Registration FAQ

Students who request academic accommodations due to a disability will initiate the registration process by completing an New Student Registration Form (see our Registration page). The registration form contains several questions which will allow the student an opportunity to offer their narrative of how their disability has impacted them within an academic setting. 

After a student completes the New Student Registration Form, the student will have a registration meeting. The registration meeting occurs at a time when an Access Coordinator and the student can discuss the impact of the disability within the academic setting and determine what accommodations are reasonable and appropriate to alleviate/eliminate them within the academic setting.

We refer to this information exchange as interactive dialogue or interactive conversation. During the registration meeting, reasonable accommodations will be determined and registration will be complete.

Registration meetings can take place in-person, over the phone or on a video conferencing platform such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

An Access Coordinator is a member of the Accessibility Resources team who conducts registration meetings, reviews documentation and engages in conversation with the student to determine reasonable and appropriate accommodations.

The Access Coordinator serves as an advocate if a student has questions about accommodations,  encounters questions or concerns from faculty or needs assistance determining how accommodations would be applicable within a course.

The Access Coordinator does not take the place of a student’s Academic Advisor. All questions related to coursework needed to fulfill program requirements for graduation would be directed to an Academic Advisor. All students are assigned an Academic Advisor by the college in whose program(s) they are enrolled.

Students currently enrolled in classes can register for services at any time during the academic year.

For incoming first-year students, Accessibility Resources will begin accepting registrations for services for each new academic year after the preceding Spring Semester has concluded. Any registrations submitted for a new academic year (Fall Semester) will not be reviewed until the Spring Semester has concluded.

Please consult our Registration Page for updates, and the UC Academic Year Calendars for academic term dates.

Accommodations are determined during the interactive conversation between the Access Coordinator and the student. Accommodations are individualized per the impact of the disability which the student describes during their intake. Therefore, students with similar disabilities may have different accommodations.

To learn more about classroom accommodations, visit the Academic Accommodations and Faculty Responsibility page, where individual accommodations are explained in greater detail.

To learn more about accommodations such as sign language interpreting and closed captioning, visit the Communication Access Team (CAT) page. To learn more about technology and digital accessibility accommodations such as textbooks in alternative formats, visit the Accessible Technology page.

Accommodations which we currently provide, but are not limited to, are:

Documentation is not required to register for services. However, if it is available, it can be a useful tool and help to ensure that the full consideration of the impact of your disability on the academic environment is considered. 

Additionally, the reasonableness and necessity of requested accommodations may not be able to be determined without it, so students may be requested to provide documentation if: 

• Documentation would help the student and AR staff identify barriers and workable solutions for accommodations  
• Documentation would help the Access Coordinator make connections between the academic environment and the impact of a disability that is not readily apparent through the student’s narrative 

Please be aware that other institutions, licensing authorities, and testing agencies (which administer standardized tests such as the GRE and LSAT) may require different documentation of disabilities than the adequate documentation required by the University. 

If documentation is submitted, we recommend it contain these elements:

1. Documentation should be generated by a physician who is qualified to comment on your disability
2. Documentation by your qualified professional or evaluation forms (IEP, 504, etc.) should be on letterhead or the school/district name is identifiable 
3. Documentation should have a diagnosis of disability that limits a major life activity
4. Documentation should clearly demonstrate the impact of your disability within the academic environment 
5. Documentation should include a list of reasonable, appropriate accommodations that will lessen the impact of the disability within the academic setting

Documentation, while useful, is used a secondary source to allow Accessibility Resources an opportunity to understand the impact of the student’s disability. 

Supporting documentation from a qualified diagnostician or treatment provider is helpful when it:

• describes the nature and extent of a student’s disability or impairment 
• provides an explanation of the functional impact of the impairment as it relates to the university or academic environment

Documentation may also include recommendations for academic adjustments and auxiliary aids

AR Staff use documentation to support the student narrative and understand the limitations that may be present due to a specific disability.

After registration, an Accommodation Form is created. The Accommodation Form will list the accommodations that were determined to be reasonable and appropriate during your registration meeting.  

The Accommodation Form is sent to a student's UC email. Students then provide their Accommodation form to each of their instructors as an official notification denoting approved accommodations. More information on Accommodation Forms is provided on our Accommodation Form Purpose and Explanation page.

The University of Cincinnati recognizes that students with disabilities may require a housing accommodation to fully participate in the residential component of the university experience. Accessibility Resources actively works with University Housing to provide housing accommodations within University managed properties in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment Act (ADAAA). 

To learn how to make a formal request, please visit our Housing Accommodations webpage.

The University of Cincinnati seeks to accommodate persons with disabilities who need the assistance of service animals. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service animal is "a dog individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability" (28 CFR part 36). 

To learn how to make a formal request, please visit our Assistance Animal and Assistance Animal page. 

Students who have a state issued disability placard/plates that allow them to park in designated accessible parking spots should purchase a parking garage permit directly through Parking Services.  

After purchasing a parking garage permit for the desired garage, students can park in the designated accessible parking spaces within that garage, displaying their placard/plates.

Students who require parking assistance due temporary impairment (injury, surgery, illness, etc) should contact Accessibility Resources to determine what parking assistance is available and appropriate. Accessibility Resources may request documentation regarding the temporary impairment before parking assistance can be provided.

Accessibility Resources allows the student to determine if they wish for anyone to be a part of their registration meeting. We defer to the student’s judgement. 

Accessibility Resources recognizes that parents, grandparents, guardians and other family members have played an integral role in the academic development of the student. During the intake, the Access Coordinator's role is to engage with the student directly and allow the student an opportunity to discuss how their disability has impacted them.

We encourage family members to allow the student to take ownership of their accommodations. 

We appreciate your support in encouraging students to register for services, but encourage parents and family members not to apply for services for their student.

The registration process is most effective when the student is actively engaged.

Questions within our registration form (found on our Registration page) are specifically tailored to allow the student an opportunity to offer their personal narrative of how their disability has impacted them. These questions and responses will be discussed during the registration meeting with their Access Coordinator.

Students may choose to grant access to their student records to those they designate. Any access given is governed by FEPRA – Family Education Rights Privacy Act.

Students and parents can review FERPA rules and regulations from the Office of the Registrar on the FERPA and Records Privacy page.  These records include Financial Aid, Student Bill, Grades, schedules, etc. A full list is available from OneStop on the Delegated Access page. 

Within Accessibility Resources, students can give parents an opportunity to speak with an Access Coordinator by completing a supplemental form, which is available upon request. 

The University reserves the right to deny requests for any and all student information to all third parties, including parents. Therefore, an Access Coordinator may not share all conversations shared between them and your student. 

In high school, parents were a part of the IEP/504/transition meetings and students rarely had a voice or were asked to participate.

In college, students are expected to be self-sufficient and manage their coursework independently. This also extends to taking ownership of their accommodations.

To allow students an opportunity to develop skills of independence, Accessibility Resources provides tools to help the student have an open discussion about their accommodation needs with their professors.

In addition, the Access Coordinator's role is to serve as an advocate and work with faculty to ensure that the student's accommodations are implemented effectively.  

If a parent/guardian wishes to  walk their student to their class, that would be a conversation between the student and the parent. However, University rules prohibits any individual whom is not registered within a class to attend. Doing so also violates Fire Code.