Documenting Student Disability
Document Quick Links
- Accommodation Request and Director's review
- Documentation Essentials
- What are Major Life Activities?
- Additional Supporting Information
- Documenting Specific Learning Disability
- Documenting ADHD
- Documenting Other Mental Disabilities
- Educational Records
- Extended Review
Accommodation Request and Director's Review
The director of Disability Services reviews student requests for reasonable accommodation in terms of the rights of individuals with disabilities to nondiscrimination on the basis of disability. The generic term "reasonable accommodation" indicates that some academic adjustment or service is necessary for the student with a disability to be insured the same opportunities as other students to participate in and benefit from the programs, services, and activities of the university for which they are qualified.
For the accommodation request to pass the director's review, it must be accompanied, at student expense, by current, comprehensive, and authoritative medical or psychological documentation. Documentation must clearly show that the student has a specific physical or mental impairment (also including sensory and cognitive impairments) which substantially limits major life activities or has been shown to necessitate reasonable accommodation to ensure equality of opportunity. This means that impairment in and of itself is insufficient to document that the student is an individual with a disability. The type and degree of functional limitations which form the need of reasonable accommodation related to the impairment, then, are key to supporting the student's accommodation request.
Documentation Essentials
To be current, the documentation should stress current functioning as opposed to past history, except when the impairment is obviously permanent. It should explicitly address the current state of the functional limitations so that Disability Services can work with the student to identify services and academic adjustments that will be effective in ensuring equality of opportunity. The documentation should state that the impairment and current functioning are permanent or, if temporary, the anticipated time at which improvement or exacerbation is anticipated. To be comprehensive, the documentation should include the diagnosis or medical/psychological nature of the impairment. It should specifically describe how the impairment limits major life activities or necessitates reasonable accommodation. To be authoritative, the documentation should be prepared by a practitioner qualified to diagnose and (when applicable) treat physical or mental conditions related to the impairment. Documentation should be typed, not hand written, and should appear on the letterhead of the provider, with signature and other identifying information such as type of practice and license. Documentation prepared by a member of the student's family is inappropriate. Most of all, handwritten notes on prescription pads are very unlikely to pass review for clarity and comprehensiveness.
What Are Major Life Activities?
The term, major life activities refers to the activities in which people engage in daily. Some examples are: seeing, hearing, walking, breathing, performing manual tasks, caring for one's self, working, and learning. The individual in question is said to be substantially limited in one or more of such major life activities if the conditions, manner, or duration under which the major life activity can be performed is considerably restricted, compared to most people, that is, the average person the individual would encounter in daily life.
Additional Supporting Information
When applicable, documentation should contain additional supporting information that would aid the student and director in identifying effective services and academic adjustments. Some examples are: treatment plans, medications and their impact on patient functioning, triggering mechanisms, activities or conditions to be avoided or modified, safety information, mitigating measures, etc.
Documenting Specific Learning Disability
Specific learning disability can be diagnosed and reported on by psychologists, school psychologists, and other professionals in the field of special education who have taken professional training and who have experience in learning-disability assessment. An assessment report to document learning disability should at least contain: comprehensive objective measures of aptitude, information processing, and academic achievement. No specific list of required tests is kept. However, aptitude assessments such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Mental Aptitude are common favorites in the field, because they measure aptitude in the context of information processing. Additional tests of information processing that specifically address sensory perception, memory, and recall are commonly deemed important by the provider. The Wechsler Memory Scale and similar tests are often employed as well. A favorite achievement test in the field is the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement or other similar instruments which objectively measure the academic achievement across a broad range of skills having to do with reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, and other specific academic tasks required of students in postsecondary education. Standard scores and percentiles are highly preferred over grade equivalence scores, which are not objective measures, though they may have meaning in special education. Most important, for all three assessment areas, screening devices such as the K-BIT and the WRAT do not stand on their own as comprehensive measures.
Disability Services does not require specific statistical aptitude-achievement discrepancy to establish the presence of significant learning disability. In addition to presentation and analysis of test scores, the provider may apply educational history, student experience as assessed in a clinical interview, or professional observations of student behavior during the assessment procedure. Subjective information may corroborate or contradict objective data, so the provider should take care to report the findings and state whether a specific and substantial learning disability is present. Finally, though accommodation recommendations are welcome and will be considered as a part of the Disability Services review, they are not required and may not be followed - depending on educational practicability and reasonableness.
Documenting Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
As with other impairments, physical and mental, ADHD may or may not cause the student in question to be an individual with a disability. Thus, for ADHD to necessitate reasonable accommodation, it must be disabling to the individual in the same way as other physical and mental impairments. To be current, the documentation should not be more than three years old. To be comprehensive, it should address DSM-IV diagnostic criteria in detail. A summary statement that those criteria have been met is insufficient on its own to document a necessity for reasonable accommodation. To be authoritative, the documentation must be prepared by a licensed professional who has had specific training to make differential mental diagnoses. This include: psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, pediatricians, and some social workers, for example. Family practitioners and school psychologists are not ordinarily qualified to conduct comprehensive assessments of ADHD for purposes of documenting disability, even though family practitioners routinely diagnose ADHD and prescribe treatment medication. Most important, a brief letter indicating that the student has ADHD, takes medication to treat ADHD, and needs reasonable accommodation is very unlikely to pass the Disability Service review, for its lack of comprehensiveness.
Documenting Other Mental Disabilities
To be current, in general, documentation of mental impairment should have been prepared within the past year. To be comprehensive, it should state the diagnosis or nature of the mental impairment and should clearly detail the ways in which the impairment substantially limits a major life activity or necessitates reasonable accommodation for equality of opportunity. To be authoritative, the documentation should be prepared by a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric or clinical social worker, psychiatric nurse practitioner, etc. Most of the more common mental impairments such as generalized anxiety, depression, etc., do not necessarily rise to the level of causing disability. Thus the documentation must clearly describe how such an impact is created by such conditions as to substantially limit major life activities or necessitate reasonable accommodation. Most important, a brief letter stating that the student has one of those common mental impairments and needs reasonable accommodation is very unlikely to pass the Disability Services review for clarity and comprehensiveness. Test anxiety, stage fright, and the like ordinarily are not seen as disabilities unless they are functional limitations of more encompassing impairments.
Educational Records
Documentation such as an IEP or Section 504 Plan is an educational record that rarely stands on its own as documentation of adult disability. While it may serve to supplement clinical information, a child's need of special education does not necessarily mean that the child will become an adult with a disability as indicated by more general regulations confirming disability-rights. Frequently, educational records such as an IEP contain comprehensive disability assessment prepared by an authoritative provider, however. Records of that kind are routinely taken by Disability Services as authoritative disability documentation, and they should be submitted in support of the student's reasonable accommodation request.
Extended Review
Occasionally, students present documentation which clearly suggests that the impairment in question may very well impose disability on the student requesting a reasonable accommodation, but the documentation is insufficient to pass the Disability Services review conclusively. In such cases, reasonable accommodation is generally begun, and the review is extended to allow time for the director of Disability Services, student, and documentation provider to work together to complete the review process. The student will receive specific information from Disability Services about what additional information is required. Often, a clarifying letter from the provider would suffice to complete the review. Occasionally, however, a new comprehensive disability assessment is required to fill in specified gaps of currency, comprehensiveness, or authority.
