Accommodations Process- The Process of Getting Accommodations at Different Schools

Throughout my time requiring accommodations, I have been through various systems for onboarding and receiving accommodations. This week, I want to talk about my experiences receiving accommodations from the student perspective in high school, community college, and my current CSU.

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High School

In high school, I transitioned from an IEP to a 504 plan. One major difference between an IEP and a 504 plan was the focus on goal setting. In my 504 meetings, I was with my school counselor, who was assigned to students based on their last name, an assistant principal, one of my teachers, and my mom. In the meeting, we would talk about my academics and discuss any accommodation needs. It was much more of a conversation, and I was lucky that my mom was a good advocate who knew what to ask for. There were no goals, and the point was to create equity in my access to education. From Sophomore year onwards, my accommodations were centered around anxiety, autism, and physical access due to my newly diagnosed at the time hereditary spastic paraplegia. These meetings were, from my memory, once a year and largely were check-in-based. I would also communicate with my teachers in each class if I needed something because I was one of 2 students in a wheelchair in general education classes at my school.

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Community College

Once you transition from high school, IEPs and 504s do not transfer over. For every new school, you need to provide medical documentation and meet with a disability access counselor to go over accommodation needs. Once the documentation is approved, you can select an accommodation based on your needs. Because I have a physical disability, autism, and anxiety, it was not hard for me to prove the need for my accommodations. Once the disability office approved my accommodations, I would meet with my disability counselor once a semester to go over my accommodations and pick up a paper listing my accommodations for each class I took. I would then bring the paper to each professor for them to sign, and I would bring it back to the disability office. I did not like that I had to openly disclose my disability to my professors because I felt pressure to prove that I was disabled enough to need the accommodations. However, I usually was met with a willingness to sign the papers, and sometimes I was met with shock at how many disabilities I have.

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CSU Channel Islands

Just like at community college, I needed to provide paperwork for my disabilities. I would then fill out an online form about my disabilities and accommodation needs. There were separate forms for academic accommodations and housing accommodations. After I filled out these forms and attached the necessary paperwork, I would then be contacted to schedule a meeting with my disability counselor. Once I met with my disability counselor and confirmed I qualified for disability services, I would then go over accommodation needs. After my first meeting, I could access my approved accommodations online through a portal and select what accommodations I need for each class. Each semester, I log onto this portal and select my accommodations for each class, and the disability services office sends this information to my professors. I never have to disclose my disability identity to my professors unless I want to.

If I want modifications, which change some aspect of the course, such as extra absences or extra extensions, I meet with my disability counselor to see if the need is an approved modification that applies to my disabilities. Once I can prove a need, my disability counselor will communicate with my professors to find a way to provide the modification in a way that all parties can agree to. If a professor counters the modification with another proposal, I am contacted by the disability office to see if the proposal meets my needs. Professors are allowed to counter modifications, but they cannot counter accommodations. In this system, my disability is much more anonymous compared to community college.

When I first attended college at the CSU, I was required to complete a week-long virtual disability orientation to receive priority registration for my first semester. This orientation has now been discontinued. The orientation was in the afternoon and was held live, so students who worked during the day could not attend. I am very happy this program was discontinued, as the tone of the orientation was that disabled students did not have the tools, such as study skills, that nondisabled students already possessed. In addition, there were lessons about the history of disabilities or disability discrimination that were taught to disabled students by staff who could not relate. Overall, this aspect of the disability services onboarding process was the most toxic, and I am relieved that it is gone. Many disabled students are good students, and it should not be assumed that disability automatically impacts academic ability. At the same time, there should not be any shame placed on any student for any disability that impacts academic learning.

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Ideally, all three of these systems can be streamlined to be more accommodating and time-efficient for students trying to access accommodations. However, I am also grateful that disability accommodations are protected by law, as many of the laws that accommodate disabled people did not become law until after 1970. Thank you for reading about my experience with the accommodations process in high school, community college, and the CSU system. If you have any questions or comments, please comment on the blog, reach out at @Anniekrollblog on Instagram or Facebook, or email me at Anniekrollblog@gmail.com. I hope to see you next week!