Documentation Guidelines | Office of Student Accommodations & Testing | Wichita State University

Individuals with disabilities who attend or plan to attend a post-secondary institution in Kansas may need reasonable accommodations and/or auxiliary aids in order to have equal access to the programs and services offered. The laws that require post-secondary institutions to provide these services to otherwise qualified students include: Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). To receive accommodations in the post-secondary environment, a student must notify the institution's Office of Student Accommodations & Testing (or other designated office) and initiate the process for determining their eligibility for accommodations.

The general purpose of disability documentation is to establish eligibility as a qualified Wichita State University student with a disability, using the criteria appropriate for higher education. Disability documentation is used to verify the nature and extent of the disability by identifying the current functional limitation(s) caused by the disability. Documentation is not required until after a student is admitted, but providing documentation early can help ease the transition to the university setting. Disability documentation should be sent directly to the Office of Student Accommodations & Testing (OSAT) through the AIM Student Portal and is welcome anytime.

Some students who have not been tested for cognitive disabilities, such as a learning disability, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or a psychological disability may oftentimes contact our office because they suspect they have one. Wichita State University has the resources to provide the necessary testing and OSAT will provide students with a list of appropriate professionals in the community who are qualified to conduct a diagnostic evaluation. Insurance companies may provide coverage for these types of tests, but most often, they do not. You will be responsible for the testing and evaluations.

Students with disabilities requesting academic accommodations are required to provide documentation of their disability to the Office of Student Accommodations & Testing. OSAT will determine eligibility and appropriate accommodations through a case-by-case basis, based on quality, recency, and completeness of the documentation submitted. Quality documentation provides the evidence needed for the decision-maker to clearly understand the impact of the disability in a post-secondary environment to determine appropriate accommodations.

These documentation guidelines have been provided to assist students in obtaining documentation from qualified professionals. While appropriate documentation of a disability is only one part of the determining eligibility for accommodations, the provision of the documentation assists the office to understand the impact of the disabilities, needs, and potential accommodations. Institutions might also request documentation for the following reasons:

• To verify the existence of a disability;
• To support the request for each specific accommodation;
• To review the nature of the disability or disabilities and its impact in the post-secondary environment; and
• To assist in the collaborative determination of eligibility for auxiliary aids and services to minimize the impact of the disability.

Formal documentation is provided by an appropriate, qualified professional. The professional's name, title, credentials, and affiliation should be provided.

The documentation should include a clear diagnostic statement that describes how the condition was diagnosed and provide information on the functional impact.

The documentation could include a description of the diagnostic criteria, evaluation methods, procedures, tests, and dates of administration, as well as a clinical narrative, observation, and specific results. Where appropriate to the nature of the disability, having both summary data and specific test scores¹ within the report is helpful. Methods may include formal instruments, medical examinations, structured interviews, and performance observations.

The recency of documentation is critical to the establishment of the student's current functional limitations. Information on how the disabling condition(s) currently impact the individual is useful for both establishing a disability and identifying possible accommodations. A combination of the results of formal evaluation procedures, clinical narrative, and the individual's self-report is the most comprehensive approach to fully documenting impact.

Documentation which includes a description of both current and past medications, support services, accommodations, auxiliary aids, and assistive devices including their effectiveness in mitigating functional impacts of the disability is beneficial.

Recommendations from professionals with a history of working with the individual provide valuable information for the documentation review and planning for academic accommodations. It is most helpful when recommended accommodations and strategies are logically related to functional limitations.

¹ Examples of assessment instruments for learning disabilities include, but are not limited to WAIS-III, WAIS-IV, Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement, WIAT-II, etc.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. All information and documentation submitted to OSAT is kept separate from an academic record and is considered private under FERPA.

There are documentation requirements that many postsecondary institutions have for learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder (ADD) are often quite different from those required by the K-12 educational system.

• Learn more about the documentation requirements for non-apparent cognitive disabilities.