UW-River Falls

Documenting a Disability

After requesting attention to the disability topic, students must arrange for Disability Services to receive a sufficiently detailed report about the medical, physical, or brain issue. The report is called documentation. It’s largely from this paperwork that decisions are based for allowing individual students specific types of adjustments and accommodations. The documentation must be written by an appropriate expert and allow a reader who is not an expert to realize that a disability situation currently exists and know how it will effect the students at UWRF. There should be a summary of how the issue arose, a list of current symptoms, explanation about how the symptoms will limit the students’ ability to do important things at UWRF, and recommendations about the types of adjustments and accommodations that will be necessary. The kind of expert that’s needed for this paperwork depends on the type of issue; often it must be a doctor. UWRF does not provide the expert or pay for any related costs. Written guidelines are available about the criteria that documentation should meet for various issues. Documentation that’s received about students who haven’t outwardly requested this kind of attention will not be processed.

Unfortunately, students often submit documentation that isn’t sufficient. It might be pages copied directly from a medical file with highly clinical language but no explanation about a need for adjustments or accommodations at college. Or it could be a letter that does explain the need for specific adjustments or accommodations but doesn’t adequately indicate the issue meets the definition of a disability. It can also be paperwork that provides information on all the necessary topics, but does so with statements that suggest the students’ issues are really only minor inconveniences. For many issues the best documentation is probably a doctor’s letter composed solely for the purpose of establishing an option to have adjustments or accommodations at college while paying close attention to important documentation guidelines. Other problems are common with several types of documentation from public schools that can be called an Individual Educational Plan (IEP), a 504 Plan, or a Transition Plan. These plans often lack details about a medical, physical, or brain issue, or the author may not actually be an expert on the issue, or there isn’t enough current information. Students with such a plan should submit a copy but may also need additional documentation to verify such an issue creates a disability.

If students submit documentation that doesn’t have enough information the process of seeking adjustments and accommodations becomes dormant until they can successfully arrange additional documentation. Getting adequate documentation is often a hassle and takes considerable time to accomplish. Students who want to attempt this process should get it started as soon as possible. Advice about arranging adequate documentation is available from Disability Services (715-425-3531). Students who cannot successfully complete the formal process may request referrals to other potential kinds of support.