Tips for Seeking Accommodations in College

Short Version of this Advice

Get diagnostic paperwork if you can, and meet with your college or university’s designated office for ADA/504 compliance ASAP, because accommodations cannot be retroactive. They may be called Disability Services, Disability Resource Center, or something else. These folks are generally on your side, advocates for accessibility and your rights.

Importantly, I do not necessarily think of autism as a disability. And I personally prefer the social model of disability anyway, and have a lot more to say on that in other places. Being neurodivergent is sometimes 100% about differences, not at all disability. Other times, it may be disability. Sometimes it’s a mixture. And people get to have complex and dynamic lives too, in which some things are impairments, or disabling, and other things are differences, and these things can vary day to day, all of which benefit from accommodations.

With that said, the only way to get accommodations in higher education is through the designated folks, and it will be through the disability office. But don’t let that change your personhood. It’s just how access needs get met. Okay?

Nothing here is legal advice, although a lot of disability access stuff distills down to being a legal matter for the individual trying to participate in society. When in doubt about your legal rights, please consult a disability rights attorney with jurisdiction in your locality.

This blog post references U.S. laws specifically. The general advice likely applies anywhere but the named laws are U.S. Laws. 

This isn’t Kansas anymore, Toto

And college isn’t high school. As a high school student, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) disabled students are entitled to an individualized education plan (IEP) that outlines the specific services and accommodations they need to succeed in school.

IDEA requires that schools provide a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to disabled students. IDEA also gives federal funding to states and local school districts for some expenses related to providing this kind of access.

Fun fact: IDEA requires only that students “benefit from an education” (what does this mean?) not that they receive high quality educational experiences. You can read more about IDEA on ed.gov.

College: ADA/504

But you’re going to college now, so all of that is in your past. In college, the laws that govern the rights of disabled students in the U.S. are the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Most U.S. colleges and universities are going to determine accommodations based on these things:

• confirmation that you have something they consider a disability
• assessment of how that disability impacts your ability to participate in the experiences of college
• what “reasonable accommodations” could bridge the gap and help you more fully participate in the experiences of college

The designated entity (again, usually a staff person in a Disability Services kind of office) will consider the above, and work with you to figure out those reasonable accommodations.

Meet with the disability folks even if you’re not sure whether you have everything they need, because they can clarify what you need to obtain.

You should try to meet with them in the summer before your first semester of studies, if possible. If you’re already enrolled, then just meet with them ASAP.

For students: Will my professors think I’m _____ ?

Nah. I really, strongly, and pretty confidently feel like I can tell you that professors by and large will not make assumptions about you for having accommodations. I say this as someone who has been a professor since 2004, and a higher ed consultant since 2019. I have never heard a professor mumble this in an office somewhere, or joke about a disabled student.

Does it happen? I’m sure it does, because there are a-holes everywhere, but it’s definitely not common. I’ve also asked my faculty advisees, and they do not hear this sort of thing in their circles either, for whatever that’s worth.

Want to know what professors do talk about when it comes to having disabled students in their classes? Mostly, they want to know how to be more helpful. I’ve had consults with faculty about how to make their courses more universally accessible, for example, and how to generally remove barriers from their assignments.

For faculty: Will my students think I’m _____?

Nah. I really don’t think so here either. And I speak to this as someone who has been faculty for two decades, and who has always been transparent about disability and my own access needs. Maybe I’ve always had the best students ever (?), but I don’t know if it’s just that.

Partly I’ve been so open out of necessity. I have prosopagnosia (“face blindness”) and so my students need to know about that, and what I need them to do accordingly.

And I also have told students I’m autistic and have ADHD, and in two decades in the higher ed classroom I’ve yet to regret telling students who I am. I just show up to teach my classes, and this is how I show up. Masking all of that would be ridiculously not possible for me to pull off.

I encourage you to show up as yourself. It’s a gift to your students if you can.

What about the administration?

That’s probably more of an offline conversation, but I don’t have anything glaring I could say here. In general, things are okay. Also, administrators come and go and thus this response will vary over time.

Universal accessiblity?

Simply put, universal accessibility is a theoretical situation in which nobody would even need individual accommodations, because as barriers to participation are identified, they are simply removed, for everyone, and accommodations are institutionalized, for everyone.

Universal access is a goal that I strive for in my own classroom teaching. For example, despite how much I loathe timed assessments, and do not believe they are a valid measure of anything useful at all, I’m required to give a final exam in an undergrad course that I teach. Okay, well I can try to make this univerally accessible, yeah? Here is how I do that.

It is ten multiple choice questions, and students have an hour to complete this final exam. It is multiple choice to minimize the burden students have at end of term from taking all of the required exams in one week, which is a lot of stress in a short amount of time.

Furthermore, because I know that some questions can be unfairly worded, even unintentionally, I offer two additional test questions. Students can get up to two “wrong” and still earn a 100% grade. Also, because I don’t believe the purpose of the assessment is to see how well students can perform under the pressure of a ticking clock, I give all students 90 minutes to complete the exam. There are no images in the exam, or they would have detailed descriptions. For reference, most students complete this final example in about ten minutes, but they can take up to 90 minutes.

And if anyone encounters a barrier I have yet to become aware of, I will remove the barrier and incorporate that accommodation into the test environment itself, because not all students have formal accommodations, but everyone does better with a more accessible situation.

What accommodations should I ask for?

The disability folks will likely have suggestions, so start there, although what they can offer will not always include what you need. For example, a very common accommodation for students with ADHD is extended time on tests and quizzes.

As someone who has ADHD and has taught thousands of students, I assure you that “extended time” is not helpful to many of you. You know what helps most students with ADHD? A stricter deadline, or the opposite of extended time.

Don’t believe me? Imagine (if you have ADHD) that I told you that you could have a million dollars if you could only produce this video project, or report, or model, or whatever, by tomorrow morning. You’d do it. What if I extended your deadline and said you could have a million dollars if you did the same thing by a month from tomorrow? You’d wait 29 days and then, if you put a reminder somewhere, you’d begin the task at that time. It’s how your brain chemistry (i.e. dopamine) leads you through life.

And yet an ADHD diagnosis, as many others, will likely lead the disability folks to grant you the accommodation of “extended time”…

So, I’m not promising the accommodations are going to be a panacea, but they will overall be helpful. And there’s more than extended time as an accommodation possibility. Talk with the disability office folks, and stay in regular touch with them. If you already know what you need, try telling them. They really are on your side and want to help you do your best. And I’m rooting for you too.

Want to discuss this topic? There is a thread about it on the facebook page.