Every college — both four-year and two-year colleges — has an office that provides basic accommodations for students with disabilities. The name of this department varies from school to school. At Rutgers, it’s called The Office of Disability Services. At NYU, it’s called The Moses Center for Student Accessibility (CSA). At Marist, it’s the Office of Accommodations and Accessibility. 

Remember, college is different from high school. College students are no longer protected by IDEA. They can request certain accommodations for their coursework, but the content of the class cannot be modified. Those accommodations are managed by these Disability Offices — onboarding is a several step process.

In the summer before school starts, students should apply for services. They must show recent evaluations or an IEP that provide evidence of a disability. Marist Collegedefines a disability as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, e.g., walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, caring for oneself, and/or performing manual tasks.” 

Read more at my autism newsletter, The Great Leap