Disability Documentation Guidelines
General Guidelines
While your lived experience and personal narratives are the most helpful resources in determining appropriate accommodation, sometimes documentation from relevant professionals will be requested to add further clarity or establish eligibility for certain supports and services. There is no one document or comprehensive list of forms that automatically provide this information. However, the most helpful documentation have the following characteristics:
1. Documents should be from a relevant licensed professional. However, depending on your care needs or experience, this could mean many things: your primary care physician or specialist, your psychiatrist or psychologist, your therapist, and, in some cases, administrators from other educational institutions from which you received accommodations (K-12 504 plans, IEPs, etc). If you're unsure, ask your access consultant. We are here to help identify strategies moving forward and will be able to confirm whether a document would meet this standard.
2. Documents should be from professionals whom you have had a longer-term care or educational relationship with AND who you do not have a family or personal relationship with. It's helpful to have even a little information that clarifies how long you have worked with this professional.
3. Lastly, documents should help establish the connection between accommodations requested by the student and their functional limitation(s). Because any accommodation needs to be connected to a disability-related barrier, establishing these connections formally can expedite many processes. This information may include (but is not limited to):
- Any specific and relevant diagnoses.
- Explanation of common symptoms associated with reported diagnoses.
- Description of the progression and frequency of associated symptoms (as appropriate to your context).
- Recommendations for potential accommodations (NOTE: it is ultimately OAS that decides which accommodations are reasonable within the student's context at Point Park. While professionals are welcome to make suggestions which can help guide conversations, not every accommodation may be appropriate. OAS will explore all requests and make formal determinations after an interactive conversation with relevant university entities)
Housing Accommodations
Because there are supply limits and infrastructural considerations, all housing requests require formal documentation to be submitted (as described above) to establish the direct need for the requested accommodations. Additionally, once room selection and assignment have occurred, it becomes more difficult to accommodate requests even with appropriate documentation. OAS will not explore housing accommodation requests unless a housing contract has already been submitted to Residence Life.
If you are a returning Point Park student who anticipates requestions housing related accommodations, reach out to your access consultant early in the Spring semester for greater priority. If you are an incoming Point Park student, register with OAS as soon as possible following your formal enrollment with the university for more priority consideration.
Dining Accommodations
If you are an on-campus resident, Point Park requires you to purchase a meal plan. However, we recognize that there may be concerns for those who have various food allergies. We are able to explore dining-related accommodations when formal documentation is provided that outlines your explicit allergens and their potential health risks and effects after exposure. OAS will then make a determination after consulting with our campus dining representatives.
Our campus dining partners (Culinart) are also available if you would like to inquire generally about any elective diets you wish to explore with them.
Accommodations Requiring Additional Documents
Emotional Support Animal (ESA) Requests
Just like any other accommodation, ESA requests need to be explored formally through our same accommodations process. If you are already registered with OAS, you can simply schedule an meeting with your assigned access consultant to begin this conversation. If you are not yet affiliated with OAS, you must Register for Accessibility Services first to initiate this process.
In addition to having formal documentation from a relevant professional (as outlined above) and meeting with us to discuss this request in more detail, it's OAS' responsibility to verify that any animal approved as an ESA does not also pose a health and safety risk for the surrounding community. This means OAS may request current documentation of state licensing, medical and vaccination records (as appropriate for the species) for official approval.
Some words of warning: unlike service animals, there are no formal legal protections or credentials to register an animal as an ESA. Any website or individual who you don't already have a therapeutic relationship with that claims to provide this documentation is likely a scam and should be avoided. Documents from these services will not be accepted in support of an ESA request (only those from a relevant professional who you have an existing care relationship with).