Overview  

The Centre assesses accommodations by reviewing your medical documentation. By providing current and credible documentation you help us to understand the functional impact of a disability or long-term medical condition, which in turn helps us to determine the most appropriate accommodations in a fair and consistent manner.  

What medical documentation does the Centre require in order to assess accommodations?

The Centre requires detailed medical documentation of a disability to assess accommodations. This medical documentation should be a letter or report from a certified and/or licensed professional who is treating you for your condition and who has specific training, expertise and experience in the diagnosis of the condition for which you are requesting accommodations.

The medical documentation should:

• provide a clear diagnostic statement;
• discuss details of the functional impact of your disability (e.g., how your condition impacts you and your activities at UBC);
• be dated, printed on official letterhead, and ideally typed for legibility;
• include the name, title, contact information and signature of the professional providing the diagnosis/assessment and indicate the length of time you have been under the care of the professional;
• be up to date to speak to your current condition – we generally expect medical documentation to be no more than three years old, but this can vary depending on the disability, since some conditions are relatively stable while others may change significantly over a person’s lifespan;
• include any relevant test results;
• identify side effects of medication that may affect academic functioning; and
• be in English or have certified translation attached (we will also accept medical documentation in French from students who obtained their medical documentation in Canada).

It is not necessary for your medical documentation to make explicit recommendations for accommodations as we are not bound by recommendations for accommodations that your physician makes. Instead, the medical documentation should focus on providing details of the nature and impact of the disability and the academic challenges that you face as a result.

Who should I get medical documentation from?

Ideally you should get your medical documentation from the certified medical professional best positioned to provide the information above. Most often, this will be your treating physician. Depending on the diagnosis, we may accept medical documentation from:

• your family doctor;
• a psychiatrist or psychologist;
• a medical specialist;
• an occupational therapist;
• a nurse practitioner who is working under the supervision of a physician as part of a larger medical team;
• Student Health and Wellbeing.

Although it may be used as supplemental information, we will not accept medical documentation as proof of diagnosis from:

• Registered Clinical Counsellors;
• Naturopaths;
• Physiotherapists;
• Chiropractors or Massage Therapists.

Some kinds of disabilities require specific assessments or diagnostic reports from specialists for the Centre to assess accommodations. For example, students:

• with learning disabilities require a full psycho-educational assessment from an educational psychologist;
• who have a traumatic brain injury require a neuro-psychological assessment by a clinical psychologist or neuropsychologist;
• with visual impairments may require an ophthalmologist’s report; and
• who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing may require a full audiologist’s report and audiogram.

Will the Centre accept an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or other proof of previous accommodation instead of medical documentation?

We will accept an IEP or other proof of previous accommodation as supplemental information but not in substitution of medical documentation. An IEP or proof of previous accommodation can confirm your history of accommodation and support. However, the Centre is not bound by decisions or assessments made by other institutions (particularly assessments made at the K-12 level) and we will conduct our own assessment of accommodations based on your medical documentation. This is to ensure that the supports you receive are relevant to university learning and the context of your activities at UBC. An exception to this is if you are a Visiting or Exchange Student who has had their accommodations assessed by the Accessibility Services at their home institution. In those cases, we will accept confirmation of the home institution’s assessment of accommodation in lieu of medical documentation and attempt to implement accommodations as close as reasonably possible to those assessed by the home institution.

Will I have to provide additional documentation at a later date?

Once you have provided sufficient medical documentation confirming a permanent or long-term disability, you will not have to provide more medical documentation to stay registered at the Centre, or to access your existing accommodations. If academic concessions are requested, such as In-Term Concessions, Standing Deferrals, or Late Withdrawals, that stem from the functional impacts already on file with the Centre, additional medical documentation is not typically required. The Centre will only require additional medical documentation from you if:

• there is a significant and unanticipated change in your condition or diagnosis; or
• you are requesting an academic accommodation or concession that is not supported by the documented functional impact of your disability.

In most cases, your registration will be renewed automatically at the beginning of each academic year until you either leave the University or advise us you no longer wish to be registered at the Centre.

What if I am not able to get medical documentation, or am not sure if my medical documentation is current?

We recognize that there may be circumstances where a student may have difficulty obtaining complete or current medical documentation. For example, a student may:

• require a specialized assessment or report that might be expensive or may take some time to obtain;
• be undergoing investigation for a suspected condition but have no formal diagnosis currently; or
• have a previous assessment that was done at an early age or in another country or language and might not know where to go or how to obtain an updated assessment.

In these kinds of circumstances, you can consult your Accessibility Advisor to explore what options may be open to you. We may be able to direct you to resources for obtaining medical documentation or to funding for certain kinds of assessments. If there is compelling evidence of a disability that falls short of our medical documentation standards, we have discretion to assess limited Interim Accommodations to give you time to obtain up-to-date medical documentation.

What to consider?

• Documentation can take time and effort to coordinate.
• Accommodations are not automatically transferred from other institutions, they are based on what will work for you at UBC based on a constellation of factors and expertise, including yours.
• Your medical documentation does not tell the whole story of who you are as a student; your initial meeting is an opportunity for you and your Accessibility Advisor to begin to build an accommodation plan.