Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Documentation for students with disabilities

It has recently came to my attention through a vast amount of email messages that there are an increasing amount of students having problems with College Disability Services. I want to address this issue here to help decrease the amount of email I am getting on this issue.

Documentation of a disability varies from school and state and there is not a unified approach or requirements for this. There is however a list of disabilities that must be covered under both the A.D.A. and the Rehabilitation Act. Only online students are covered under the Telecommunications Act. Any reasonable disability that requires a doctors written diagnosis should always be attached when applying for an accomodation but this does not mean that the school will grant or enforce the accomodation. It is the students responsibility to request a list of authorized condition for the college they attend.

A student does have certain recourses under the law but only after they follow the formal complaint and appeals policy for the school they attend. Once they have exhausted these resources without recieving appropriate accomodation they can then file a formal complaint through the A.D.A. and appropriate commission for their school. Each state senators office has social workers that are available to help and advocate for a student with disabilities and it is advised to use their services which is free. Do not hesitate to question decisions that you are told are final by a school. If you need a list of Senators for your area please contact me, I will be posting an updated list soon.