Disability (and Chronic Illness) and What You Need to Know for the College Search
Last Updated on July 25, 2023 by Jill Schwitzgebel
I can tell you that NONE of this was on my radar when my older two started college, but I had to take a crash course in the Americans with Disabilities Act as it relates to higher education when my daughter received a medical diagnosis which required accommodation during her sophomore year of college. In fact, we were so naive about all of this that we did not understand that she actually had another medical diagnosis for which we could have also requested accommodation when she began college.
I wished I had paid a little more attention to a few things the college told us on our visit, as well as during freshman orientation. In fact, knowing what I know now, I would have asked a lot more questions. Hindsight is always 20/20 of course, but I could have had my eyes opened a little wider the first time. So, here are the things you really need to consider during three key times:
- During your formal college visit
- At application time
- After an offer of admission
During your College Visits
Remember that at college, you are not just thinking about classroom accommodation like you might have been for high school. In high school, an accommodation could have been that your student was permitted to carry a rescue inhaler for asthma to class. But in college, that will not be the big issue with asthma – the living conditions will be. Maybe your child needs an air-conditioned dorm or can’t live in the 100-year-old, damp dorms at all due to the asthma symptoms it will cause.
If there are no newer dorms or there is no air-conditioning available in the dorms, then you would know that you have to eliminate that school from your list OR find out if exceptions can be made for freshman to live off campus. (And then consider, do you want your first year student living off campus?)
So, during the college visit, carefully evaluate the living conditions to decide if your student is likely to need special accommodations. Maybe due to their condition they would have difficulty hiking across campus from their residence hall to reach the dining hall for meals, and would need to be in a closer dorm? Maybe, as in one college I visited, there are no elevators in the two-story residence halls, which could be problematic for a student with joint issues whose issues are not severe enough for a wheelchair, but are severe enough to make stairs difficult at times.
Health and Wellness Centers
I would urge EVERY parent to find out as much as possible about the school’s Health Center when they visit. Health and Wellness centers often don’t live up to the way they are presented during an information session. And during your child’s four years on campus, it would be pretty unusual if that Health Center did not become fairly important to them at some point.
At a smaller college, you may discover that although it is staffed with doctors from the well-respected hospital nearby, it is only staffed part of the day or on certain days. So what happens if your child has an asthma attack on their day off? Will someone transport them to the emergency room for treatment then or will they be left to figure that out? At a larger school, you may ask some students and learn that it may take days for appointment availability when they are sick, so the same questions may apply.
Pay attention to what they say about mental health counseling and availability. The stress in college is real. A student who was not anxious previously may suddenly suffer with anxiety as they adjust to college life. Add that to the fact that many mental illnesses first show themselves during the college years, and you can see why it would be important to know whether support is available. Ask questions about how mental health referrals are handled, and how quickly.
Office of Disabilities
If you know going in that your student has a physical, medical, or learning disability that will require accommodation, consider visiting the Office of Disabilities during your visit. This will have a slightly different name on each campus. Sometimes it’s called the Center for Inclusion, etc. I say “consider”, as many people will be concerned about disclosing the disability and whether that will affect chances of admission.
You may want to familiarize yourself with that department on the school’s website first, so you know what questions you want to ask if you do visit the office. And even if you do not choose to visit while on campus, I would still strongly suggest making a call to them, when it may be easier to not reveal your student’s name. You want to find out if the people staffing it are personable and helpful because once college starts, they are the people who will be advocating for your child, and that your child will be dealing with to get accommodations. (It is possible that during summer college visits, or holiday visits, they won’t be available.)
Find out how the college deals with the accommodation requests you will need to make. In our case, we were frustrated that to receive Housing or Dining accommodations, my daughter’s case had to go before a Residential Life committee. The committee did not include any medical personnel, so it made little sense to us. Why would they be qualified to decide whether or not she should receive accommodations? Fortunately, it was not an issue, but it potentially could have been. Find out how your colleges of interest make those decisions.
