The Disability Services team is available to support members of the campus community in navigating disability related barriers. Students who need Disability Services support in addressing disability related barriers are responsible for reaching out to Disability Services for support. Our team is available to connect with the student to understand concerns and address navigating them as appropriate, this often does involve additional communication with campus partners.
Disability Services also supports students through sharing about campus resources that may support the communicated disability related barriers.
At the GMU Disability Services team members are available for continued support and collaboration with students, however students do need to lead this communication. This may be different than a high school when counselors are reaching out to students.
An additional thing to note is that students are responsible for communicating with their professors regarding accommodations Disability Services does not proactively reach out to professors to notify them of a student’s accommodations.
We welcome support system members to engage in our interactive process as is welcomed by the student. Any changes to accommodations, disability-related requests/concerns, and inquires for support need to be communicated by the student directly to Disability Services.
Students can submit their IEP/504 plans and if further documentation is needed a Specialist will reach out via email to ask for further documentation. More information about documentation guidelines can be found in the Documentation Guidelines.
Students provide their professors an accommodation letter noting their accommodations. If the professors have any questions about accommodations Disability Services has placed their contact information on the letter so they can be reached directly by the professor. Of course, if the student or professor has concerns throughout the course either party can contact Disability Services.
Accommodations are established for individual students so there is no way to know exactly what a student will have as accommodations. Disability Services will work with each student individually to establish accommodations through their interactive process.
There is no cut off for when a student can request accommodations. They can connect with Disability Services at any point in their academic career, however accommodations are not retroactive so students are encouraged to contact Disability Services proactively.
Specific documentation is a case by case basis. You can find some guidance and information about documentation on our Documentation Guidelines page. You can always contact Disability Services directly with any questions or concerns at ods@gmu.edu or call 703-993-2474.
