Activity 40

Qualify for Services

What Students Do

Students extend their research into college disability services by investigating specific procedures required for qualification. They compare the documentation of their disability with the requirements of a college(s) of interest and develop a plan for additional documentation if it is needed.

Inadequate documentation of disability is a chronic problem for college disability service providers. Unlike the K-12 system, there is no standard definition written into law as to what constitutes proof of disability. This can be especially troublesome for qualifying and providing services for students with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, and various psychological disabilities. As one might expect, documentation is less of an issue for sensory and physical disabilities.

Planning

Become familiar with the position papers or guidelines on disability documentation from organizations of disability service professionals such as The Washington Association on Postsecondary Education and Disability (WAPED) or The Oregon Association of Higher Education and Disability (ORAHEAD). Some colleges provide their own guidelines and post these on their Web sites. Compare these guidelines with the assessments done by your district and determine the need for additional information. Speak with your school psychologist(s) regarding ways to meet the documentation requirements.

Worksheet - Activity 40 includes a worksheet. The Disability Documentation Evaluation Worksheet allows students to compare WAPED guidelines with their current disability documentation.

Introducing the Activity

Begin by discussing Activities 2 and 3 in which students talked to the professional who diagnosed their disability. Ask students if they can remember how it felt discussing this with someone they didn't know. Tell students they now are far better advocates as a result of their practice over the last few years. Explain that the skills they used to do this self-advocacy in high school will soon be needed in college. A new skill they will be developing in these activities will be to speak about their disability based on written documentation. Lead a discussion around the following questions:

• Why do most colleges ask for documentation of disability?



• Why would colleges be interested in specific test results?



• Why might the colleges want the tests to have been conducted recently?



• How do you think the information will be used?



• Who do you think will see this information? Do you think that you will have any control over that?