Disability-Related Academic Accommodations

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My 27-plus years of experience administering academic accommodations at the post-secondary (aka higher education) makes me confident in sharing the legally supportable [ideal] policy scenarios at this educational level.

I will parse this information because there are many academic accommodations at the higher education level. It is essential to understand where they are appropriate, where they are not, and the reasoning involved. In other words, there is way too much info for one essay.

The laws covering and supporting these accommodations include Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (federal law) and the Americans With Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 (federal). These laws, together, cover both public and private colleges and universities.

(If anyone would like a more pedantic discussion of the laws involved, please let me know in the comments!)

Written Policies, Unwritten Practices, and The Gray Areas

A college’s catalog has a section that talks about the admission requirements, the number of units required for an undergraduate degree, the GPA (grade point average) required to graduate, whether the school is on quarters or semesters, ad nauseam. These are the written policies. At some point, whether it is the catalog or elsewhere, there will be a discussion of how many units must be completed (with a passing grade) per quarter (let’s assume quarters; the same reasoning for a school on semesters would apply).

If students are required to complete 12 units a quarter, a comment may also suggest that “most students take an average of 16 units a quarter in order to finish within four years.” When and where it says “required,” I assume that is an official policy. Where they talk about “suggested” or “many students” — that is a reference to norms, not requirements.

The Accommodation of a Reduced Course Load

One of the less flashy but essential academic accommodations I have supported in the past is a “reduced course load.” What this means is that for John Doe, who has a severe disability that impacts his ability to function academically, he will only have to complete eight units a quarter instead of 12.

The disability advocacy argument for this accommodation is essential — for this student, eight units are a full-time unit load. This can be because the student is severely physically disabled and requires extensive assistance with their ADLs (“activities of daily living”—eating, toileting, bathing, dressing, etc.) For them, their disability-related care can take the time of a full-time job. Their need for a reduced course load isn’t a lowering of standards; it is a “leveling of the playing field” to allow a severely disabled student the opportunity to perform at their best ability academically.

When I start explaining this accommodation, I usually start with a student with a severe disability-quadriplegia and the like. This is something tangible, particularly when you talk about all the ADLs they need assistance with that most people can relate to.

However, a reduced course load can be appropriate for a student with multiple learning disabilities, a student with a mental health disability, or, or, or. The point is, if a student with a disability comes to a Disabled Student Services office and talks about being worried about completing 12 units a quarter, the law requires an interactive process where we discuss the nature of the student’s disability and how it functionally impacts them in an academic setting.

Prove IT

Depending on the academic institution, the Disabled Student Services office will also require medical documentation that confirms the student’s functional limitations. The decision about what accommodations are appropriate is supposed to be a combination of the student’s self-report and their documentation.

When I started working in this field, our office was very committed to getting documentation for every accommodation we would support—even if the accommodation was apparent: Braille or digital books for a blind student or a wheelchair-accessible classroom for a wheelchair user.

I am sure that there are still universities and colleges that continue this practice of gathering a ton of documentation. Like every aspect of this process, the decision of how much documentation the office needs to perform its duty to the student and the institution should be on a case-by-case basis. None of these processes are supposed to be cookie-cutter.

Other Implications of a Reduced Course Load

Another critical calculation considers the reduced course load accommodation and how it will impact the student’s non-classroom workload (homework!)

Nothing in the law supports lowering the academic standards for students with disabilities. That means that it isn’t a thing to say, “Give this student fewer problem sets,” “Don’t require the same length of term paper for this student,” or “Don’t require the same level of fluency in Spanish for this student.”

I think maintaining academic standards (established by faculty and administrators) is vital to supporting academic accommodations for both the faculty and the students. Accommodations are not intended to guarantee good grades or success in general. They are designed to enable the disabled student to have an environment in which they can compete to the best of their abilities.

So, since we can’t support a lowering of standards (which I very much support, by the way), we can “buy” the student more time to study for the classes that they do have by not requiring as many classes at the same time as for non-disabled students.

Financial Issues

Different institutions will determine how to deal with students on a reduced course load. Private institutions may decide to provide additional financial aid to cover the extended amount of time it might take for a student on a reduced course load to finish their degree. Other schools might require the student or their family to get loans. The law does not address the financial fallout from long-term reduced course load use.

The law doesn’t address many of the financial implications of disability—which can be extremely expensive to accommodate appropriately. Housing, transportation, mobility aids, tutoring, medication and doctors’ appointments, and co-pays. It adds up.

My number one disability-related advice: don’t be poor.

I wish I were kidding.