Documentation Guidelines

The primary mission of Disabled Student Development (DSD) is to determine if a student's request for disability-related accommodations is appropriate. An important piece in making this determination is documentation that the student provides to DSD. Disability documentation for the purpose of providing accommodations must both establish disability and provide adequate information on the functional impact of the disability so that effective accommodations can be identified. The documentation needs to provide DSD with a basic understanding of the student's disability and enough information to anticipate how the current impact of the disability is expected to interact with Ball State's requirements.

Documentation that is submitted to DSD must:

• clearly state the diagnosed disability or disabilities
• describe the functional limitations resulting from the disability or disabilities
• be age-appropriate — describing how the disability or disabilities currently affect the student in an educational setting  
• describe the specific accommodations requested
• adequately support each of the requested accommodations
• be typed or printed on official letterhead and be signed by an evaluator qualified to make the diagnosis (include information about license or certification and area of specialization).

*If the student will need accommodations for an exam administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS), such as the Praxis exams or GRE, the student will need to submit documentation to ETS Disability Services. Please note that approval for accommodations for Ball State classes does not guarantee accommodations for an ETS exam. ETS Disability Services, not DSD, determines accommodations for ETS exams.