10 Practices by individual institutions
“Students can request and explore disability-related accommodations even without medical or disability documentation” (The Arizona Board of Regents, 2024).
Some institutions are de-prioritizing and/or eliminating medical documentation as a mandatory step in the academic accommodation application process. These institutions prioritize lived experiences of disability and barriers over and, in some places, instead of medical documentation.
“Your experience of your disability and barriers you encounter as a student and as a member of the PSU community are the most important factors in determining reasonable accommodations” (Portland State University, 2024, emphasis in original).We identified 4 institutions where medical documentation is de-prioritized or even eliminated as a mandatory step for students seeking academic accommodations. At three of these institutions – Portland State University (PSU), the University of Arizona, and Syracuse University – the academic accommodation process outlined on the institutional website de-emphasizes medical documentation at the point of registering with the disability office and setting accommodations. For instance, according to their websites, at Arizona and PSU, students are not required to have medical documentation to access the accessibility office. All three institutional websites communicate to students that their lived experience is central to the accommodation process, specifically in determining and setting accommodations.
We identified 1 institution where the requirement for documentation seems to be altogether removed or eliminated. Cornell University articulates a promise to work with “every student”, regardless of whether they have medical documentation or not on its website (Guiding Principles, n.d.). Thus, non-documentation pathways to academic accommodation do exist, and such institutions can be used as models. However, Arizona, PSU, and Syracuse all inform students that documentation may still be required in some cases.
“We recognize that not everyone has the privilege of documentation or a formal diagnosis. We use information about your lived experience when determining accommodations” (Cornell University, n.d.).
Our findings suggest that individual institutions are de-prioritizing medical documentation of disability as a strategic intervention in the typical academic accommodation process to pave more equitable pathways to academic access for students. We further suggest that these institutions can be used as models.
Cornell explicitly recognizes the “historic and systemic disparities that exist within our healthcare systems and society at large”, as well as the impact on “student’s ability to provide documentation of a disability” when outlining their commitment to work with all students, including students without medical documentation (Guiding Principles, n.d.).
Promising Practices
Did you know that, according to their website, students at Cornell University are not required to have medical documentation in order to seek academic accommodations? Like the University of Arizona, Portland State University, and Syracuse University, students’ own experience is prioritized in place of medical documentation. On their website, Cornell makes a promise to creatively work with students with or without medical documentation to determine accommodations. This promise is articulated as part of a commitment to putting Disability Justice principles into practice. Cornell can be used as a model to support ongoing work to reimagine more equitable processes that refuse to leave behind racialized, international, working class, and other students who, due to medical racism and overlapping structural barriers, cannot obtain medical documentation. Guidelines modeled off the Cornell system must reflect real changes in accommodation processes, namely the elimination of medical documentation as a mandatory step in the process.