Foundational Principles for the Review of Documentation
and the Determination of Accommodations
AHEAD presents the following principles as the foundation for
policies and best practices used by postsecondary institutions
as they establish disability documentation guidelines and determine
accommodations for students with disabilities.
- All documentation should be reviewed on an individual, case-by-case
basis
This calls for an individualized inquiry, examining the impact
of a disability on the individual and within the specific context
of the request for accommodations. There is no list of covered
disabilities or accepted diagnostic criteria. Institutional documentation
policy should be flexible, allowing for the consideration of
alternative methods and sources of documentation, as long as
the essential goal of adequately describing the current impact
of the disability is met.
- Determination of a disability doesn’t require the use
of any specific language
Service providers should avoid elevating form over substance
in documentation guidelines, e.g., the temptation to require
specific language, such as “learning disability.” Clinicians’ training
or philosophical approaches may result in their use of euphemistic
phrases, rather than specific diagnostic labels; this practice
should not be automatically interpreted to suggest that a disability
does or does not exist.
- Presented documentation can be augmented through interview
Service providers are encouraged to contact the evaluator, as
necessary, for clarification of any information (test results,
conclusions, recommendations, etc.) contained in documentation.
An interview, filtered by the service provider's professional
judgment, is extremely valuable in substantiating the existence
of a disability, understanding its impacts and identifying appropriate
accommodations.
- Determination of accommodations is an interactive process
The individual with a disability is an excellent source of information
on strategies that maximize access. In the context of documentation
and accommodation planning, the individual is a rich, reliable,
and valid source of information on the impact of the disability
and the effectiveness of accommodations. The individual with
a disability may be provided with his or her first choice of
accommodation or an alternative, effective accommodation determined
by the institution. While objective confirmation (documentation)
is legitimate, so are the lived experiences of individual.
- Documentation of a specific disability does not translate
directly into specific accommodations
Reasonable accommodations are individually determined and should
be based on the functional impact of the condition and its likely
interaction with the environment (course assignments, program
requirements, physical design, etc.). As such, accommodation
recommendations may vary from individual to individual with the “same” disability
diagnosis and from environment to environment for the same individual.
- Disability documentation should be treated in a confidential
manner and shared only on a need-to-know basis
Disability-related information should be collected and maintained
on separate forms and kept in secure files with limited access.
- Information on the individual’s disability is only one
component of providing access
Many barriers to full participation reside in the environment
(physical, curricular, attitudinal, informational) where proactive
redesign can favorably impact sustainable access. Service providers
are encouraged to work to increase overall accessibility through
system change that makes the institution more inclusive and reduces
the need for individual accommodation.
