Register with Disability Resources
The determination of eligibility for services is a two-step process. Students must submit documentation and meet with the Director of Disability Resources. The purpose of the meeting is for Disability Resources to know and understand how a student's disability may affect them at Hamline. Together, these two sources will be used to develop an accommodation plan with the student, which is an agreement between the student and Disability Resources regarding the accommodations and services that will be provided.
The accommodation plan can be modified throughout a student's career at Hamline.
If documentation is insufficient, Disability Resources may request additional information. Except in cases of obvious physical disabilities, documentation is required before accommodations will be provided. Meeting with students and reviewing documentation may take up to a week at the beginning of the semester. Additionally, some accommodations require advance notice and may take several weeks to arrange. Students are encouraged to request accommodations well before the semester begins. Accommodations are not retroactive. If academic accommodations are granted, Disability Resources will prepare a Faculty Notification Letter which will be emailed to their instructors and copied to students at the beginning of each term which lists accommodations that will be required. Students should discuss these accommodations with their professors and how they relate to the specific demands of each course.
What we need from you
Disability Resources asks Hamline students who register for services to present documentation that describes their disability and its likely impact on educational experiences.
Disability documentation provides a valuable tool for understanding how university courses, systems and facilities may present barriers and for planning strategies, including reasonable accommodations, which will facilitate access. The Director of Disability Resources uses documentation to augment conversations with students, to establish the presence of a disability and, when necessary, to support the reasonableness of requested accommodations.
Students should be aware that other colleges and universities may require different documentation of disability than Hamline University does. Additionally, testing agencies, which administer standardized tests such as the GRE and LSAT, generally require more extensive disability documentation.
It may be helpful to offer the guidelines below to your care provider or diagnostician at the time of your request for disability documentation from them. These are not intended to prescribe or dictate how a condition is diagnosed, but rather to serve as a guide to understanding what information is needed by Disability Resources and why.
In general, the documentation should:
- Be provided by a licensed professional, qualified in the appropriate specialty area; the report should be on letterhead, dated and signed.
- Include both diagnostic information and an explanation of the current functional limitations of the condition. It should be thorough enough to indicate whether or not a major life activity is “substantially limited,” that is it should explain what the extent, duration, and impact of the condition is
- In most cases, it should be relatively recent; a suggested guideline is less than 3 years old. Documentation of conditions that are permanent or non-varying (e.g., a sensory disability) may not need to be as recent, but some chronic and/or changing conditions require even more current information to provide an accurate picture of functioning.
- Be detailed enough to support the accommodations that are being requested. Accommodations are determined by assessing the impact of the person's disability on academic or work performance.
- For a variable or progressive condition, include the degree and range of functioning.
- Address the impact of medication or other treatments on major life activities.