The Application
Opinions are divided on whether or not to disclose the disability, particularly learning disabilities, on the application. Your student is certainly not required to disclose it. Frequently however, the disability is a student’s topic of choice on their admissions essay, and experts seem to feel that it is perfectly fine to reveal it in that way. Presumably, if writing about it in the admissions essay, your child is talking about how they turned it into a strength or learned something about themselves due to the disability or illness.
David Montesano, a college admissions strategist, advocates that students SHOULD reveal their disability on their application. In fact, he suggests highlighting it and giving details in the “Additional Information” section, as it will help a college to consider the student’s application in full context. He is talking specifically about students with learning disabilities, not medical or physical disabilities, which may actually seem less “risky” to disclose. The full interview with him, along with great questions to ask of colleges no matter the disability, can be found here.
Beyond the logical argument he makes, the bottom line is that you do not want to send your student to any college that won’t be supportive and accepting of student differences, no matter how big or small.
After Acceptance
After your student has received the acceptance letter to college, it is time to begin the next phase. Hopefully, you have done the due diligence listed above, so you both feel confident about the accommodations that the chosen college can make for your student. So now you need to find out what you need to do to get accommodations set up. If you talked with someone during your college visit, and/or visited the website for that Disabilities office, then you may already know the process.
Documentation
This is going to be super important.
Many families who have had high school students with documented disabilities, ranging from anxiety to visual impairment to learning disabilities, are already very familiar with their rights and responsibilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). As students prepare to transition to post-secondary education, you may be less familiar with protection that is provided by the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, providing equal access to an education. NOW is the time to become familiar with that. Assuming a child with documented disabilities is on an IEP or a 504 plan in high school, your school guidance counselor may be a great place to start asking questions about your student’s rights in college and what accommodations you should request.
In general, there are fewer safeguards for students in college than there were in high school. But, you are at least in a better situation if you already have documentation of what accommodations your student has received. Expect that you will be communicating frequently with the professionals that have been involved in diagnosing and/or treating your student throughout high school.
We found that most physicians were incredibly patient about filling out forms and understanding that the college’s process is not all that efficient. Also, be aware that the college will often insist on having a copy of fairly recent testing, depending on what condition you are documenting.
I have learned that every college has its own policy on how they want documentation. And I learned that even my daughter’s small college was remarkably inflexible about their process. But after talking with other parents, that seems to be the case at many colleges. For example, her allergist helpfully submitted a letter outlining her diagnosis and what accommodation we were requesting for it. To the college, that letter did not matter at all – it had to be on their own form, and signed by him, even though the particular form made very little sense for her situation. And their form was not short – it was seven pages. And with more than one diagnosis, she had more than one specialist, which meant that they EACH had to fill out a form, specifying accommodation requested just for their particular area of specialty.
After the forms are finally completed and reviewed, the Director of the Office of Disabilities should send out an email to each professors, letting them know what accommodations the student is to have, if they require academic accommodations.
Student Self-Advocacy
In my daughter’s case, rather than having professors who are not understanding, she has had a reverse scenario from the one I mentioned in the previous paragraph. A professor, probably remembering that he received an email from the Office of Disabilities notifying him about her, yet not really remembering what her disability is, tried to be kind and sympathetic to her by offering an accommodation she didn’t need. It made her feel really uncomfortable, but as a mom I appreciated that the professor was trying to be supportive!
Students who were used to having an IEP in high school do need to understand that in college, they are no longer covered under IDEA, as it applies only to elementary and secondary schools. This means that while they may request modifications like longer time to take tests, it does NOT mean that the college has to change their curriculum for them in any way.
For instance, if your child has a diagnosed math learning disability and wants to major in engineering, the school is not going to waive the math requirements or accept substitute classes. Nor do they have to, as those classes are likely to be considered critical to their engineering degree. However, if your child has a math disability, and is planning to major in history, which requires one basic math class to graduate, the college will likely work with them to find a way to deal with that, which could include something like substituting a logic-based course.
Final Thought
For the sake of length, I haven’t gone into great depth here about each of the many types of disabilities. It’s just my intention to give you a good starting point and give you things to consider as you undertake your college search. You will find many terrific resources at http://www.wrightslaw.com/flyers/college.504.pdf
If you have further questions about your college search for your student that needs health accommodations, contact me!
