The Truth About College Disability Services:
Information You Need Now
If you’re here, you’ve probably done the work trying to understand what will happen for your student(s) with a disability once they start college. You’ve tirelessly looked for answers. You’ve listened to advice. While some of it made sense, other pieces of advice did not provide you with enough context to navigate the situation and make an informed decision
What you probably haven’t realized is how much of the information you’ve found is from people who’ve never worked the college side of the college transition. And this means you’re missing not just important facts about the college disability services system, but the nuances of how it works, and why some accommodations are only available to a small group of students (or aren’t approved at all).
Do You Really Know What Students with Disabilities Can Expect in College?
Myth: IEPs or 504 Plans “travel” (or “transfer”) to college
Fact: Neither kind of plan is valid after high school graduation.
Myth: Colleges must provide the same accommodations students received in high school
Fact: Colleges make their own decisions about accommodations; they’re not bound by what students previously received.
Relying on these myths doesn’t just cause confusion. Being misinformed can leave students without the preparation they need to navigate the disability accommodation system at college. And students who’ve been too reliant on adult support during high school are likely to feel ill-prepared to handle the academic and other demands there.
Did you know:
●Because of changes in the law, there are four categories of accommodations colleges are not required to provide
●Students are responsible for initiating the process to request accommodations and likely will have to request them each semester and for each exam
And have you heard:
●That an IEP or 504 Plan is all a student needs in order to get accommodations in college
●That all colleges require documentation to be no more than three years old
●If your student received accommodations in high school, their college must find them eligible for accommodations You may be trying to help your student prepare, but not all the information you have received is accurate.
Stop relying on secondhand advice. Get the facts from a professional with more than 25 years of experience working in college disability services offices.
Elizabeth C. Hamblet is a long-time college learning disabilities specialist, author of Seven Steps to College Success: A Pathway for Students with Disabilities (her third edition) and the go-to expert for everyone preparing students for the college disability services environment.
She has been inside the offices where the decisions are made. She’s the one reviewing documentation, confirming it meets the university’s standards, and recommending which accommodations should be approved. While others may speak from related roles or past experience, Elizabeth brings an insider’s view of how colleges actually make these calls.
She remains active in her professional community, keeps up with the research and policy changes, and brings both real-time insight and national trends to every presentation.
They’re not based on assumptions. They’re built on real experience, what students and families actually encounter. They reflect what is really happening every day in accommodation offices.
Which program do you need?
Preparing Students with Disabilities for Successful College Transition:
Overview of Important Topics
Academic Disability Accommodations
at College:
What They Are and Why They Change
● What college disability services offices do for students (and don’t)
● Why the shift in laws affects which accommodations are available
● The difference between accommodations and modifications
● What students must do to receive accommodations
● Documentation requirements and what schools are looking for
● Commonly approved accommodations
● The role of disability in the admission process
● The three levels of disability support offered at colleges and how to decide which one your student needs
This webinar takes a deeper look at academic accommodations and includes real-life examples of college disability services registration forms and processes.
Topics include:
• How college disability services offices operate
• Why changes in prevailing laws mean some supports students had in high school won’t be available in college
• What students must do to request accommodations
• Why some students may not be found eligible for accommodations •What accommodations are commonly approved, which ones are not, and why
• A step-by-step example of a real college’s registration process
• What registration forms actually ask students to explain about their disability and accommodations
• Additional responsibilities students may have in managing accommodations that they haven’t had to handle before
• Accommodations without modifications- why colleges provide accommodations without modifications, the difference between them, and how misunderstanding the difference leads to false expectations about support
• Distinctions between accommodations that are considered reasonable (which colleges provide) and modifications that change class and program expectations (which they don’t)
This is the only webinar where Elizabeth discusses more than a dozen accommodations and supports that students are unlikely to receive in college.
