Seven Steps to College Success
If you’ve found this page,
you’ve likely been searching for a while.
You’ve read the articles. You’ve attended the workshops. You’ve tried to piece together how the shift from high school to college works—how disability support actually functions once your student moves from their IEP (or 504 plan) to college accommodations.
You’re looking for answers:
- Will your student still get accommodations?
- Which ones will they get?
- Do some colleges offer more supports than others?
This is where you get real answers from someone who knows the system from the inside.
“The head start your book gave us enabled him to have services in place before he even moved into the dorm as a freshman. Without your invaluable book, I doubt we would have had this success story to tell… He even made honor roll his freshman year.”
This book offers what others don’t—a look at college disability services from an insider working there.
Elizabeth C. Hamblet has worked as a college learning disabilities specialist for 20+ years. (Learn more about her work and publications.)
She’s the one reviewing students’ documentation, checking that it meets the university’s requirements and supports each student’s requests as she recommends what accommodations should be approved. Hamblet stays active in her professional community. She reads the research to stay current with policies and practices nationwide. She knows how the system works and where families often get caught off guard. Her work helps them tackle feelings of overwhelm and navigates them to a place of understanding and efficacy.
If you’re ready to stop searching and start preparing, you’re exactly where you need to be.
Buy the book. Start the first chapter. You’ll breathe easier and understand what do next.
Seven Steps to College Success
“Just when I’ve mastered the IEP process, here comes college.”
If you’re a parent supporting a student with a disability, or a professional who works with them, you know how K–12 works. You’ve been in the meetings. You’ve built the plan. You’ve made sure the supports were in place.
College doesn’t work the same way:
- IDEA doesn’t apply to colleges. The part of Section of 504 that applies to K12 doesn’t either, and the part of 504 that covers colleges has much different mandates.
- Some of the supports your student relied on won’t be offered.
- If something goes wrong, your student may not tell you until it’s already too late to fix.
This book gives you the context, clarity, and next steps to prepare before any of that happens.
What This Book Offers
“…this book offers clarity, resources, and best of all, HOPE for our children’s adult lives.
If you buy one book to help you through the process, this should be the one.” ~ Matt W.
Seven Steps to College Success: A Pathway for Students with Disabilities gives you a clear explanation of how college accommodations actually work. It also shows you what your student needs to succeed when the high school safety nets are no longer in place. You’ll learn:
- How your student can research disability supports and determine which colleges go beyond the minimum
- What admissions directors want your student to understand about the application process
- What documentation colleges require and why they might reject your student’s paperwork
- What accommodations that your student currently has in high school that are likely to be approved at college – or not – and why
- What independence looks like in college and how to help your student build it gradually (and before it’s too late for them to make a confident, independent transition)
You’ll also hear directly from experienced professionals in admissions and disability services. This book gives you the tools to make sure you give your student the best possible preparation for college and the confidence that they are ready.
Purchase Options (click images for link)
Want 10% off?
Bloomsbury, Elizabeth’s publisher, offers this discount when you order directly from them – no code needed.
Different versions are on differ pages. Click here for the paperback and here for the hardover, e-book, and PDF versions, and to pre-order the audio version (release in September 2026).
Why Buy Now?
You could keep searching online…
You could try to piece together a firm understanding of what the college environment holds for your student from blogs, webinars, and well-meaning advice. But most of what’s out there is surface-level or just plain wrong because it’s from people who’ve never worked in a college disability services office.
Elizabeth C. Hamblet is plugged into a community of college disability services providers, so she knows what current practices are (and aren’t). She has worked in college disability services office for more than 25 years.
Waiting means missing your window to get your student ready for those changes. And when families wait too long, here’s what happens:
- Students walk in unprepared to self-advocate
- Parents try to solve problems in a system where they likely won’t be able to participate directly or contact staff and professors
- Students struggle in their academic and daily life because they haven’t developed the skills they need in an environment that provides much less support than they’re used to
This book helps you make informed decisions while there’s still time to adjust the plan and supports in place.
This book gives you the full picture—what shifting laws actually mean for accommodations, how academic and executive functioning expectations change, and what students need to manage on their own.
What’s New in This Edition?
This revised third edition includes:
- Updated research
- Interviews with experienced professionals, including:
- College disability services directors
- Admission office deans/directors
- Consultants who specialize in helping students with disabilities compose their college lists and complete their applications
- Expanded guidance for both families and professionals
More than 3,500 copies have already sold—get yours today and join other parents
who have already learned how to prepare their student for college success.
Bonus Resources
(click on image to follow link)
Hamblet’s Seven Steps to College Success: A Pathway for Students with Disabilities is a must-read resource, chock full of vital information, behind the scenes insights, and spot-on advice for parents whose kids need more help, but crave independence no less, for success in college and developing successful, independent lives.
Ned Johnson, president, PrepMatters, and The Self-Driven Child and What Do You Say? How to Talk with Kids to Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance, and a Happy Home
Seven Steps to College Success should be required reading for any family raising differently wired kids looking for practical information and insights on navigating the transition to college. Elizabeth brings deep research with school administrators, years of experience working as a university learning disabilities specialist, and breadth of knowledge of the complex systems students and families have to engage with. Seven Steps is incredibly generous and thorough, providing the answers to parents’ biggest questions, including how to know if a school will support a student’s neurodivergence, what support on campus actually looks like, and how we can prepare our kids to self-advocate and be successful on campus. I’m so grateful for this resource!
Debbie Reber, founder & CEO, Tilt Parenting, author, Differently Wired
This book is awesome!
Planning for college and yet you have an IEP or a Section 504 Plan? You and your parents MUST read this book! Whether you are just “thinking” about going to college or it is a definite plan, familiarize yourself with the “Seven Steps” and do it BEFORE making any important decisions. Hamblet’s Seven Steps will help ensure that you select the right college and obtain the appropriate accommodations for a successful college experience.
You will learn that the “disability services” and the applicable laws in higher education are quite different from what you experienced at the secondary school level. Hamblet has worked with students with special needs for more than 25 years, and, as prolific author, speaker, and trainer, she IS the national expert about higher ed transition issues for the student with special needs.
Peter W.D. Wright, Esq., co-founder of Wrightslaw
In Seven Steps to College Success, Hamblet gives parents a practical guide to usher their children to adulthood. When your child learns and thinks differently, it is scary to send them off to college without the supports they’ve had in the past. This book equips parents with the tools necessary to foster independence and encourage self-advocacy in their college-bound children.
Emily Kircher-Morris, creator/host of The Neurodiversity Podcast and author of Teaching Twice-Exceptional Learners in Today’s Classroom
