Overview of Registration and Accommodation Determination Process
Registration establishes a relationship with our office to start exploring accommodations. Our office utilizes a holistic, multi-sourced approach to consider all accommodation requests. All requests must go through an interactive review process, meaning that the student’s own voice and engagement in this process is necessary and fundamental to our decision-making.
We determine eligibility for accommodations and services on a case-by-case basis. There is a multi-step process to obtaining accommodations from Disability Services (DS). In broad strokes, the process contains the following steps:
Submit a registration form in Clockwork, complete with documentation.
Clockwork is the database system that DS uses. It pulls information from SPIRE but does not share any information with SPIRE, to protect your personal data. It is linked on our website and can be bookmarked in a browser, but it cannot be accessed from within SPIRE.
The registration form must be completed by the student themselves. It requires a UMass email address and password, and gathers a self-report from the student of their diagnosis and the barriers to access that they face. Students are able to upload supporting documentation and request specific accommodations.
The registration form is designed to be filled out only once, but after registering students will still have opportunities to upload additional documentation and make additional requests.
To learn more about the registration form and providing a self-report, please visit our Prepare to Register page. We also offer guidance on appropriate Documentation. Documentation can be provided at any time in the future as well.
Upon submitting your online registration form, you will receive an automated confirmation email from Clockwork. Next, our Registration Coordinator will screen your accommodation request and documentation and will respond within 3–5 business days.
If we need more information to determine the next steps in our review process, we may reach out to you by email to ask some clarifying questions. Please be actively checking your UMass email for any communication from our office.
The majority of accommodation requests will require a student to meet with an Access Coordinator (AC) and give a self-report of their lived experience as a student with a disability. Once the registration form has been processed by the Registration Coordinator, the student is invited to schedule a Welcome Meeting with an AC. The AC will gather more information from the student, and discuss possible accommodations that may be appropriate. Accommodations will not be granted during this meeting; these requests could take 2–3 weeks to review.
There may be some more basic accommodation requests that are submitted with sufficient supporting documentation that do not require this initial meeting. In these select cases, the request can be reviewed more quickly. All incoming requests will be screened to determine if the request requires a meeting with an AC.
Please note that more nuanced requests, such as flexibility with attendance and deadlines or single room requests, will require a meeting regardless of any supporting documentation.
After the meeting with the student, the Access Coordinator will complete their review of the information gathered from the registration form, documentation, and welcome meeting, and will make a recommendation of appropriate accommodations for committee review.
This review process could take 2-3 weeks from the point that we gather all the necessary information, so we strongly encourage students to get started with DS early in their academic journey. The summer before a student’s first semester is the best time for incoming first year and transfer students to get started.
Once the appropriate accommodation(s) has/have been determined, the AC will prepare an Approved Accommodation Letter (AAL) for the student. This document is for the student’s personal use, and will list the accommodation(s) that is/are approved for the student, what the student’s rights and responsibilities are, and what steps the student needs to take in order to access their accommodations.
If any requested accommodations are not able to be approved, the letter will include an explanation as to why. Our decision-making FAQ page also has more information. In some cases, an accommodation that was not requested will be approved, based on the AC’s determination that it is the most appropriate way to address the barrier faced by the student. These alternatives were most likely discussed during the Welcome Meeting.
The AAL is a very helpful resource for the student’s reference. Once the student receives the AAL, it is their responsibility to read it thoroughly to understand what their rights and responsibilities are, and what steps the student needs to take in order to access their accommodations. This document is not the same as what is shared with instructors each semester, but it includes guidance for how to send those letters.
All students who receive an AAL will be invited to schedule an Accommodation Review meeting with their assigned AC if they have questions about their approved accommodations or would like support setting up their approved accommodations.
Unless specifically stated as a temporary accommodation, approved accommodations are granted until a student's separation from the university. Please note that classroom accommodations are not considered “active” until students send out accommodation letters to faculty. This step must be completed by the student each semester.