Why You Should Register For College Disability Accommodations

Are you doing well already?

If so, you may not need accommodations. But if you are currently at school and struggling, or you are just starting, you may want to consider registering for accommodations with your school’s disability services office.

Accommodations alone won’t guarantee success (you still need to go to class, keep up with readings, study effectively, and seek help when you need it), but they can be a tool to help you achieve success.

You should register for accommodations, even if you think you won’t need them

At college, the system is different. You don’t have to take special classes, and no one in class will check in or check up on you, so if you didn’t like being in the special education system before, don’t let your previous experiences keep you from registering.

College disability services offices take your privacy seriously

The only people who need to know you have accommodations are the people who’ll be involved in them, like professors. Colleges don’t distribute lists of all students registered with the disability services office (DS) to everyone on staff.

Also, professors have no right to know what your disability is, and it’s unlikely that the disability services office will tell them. (Ask them if it concerns you!) That said, you can tell professors about your disability if you like.

And there’s no way a future employer or graduate school will know you used accommodations or had a disability unless you tell them. Your transcript won’t reveal that you were registered with the office and/or used accommodations.

Using accommodations isn’t cheating

Colleges determine whether students are eligible for accommodations – so if you register with your school’s disability services office (DS) and they decide you’re eligible, they’re doing that because they agree you have a disability that requires accommodation. They’re not doing it because they’re just nice people (though likely they are) – this is their mandate.

Also – DS’s job is to “level” the playing field for you, not given you an advantage over your classmates. In fact, the text of Section 504 says the accommodations colleges provide are, “…not required to produce the identical result or level of achievement for handicapped and nonhandicapped persons, but must afford handicapped persons equal opportunity to obtain the same result, to gain the same benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement” [§ 104.42(b)(2)]. So if you’ve been approved for an accommodation, it’s only intended to “level the playing field.”

No one will “make” you use accommodations you don’t need/want

If you don’t want to record lectures, you don’t have to. Professors won’t check to see if you do this. At many colleges, you’ll need to complete a form in order to get your exam accommodations set up. If you don’t want to use them, just don’t fill out the form. This isn’t like what you may have been used to in high school – you get to decide what is useful to you.

Even if you do choose to take your exams with – for instance – extended time, if you don’t need the time, you can leave when you’re done with your exam. You don’t have to stay for the whole time that’s been approved.

If you wait to register, you may later wish you hadn’t

The disability services office’s review of your requests can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. But they’re not required to rush their process if you wait unti just before an exam to complete your registration. And since accommodations aren’t retroactive (meaning they don’t apply to what’s already happened), professors don’t have to give you a do-over or adjust any exam grades you earned before your accommodations were approved.

You’re allowed to ask questions

The research shows that some students don’t register with DS because they don’t know how or think the documentation (paperwork they have showing they have a disability) doesn’t meet the school’s requirements. That may be true, but it’s worth asking DS about this.

This isn’t true everywhere, but some colleges give students accommodations for a brief time to allow them to get whatever paperwork is needed. Also – if you ask questions and later change your mind about registering, DS may follow up just to make sure you don’t want to keep going, but they can’t “make” you finish registering. And you can (politely) tell them the first time they follow up that  you’re not interested. They won’t be insulted or hurt. They also contact your professors to say you started the process but didn’t complete it. Again, DS values your privacy (and they’re pretty busy).

The research also says some students don’t know what to request. Again, you can ask DS staff what is commonly approved. If they aren’t willing to share that, you can find lists online from other DS offices to see what’s available. (Don’t assume you’ll be eligible for everything you see.) This one from Rutgers University is pretty extensive.

Registering isn’t the only thing you’ll need to do to succeed

Again, the purpose of accommodations is to level the playing field. But if  you don’t go to class, keep up with work, seek help when you need it, etc., they’re not enough to keep you afloat. That’s another reason not to feel bad about using accommodations.

I strongly recommend students read Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning Is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy. In it, cognitive psychologist Dr. Daniel Willingham recommends strategies to help them study. (He also gives tips on his TikTok channel.) Many of the additional tips I offer here on my site come from his research.

Want to learn more about accommodations, what they’re for, and what the limitations might be?

The U.S. Department of Education has a page explaining the laws, what colleges have to do for you (and don’t), what your rights are, and what you should do if you have a problem with your accommodations. You may want to look at it.