Temporary Disability
The Office for Disability Services offers a wide variety of policy directed services to students with temporary documented disabilities. However, services are extended to students with temporary disabilities only for the time that their access to Mason classes, coursework, and programs is significantly limited as a direct result of those disabilities.
The eligibility process is the same as for permanent disability cases. ODS professional staff qualify students for services based upon a review of medical or psychological documentation as well as a one-on-one interview. When considering documentation we asked that a qualified professional provide a narrative which describes that student’s functional limitations when attempting to engage classes, coursework, and programs provided by Mason. Simply, we ask that the narrative describe how a person is limited to what degree is he or she impaired.
When a student qualifies for ODS services one of our professional staff members will determine appropriate academic services and accommodations depending upon, again, how and to what degree he or she limited when attempting to engage the Mason environment.
Also, an ODS professional staff member will review with the student how he or she might best facilitate as well as modify the accommodations developed on his or her behalf. The student is, then, responsible for requesting most accommodations well before any academic deadline has been set. That is, the student should bear in mind when reporting a clinical problem that the means by which he or she are qualified for having a disability is not automatic. Likewise, the accommodations recommended by his or her physician, psychiatrist, or psychologist are not automatic as well.
Lastly, it is also the student’s responsibility to follow ODS policies and procedures for accessing accommodations as outlined in this section.