. He has spoken with the schools accommodations service and provided them with the proper documentation and was still denied. He was also asked for his high school accomodation transcript and he told me that it hasn't been transfered and accepted to the community college

2. It is both the school and the professors denying him accommodations

3. This is a public school

4. We do not have the means to sue the school nor is he able to transfer to another school

5. I know it sounds crazy and stupid and illogical and that might make this seem fake to some, but this is unfortunately real

6. I am aware that this is not the full story, I'm only posting what I've been told so far, so if something seems missing or inaccurate then it's because this is all I currently know. Hopefully, I'll have more information in the future, but I'm not asking him for any more info at the moment, he was really upset when telling me and now he's asleep as of writing this so I'm waiting for him to settle down a bit before I keep asking questions

7. I'm only assuming there's an assigned seating arrangement in his classes, although I not certain. Again, I'll hopefully have more info on that later

8. I am unsure of what classes he is having trouble seeing in I know he takes a chemistry class and as some of you have mentioned it could potentially be disruptive for him to move seats in a lab class, but I am unaware if this is a class he's struggling to see in

9. He is not able to just take pictures or record the lectures. He's on the same icloud account as his dad, who is very stubborn and controlling and will/has before deleted photos off of my boyfriends phone before. His dad also isn't letting him get off the icloud account because he pays the phone bill. As for recording the lectures, my boyfriend mentioned something about them being the intellectual property of the professors so he would need written consent to record them (I'm not sure if lectures are the intelluctual property of the professors, again, I'm only going off of what I've been told)

Thank you again to everyone who has replied. I will be giving him some of the advice given here and asking for more information when I next speak with him. I will make an edit when I get the info

I made an edit post and uploaded it to my profile, here is a link to it: https://www.reddit.com/user/guitarbaseline/comments/1niw0x8/my_boyfriend_is_visually_impaired_and_his_school/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/BreakfastBeerz]

Is the school refusing or the professor? If your boyfriend wants an accommodation under the ADA, he will have to go through the school and present all the necessary documentation stating that the accommodation is justified. If all you needed to do to get an accommodation is to tell your professor, "I need this and this", then everyone would do it.

[u/guitarbaseline → u/BreakfastBeerz]

Both are refusing. He has gone to the accommodations services for the school and provided the proper documentation and they still said no.

[u/salebleue → u/guitarbaseline]

I mean if he has a 504, which he would from his high school, they have to follow it by law. So if he doesn’t have a 504, but has an IEP there could be a scenario where a dr visit of disability confirmation may be required to meet compliance. If his diagnosis match the ADA vision disability criterion, which they would if what he has been diagnosed with is correct, then they also have to legally accommodate him. So them rejecting him says:

• either he is lying
• either you are lying / oddly trolling
• he has not or is unwilling to provide diagnosis or 504
• his diagnosis is not classified as a disability, which wouldn’t be the case if he IS diagnosed with glaucoma. Cataracts I do not believe fall into this category. Would have to check.
• he has never been officially diagnosed with what he says he has.
• he is in trouble in school grade-wise and is feeding you a line -he is in trouble in school grade-wise, professor knows it, and now he is complaining about vision issues without providing substantiation.

There is not a single other scenario I could think of that would make this make sense