Register with your college disability services office

College accommodations do not transfer automatically

The change nobody explains

In high school, the school identified needs, wrote the plan and delivered it. In college none of that happens. The law changes from IDEA to the ADA and Section 504, and the entire burden moves to the student: you must disclose, you must document, you must request, and you must do it again each term for each course.

An IEP or 504 plan carries no weight on its own. Nothing happens until you register.

Start the week you deposit

Do not wait for orientation. Documentation review takes weeks, intake appointments fill through the summer, and accommodations are almost never applied retroactively — a student who registers in October has no recourse for September.

Some offices set hard summer deadlines. Barnard, for instance, has required first-year documentation by mid-June. Smith asks for requests before August 1 to have the letter ready for the first day of class.

What to gather now

• A current evaluation from a qualified professional identifying the disability and its functional limitations — the practical effects, not just a diagnosis. Most colleges want it within the last three to five years for learning disabilities and ADHD.
• A psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation where one exists — the most useful document by a wide margin
• The most recent IEP or 504 plan. Helpful supporting evidence, not sufficient on its own.
• Letters from treating physicians or clinicians

If the most recent evaluation is old, book an updated one now. Waiting lists run months.

The steps

1. Find the office — variously Disability Services, Accessibility Resources, Student Accessibility Services
2. Submit the online registration and upload documentation
3. Book the intake appointment, usually a conversation about what has actually helped
4. Receive the accommodation letter
5. Send it to each professor at the start of every term. This step is the student's, every term, and it is the one most often missed.

Housing and dietary accommodations are separate

Single rooms, accessible rooms, air conditioning for a medical need, and dietary accommodations usually run through a different office with an earlier deadline, often before housing assignments in May or June. Ask about them explicitly.

For the student

Registering commits you to nothing. Having accommodations available and not using them costs nothing; needing them in November without having registered costs a semester.