Disability Accommodation Process Leaves Students “Absolutely Stranded”

The disability accommodations process at Reed is lengthy and often opaque to students, leading junior Catherine Hoyle to “feel ostracized and feel like I'm in the process alone, as it's hard to get help. It's hard to get support, even if there are resources.” Getting accommodations is difficult in any academic setting, but there are circumstances that lead to it being more tricky than it needs to be, including a lack of understanding about Reed’s Disability and Accessibility Resources department, DAR – what and where they are, and what they can do for the many students they support.

The Quest asked DAR about the Reed accommodations process, and the first step is documentation. DAR can meet with students to discuss how to get documentation of their disability, for instance, “even if they are no longer seeing a certain provider, they can still request a copy of their medical records related to the services they received.” In addition, “DAR also created a form to make it easy for providers to know what information to provide on students’ behalf. While we have our documentation requirements listed on our website, in the past we found that providers often didn’t include the necessary information when writing a letter. Since creating the form (which is optional for providers to use), we now receive much more complete information from providers than we used to. This helps to expedite the process of obtaining documentation for students.” 

Students, however, have experienced difficulty when providing DAR with documentation. Current Sophomore Skye Mandigo-Stoba said they “came in with a boatload of documentation, because I expected getting accommodations to be really, really difficult.” However, issues came up later, as they “needed more accommodations for those same things, DAR has requested additional documentation, even though those problems are already outlined in the documentation I've submitted.”

Hoyle echoed Mandigo-Stoba’s sentiments on the difficulties of documentation, as she had issues, despite attempting to start the process early, saying “They said that because my diagnosis was not recent enough, they could give me temporary accommodations and I would have to get a more accurate diagnosis again, even though I was diagnosed in third grade, and I have had no problems getting accommodations for school, up until going to college. As someone that didn't have active doctors or a psychologist or someone to write off on a doctor's note or something for me to obtain actual documentation, permanent documentation,” they found it very difficult. This has not been the experience of all students though, as senior Jesse Weiss reported no issues in her documentation, with Reed taking what she already had from prior accommodations. In addition, if students are having difficulty finding a provider to get documentation from, according to DAR they collaborate “closely with the HCC [Health and Counseling Center], and over the years we have developed a process by which HCC providers can provide documentation to DAR for students who are requesting DAR accommodations and who have received services at the HCC,” hopefully making things more accessible.

Once the documentation submitted is deemed sufficient for DAR, they will meet with students and work out accommodations. This step is sometimes an uphill battle, with Mandigo-Stoba recounting how they “​​​​had to fight with DAR and with ResLife to get put into the campus apartments. They did not want to put me there because I was a freshman, and I had to fight to get that same apartment while I was staying over the summer. Because I have to stay over the summer, I have all of my doctors established here, I see my doctors, I see at least a doctor once a week, it changes which doctor it is. So I can't leave Portland, I have to live here. And so I had to stay over the summer. And I had to fight to stay in the campus apartment.” 

According to DAR, they “start the accommodation process by having the student share with us how their disability impacts their functioning, how it impacts their academic (or housing, or PE) experience, and what access barriers they are encountering that their non-disabled peers may not experience. If students have never used accommodations before and they’re not sure what their access needs are, DAR staff are experienced in asking questions to help students reflect on their experience and identify the ways in which their disability may be resulting in an access barrier. Once we’ve identified which access barriers a student is experiencing, we can then think creatively about how to best address those barriers and minimize their impact. Sometimes students offer ideas about a possible accommodation, and sometimes DAR staff recommend certain accommodations, based on our knowledge of what has been effective for other students who have had similar experiences. Sometimes a commonly used accommodation is the best solution, and sometimes we create an entirely new, custom accommodation that we have never issued before to address a student’s individualized needs.” This method has left some students unsure of what accommodations they can request, and DAR recommends looking at their lists online of common accommodations, both academic and housing, as well as resources on the Department of Education site for more information.

The accommodations process does not end with DAR’s approval, however, as then Professors and Residence Life have to implement the accommodations of each individual student. Many students have reported negative interactions with professors around disabilities, so much so that in the past the Students With Disabilities Coalition (SWDC), a club on campus, has had to help advocate for students in the implementation of their accommodations with professors. Mandigo-Stoba recounts one experience where they “had professors really, really push back to any sort of accommodations, especially regarding labs. In physics, I … needed to take several disability related absences. And I was told repeatedly, I could not miss lab, I would get one makeup lab at the end of the semester. But if I missed any more than that, it would essentially lead to me falling behind in the class, getting a poor grade, and eventually failing. I was also told that I could not retake a midterm that I missed … And I eventually had to withdraw from the class. Just because my professors really could not comprehend that I needed additional support.” While Hoyle has “had some professors make it seem like the whole accommodations process is very inconvenient for them, mostly, professors try to understand and try to implement accommodations in the best way they can, in my experience, although the execution is kind of lacking. I find it really uncomfortable anytime I have to set up an intake accommodations meeting, because they are so disorganized, and it makes me feel bad for having a disability to be honest. And it makes me discouraged.” According to DAR, they conduct “in-person trainings with faculty every semester. This semester alone, Jess Gibson has facilitated 5 faculty training sessions on accessibility and accommodations, reaching both new and current faculty. The Center for Teaching and Learning periodically hosts trainings on topics such as Universal Design for Learning and access and inclusion in the classroom.” Additionally, “students should contact DAR as soon as possible if they encounter any issues with the use or implementation of their accommodations.”

Students did stress that they were not against DAR, with Mandingo-Stoba saying that “the people in DAR – I know they're doing their best. They're very overstretched. When you go to make an appointment with DAR there are only two or three names on the list that you can choose from. That's not enough to provide every disabled student at Reed what they need. They clearly need more funding, more people, just more power to do things. But with the current state of how it is, it just sort of leaves us absolutely stranded with no support whatsoever,” a statement other students agreed with. In an attempt to remedy the issues students face in communications with faculty, Weiss proposed “sensitivity training regarding things like, what disabilities look like, different kinds, how they might affect students,” like “how frequently attendance is an issue. I think they need to understand that you can't just come out of nowhere, say ‘I'm going to be sick this many times, I'm not going to be able to come in this many times in a semester.’ Have that be an understanding by professors rather than just having documentation or, you know, HIPAA being like, ‘you have to give them this’ or whatever. I think there needs to be a level of understanding and training with professors.”

The accommodations process is made to comply with ADA regulations and requires a lot of communication between students, staff, and faculty, and all of this can leave students feeling at a loss with the difficulties they face in getting accommodations, and in having them implemented. Hoyle remarked “They make it seem like you want to be disabled, because you want to cheat and get this combination, but I'm not trying to cheat. I'm just trying to get on the same level.” A sentiment that Liz Organ, a senior, corroborated, saying “It feels like they're so afraid of somebody using accommodations to cheat, that they are letting people fail because of it. So it just seems like a pretty easy fix to me, they should make it easier to get accommodations.” With Mandingo-Stoba saying “It's very dehumanizing to go through these processes over and over and over again. Just because each time you do it, it's like I feel like they should know, but I know they don't, I feel like they should just believe me, but I know they don't. You can constantly have these interactions where you're never ever believed by anyone.”