Resources for Current Students
Any student with a diagnosed disability may request accommodations for barriers they face in the classroom or testing environment. Any student with a mental, physical, emotional, cognitive, or neurological limitation is entitled to reasonable accommodations in higher education.
Accommodations granted to students are completely student-specific and are based on the student’s needs and the specific barriers they face. The accommodations a student receives are determined by the information provided in their request forms, doctors’ recommendations, and a conversation between the student and Baker College’s Disability Specialist.
In This Section:
How to Request Classroom Accommodations
Requesting classroom accommodations at Baker College is done in three easy steps:
Schedule an intake appointment with Baker College’s Disability Specialist.
Our Disability Specialist will help guide you through the process. All your information is kept completely confidential and will help us know how to best support you in your academic career.
Submit the Disability Services Request Form.
This is your official request for accommodations. The form will give us some additional information about your disability and the accommodations you are requesting.
If you have a copy of a previous IEP or 504 plan, or any medical documents or psychological evaluations that pertain to your diagnosis, please attach them to this form.
Submit a verification form filled out by your healthcare provider.
This form will need to be filled out by a medical professional: a doctor, social worker, therapist, or specialized physician.
This is our standardized form, but if you have something else, like a comprehensive psychological evaluation, that may suffice in its place. Please review our Documentation Guidelines if submitting alternative documents in place of our standardized forms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Any student with a diagnosed disability may request accommodations. Any student with a mental, physical, emotional, cognitive, or neurological limitation is entitled to reasonable accommodations in higher education. This includes permanent disabilities, and temporary disabilities. If you break a bone, get a concussion, become pregnant, or experience any other temporarily disabling conditions, you are entitled to reasonable accommodations for those as well.
Accommodations granted to students are completely student-specific and are based on the student’s needs, and disability-related barriers they face in the classroom, or testing environments. Accommodations will be decided based on forms submitted, doctors recommendations, and a conversation between the student and Baker College’s Disability Specialist.
We understand that disclosing a disability can be a deeply personal decision, and we want to assure you that your information is treated with the utmost confidentiality and respect. We recognize that you have the right to control the disclosure of your disability, and we will always seek your consent before discussing your situation with anyone else, including faculty, staff, or parents and support persons. At the Office of Disability Services, our goal is to empower you to thrive academically and personally. We are here to collaborate with you to identify and implement the accommodations and resources that best meet your individual needs. If working collaboratively with your parents, support people, or medical professional is the best course of action to help you succeed, then we need a FERPA form on file.
- Access the FERPA form here.
- What is a FERPA form?
IEPs and 504 plans do not directly transfer to the college setting. They can be helpful as supporting documentation to assist in the interactive process, but accommodations granted in high school are not guaranteed to be accepted in the college setting. The plans followed in high school do expire once the student graduates k-12. However, support is still provided to students with disabilities – the process and accommodations may just look a little different. Baker College’s Disability Specialist is happy to discuss the differences, and why, on a student-specific basis upon intake.
Students can begin the process of registering with the Disability Center and requesting accommodations at any point in the semester. However, there is no guaranteed timeline and accommodations cannot be retroactive. This means class accommodations are only in effect after the point of approval, and a Letter of Accommodation is delivered to the student. We suggest students start this process as early as possible, to give time to get to the doctor and receive documentation, as well as give staff time to implement these accommodations. Once proper documentation is received, we can work pretty quickly and it will only take about a week to roll out the accommodations completely. If a request form is received within 2 weeks of finals, we cannot guarantee testing accommodations for those finals- and our discussion will consist of plans for the following semester.