General Guidelines for Accommodation Documentation

To receive accommodation, you must first provide documentation establishing the presence of a substantially limiting condition and describing its current impact on your academic success and personal well being. This information is essential to the process of identifying possible accommodations. A clinical diagnosis is not synonymous with a disability and may not be adequate to determine if reasonable accommodations can be determined.

General criteria for documentation includes the following:

• The documentation must be prepared by a professional (unrelated to the student) who is licensed to practice within a field directly related to, and associated with, the student’s condition.

• Be printed on official stationery and include printed name, contact information, and signature of the provider.

• Include a current, original statement of diagnosis identifying the disability and describes by what means the condition was diagnosed.

• Describe the functional limitations resulting from the disability.

• IEP and 504 plans provide helpful contextual information about previous experience, but do not constitute documentation for the purposes of establishing reasonable accommodation.

If the supporting documentation submitted is not adequate to validate the existence of a disability, the Director of Student Accessibility Services reserves the right to request updated assessments or additional evaluations.