What Documentation Does ARC Need?
The first step to get connected with ARC is for the student to provide documentation that includes a disability diagnosis. Disability documentation typically comes from a medical or mental health provider, a vocational rehabilitation agency, or an evaluator such as an educational diagnostician or a neuropsychologist.
Documentation Requirements
Disability documentation provided by the student must meet the following requirements:
- State a specific diagnosis/diagnoses
- We will not accept an IEP or a 504 plan by itself; the student must also provide a signed document from a healthcare provider or a complete psychological evaluation from a licensed diagnostician that clearly shows the student’s diagnosis and relevant details (e.g. precisely what type of learning disability the student has).
- If the student is requesting an emotional support animal (ESA) and has an ESA letter from a medical provider, it must state the diagnosis on it, or we may ask for additional documentation.
- Have a signature and/or approval of a licensed professional who has no personal relationship with the individual being evaluated
- Licensed professionals include physicians, therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, etc.
- Clearly state the student's name so we can verify their identity
Types of Documentation
This is a list of the types of documents that students often submit to ARC to establish the presence of a disability:
- Letter from a medical or mental health provider
- ARC Diagnosis Verification Request Form
- Letter from the NM Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, NM Commission for the Blind, or the Department of Veterans Affairs
- Psychological or neuropsychological evaluation
If The Student Has No Disability Documentation
A student may have reason to believe that they might have a disability, but perhaps the disability has never been documented. Alternatively, a student may have had disability documentation from many years ago (e.g. an IEP from elementary school) that can no longer be found or obtained due to its age. IN either case, the student has several options.
If you do not have disability documentation on hand that you can give to ARC, you can use this ARC Diagnosis Verification Request Form to be filled out by you and your health care provider.
The student can seek an evaluation from community diagnosticians or health care providers. ARC also maintains a short contact list of community diagnosticians, clinical psychologists, and neuropsychologists in the Albuquerque area who can evaluate a person for a potential learning disability or Attention Deficit/Hpyeractivity Disorder (ADHD). Please contact ARC if you would like a copy of the list. The cost of the evaluation is the responsibility of the student, so please check with your health insurance provider to see if any of the cost would be covered through them.
Students On North Campus
Applicants to, or students in, the UNM School of Medicine and the Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy should contact the UNM School of Medicine Programs’ liaison for information on requesting academic adjustments.
Applicants to, or students in, the UNM Law School should notify the Law School Assistant Dean for Student Services as well as ARC.
Licensure and Certification Exams
Some programs of study may require students to take licensing or certification exams prior to graduation. For such exams, it is the national licensing or certification body, not the Accessibility Resource Center, that determines whether the student is allowed to receive reasonable accommodations for the exam. This is significant because national licensing and certification bodies have different requirements for disability documentation, and their criteria are typically much more strict than the criteria that ARC uses.
Consequently, it is important to research documentation requirements early in your program, as it may be necessary to seek a reevaluation (at your expense) before you request accommodations from the national testing body.
