Documentation Guidelines

Disability Documentation Overview

Students requesting accommodations need to provide documentation that speaks to the existence of a disability and provides evidence of the need for disability-related accommodations. To qualify as a person with a disability, a student must have a physical and/or mental impairment which substantially limits them in one or more major life activities. Yale and Student Accessibility Services (SAS) provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities.

Guidelines for Ideal Documentation

Written documentation should be typed in English and be on letterhead, signed, and dated. Documentation should be provided as an attachment to students’ Accommodation Request form, but can also be submitted to SAS by fax or email (as a .pdf to sas@yale.edu). Provided documentation must draw a logical, clear connection between the functional limitations or impact of the disability and the requested accommodation. Some accommodation requests will need further documentation, and SAS will inform students what additional documentation is needed. Ideally, documentation will include the following:

  1. CREDENTIALS Should be provided by an appropriately licensed or credentialed professional who has relevant experience and no personal relationship with you.
  2. DIAGNOSIS Should include a description of the diagnostic criteria, evaluation methods, and dates of administration, along with observation/clinical impression notes.
  3. FUNCTIONAL LIMITATIONS Should include the current impact of the disabling condition(s), and describe the severity and frequency of the condition on one or more major life activities.
  4. PROGNOSIS Should clearly describe the chronic or episodic nature of the disability, outline conditions or situations that trigger reoccurrence.
  5. HISTORY & RECOMMENDATIONS Should describe what accommodations have been helpful historically and suggest helpful accommodations for the future, including overall effectiveness.