College accommodations start with a request you make yourself, through the office your school has set up for them. This walks a student with a disability through registering, from the first form to the letters your instructors receive each term.
Finding the right office
Colleges give this office different names. You may see disability services, accessibility services, a disability resource center or student accessibility, and some small schools place it inside the counseling or advising office. The campus directory or the dean of students can tell you where it sits and how to reach it.
This office is the one place on campus that decides accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Instructors, advisors and residence staff can point you there, but they cannot approve an accommodation on their own.
Why your high school plan stops at graduation
An IEP or a 504 plan from high school ends when you finish high school. In college the responsibility shifts to you: the school waits for you to come forward, and nothing starts until you register and ask. Bringing your old plan along still helps, because it shows the office what has worked before.
Timing matters more than most new students expect. Accommodations begin from the date they are approved and do not reach back to cover an exam or assignment that already happened. Registering in the summer before your first term, or in the first week, gives you room to settle in before the first test.
Accommodations begin from the date they are approved and do not reach back to cover an exam or assignment that already happened.
What registration usually involves
Most offices start with an online application asking about your condition, how it affects reading, writing, testing, moving around campus or managing time, and what has helped in the past. You then send documentation and book an intake meeting with a staff member, sometimes called an access specialist or coordinator.
The intake meeting is a conversation about the barriers in your courses and how to reduce them. You can ask for extended test time, a reduced-distraction room, note-taking support, captioning, accessible formats, flexible attendance or other changes, and the office weighs each one against the essential parts of a course. Personal services such as a personal care attendant fall outside what colleges must provide, so ask early how to arrange that help separately.
Keeping your accommodations active
After approval, the office prepares an accommodation letter, and many schools ask you to request a fresh letter for each term's classes. Some send it to instructors electronically; others expect you to deliver it and talk with each instructor. The letter lists the accommodations, while your diagnosis stays with the disability office.
Exam accommodations often need booking several days ahead through a testing center. Put those deadlines in your calendar on the first day of the term, and contact the office right away if an instructor does not follow the letter.
Steps to take
- Find the name and location of your disability services office
- Fill in the online application
- Gather your high school plan and any recent records
- Book your intake meeting
- Note the testing center's booking deadline
Who decides
Your college's disability services or accessibility office
Register with the disability services office before classes start, because accommodations apply only from the day they are approved.