Disability Services
Registering with Disability Services
If you need disability accommodations while attending Central Washington University, you'll be working with Disability Services. Our office works cooperatively with other university departments to provide accommodations for students in and out of the classroom. We serve students attending at the Ellensburg campus, students at any of the CWU Centers, and students enrolled in online classes.
Students who are seeking accommodations for the first time at Central Washington University must complete the three-step registration process.
Steps To Register
-
Step 1: Completing the online registration form
The first part of the process is completing the DS Registration Form. The registration form is a brief, online questionnaire. You can upload information/documentation with your registration or send it separately to Disability Services. If you don’t know how to answer any of the questions, you can leave them blank.
After the form is submitted, you will receive an email confirmation that it was accepted. If you do not receive a confirmation email, or if you require assistance completing the application, please contact our office.
-
Step 2: Providing disability information/documentation
To help Disability Services better understand your needs, we need documentation/information describing your disability and how it impacts you. Information from health care providers, educational assessments, or other evaluations along with the information that you share during your meeting with the Access Specialist will help us understand how university courses, systems, and facilities may present access barriers for you.
We will consider any information, including but not limited to records of past accommodations and services from high school, another college, state or high-stakes testing organization; formal psychological or medical evaluations, and letters from past health, education, or service providers.
Documentation should provide information about the specific functional limitations caused by the disability. Recommendations should be directly linked to the impact or functional limitations associated with the disability, or medication prescribed to control symptoms and include a clear rationale based on the level of impairment. While recommendations about specific accommodations from medical providers will be taken into consideration, Disability Services determines what accommodations are necessary to provide equal access.
Disability Services recognizes that some students may have difficulty providing disability documentation. If you have questions about getting documentation, please contact us.
If you have information or documentation, you can submit it to Disability Services by:
Bringing it to our office in Hogue 126
Faxing it to: (509) 963-2587
Emailing it to us
Mailing it to:
Disability Services
Hogue Hall 126
400 E University Way
Ellensburg WA, 98926-7582
Phone: (509) 963-2214 -
Step 3: Attending an Access Planning Meeting
Once your registration form and documentation have been reviewed, we will contact you to schedule an appointment for an Access Planning Meeting. During this meeting, you will work with an Access Specialist to identify barriers by discussing your disability experience and educational history. The Access Specialist will help you identify strategies, including accommodations, to eliminate disability-related barriers.
To prepare for this conversation, you can consider the following:
- What is your disability?
- Are there any cyclical or episodic flare-ups?
- Do you have ongoing medical treatment for your condition? If yes, does the therapy impact your ability to function?
- How does your disability affect your learning, reading/writing, housing, dining, technology use, etc.?
- What problem situations can you attribute to your disability?
- How have you modified tasks or environments to compensate for your condition in the past?
- What technology has been helpful to your success?
- What support services have been helpful in the past?
Once you have completed the Access Planning Meeting, you are fully registered with Disability Services and can use your accommodations.
If you are approved for housing or dining accommodations, Disability Services will notify the appropriate department on campus of your accommodations. A copy of this email will be sent to your CWU email.
If you receive classroom accommodations, you will notify the faculty of your approved accommodations each quarter through the Disability Portal. You can request accommodations as soon as you register for classes. Disability Services holds all early requests and sends them on to faculty several days prior to the start of the quarter. After the beginning of the quarter, you should follow up with your faculty to confirm that they received your request and to discuss the logistics of your accommodations, if necessary.
If you ever have problems with your accommodations, would like to discuss additional accommodations or need more information, you can contact the office, or set up an appointment to meet with your Access Specialist. Call us at (509) 963-2214 or at ds@cwu.edu.
CWU News
Latest edition of Voyage Magazine available online
April 24, 2024
by University Relations
CWU defensive standout presented with coveted national award
April 24, 2024
by David Leder