Senior Year, Meet Your New Paperwork Hobby

Sending a high school senior to college is already a blend of pride, panic, dorm-shopping, and wondering how one human owns seventeen black hoodies.  For families of students with disabilities, add one more important task: connecting with the college’s disability services office—early, thoughtfully, and with the right documentation.

The good news is that colleges and universities are used to this.  The less-good news is that the transition from high school accommodations to college accommodations is not automatic.  Think of it less as transferring an IEP and more as opening a new account: the student needs to apply, provide information, and request the supports they need.

The Big Shift

In high school, the school district has a legal duty under IDEA to identify eligible students and provide appropriate special education and related services. In college, IDEA no longer applies; instead, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 generally protect students by focusing on equal access rather than individualized special education programs.

That means the college is not required to recreate an IEP, provide the same services, or locate the student and ask whether they need help.  Your student must disclose a disability, submit documentation, communicate with the disability office, and request accommodations.

In other words: college disability services are not a scavenger hunt, but students do have to pick up the map.

Start Before Move-In

Do not wait until the first midterm, the first missed deadline, or the first “I have three papers due, and my laptop is emotionally unavailable” moment.  Students should contact each college’s disability services office as soon as they are seriously considering enrolling—or, ideally, soon after acceptance.

Every college has its own process, deadlines, documentation preferences, and online portal.  Search the institution’s website for terms such as:

• Disability services
• Accessibility services
• Student accessibility
• Office of disability support
• Accommodations
• ADA/Section 504 coordinator

A student can contact the office before committing to a college.  Asking about the process is not the same as announcing one’s entire medical history to the admissions office.  It’s smart planning—like checking whether a dorm has air conditioning before arriving with three fans and a dream.

Build a Documentation Folder

College disability offices commonly request documentation that explains the disability, its functional impact, and why particular accommodations are appropriate.  A high school IEP or Section 504 plan can provide useful background, but it may not be enough on its own because colleges often need current information from a qualified professional.

Help your student create one secure digital folder with copies of:

• The most recent psychoeducational, neuropsychological, medical, speech-language, occupational therapy, or mental-health evaluation
• IEPs and Section 504 plans
• Accommodation plans used for standardized testing, if relevant
• A letter from a qualified provider describing diagnosis, functional limitations, and recommended accommodations
• Medication or treatment documentation only when relevant to the accommodation request
• Contact information for providers who may need to clarify documentation

The goal is not to submit every document ever created since kindergarten, including the charming preschool dinosaur drawing.  Submit information that clearly explains the current barrier and the support needed.

For example, documentation should connect the dots:

• “The student has ADHD” is a diagnosis.
• “The student experiences significant difficulty sustaining attention during lengthy exams, organizing multi-step assignments, and processing information under time pressure” explains functional impact.
• “Recommended supports include reduced-distraction testing, extended time when justified, and access to planning tools” explains the accommodation request.

Let Your Student Lead

Parents can be invaluable coaches, organizers, document finders, deadline reminders, and morale officers.  However, the student should be the main communicator with the college whenever possible.

College staff generally communicate directly with the student, and student privacy rules may limit what they can share with parents without the student’s written permission.  This can feel abrupt after years of attending ARD/IEP meetings, emailing teachers, and maintaining a color-coded calendar that deserves its own zip code.

Practice these skills before college begins:

• Writing a concise email requesting a meeting
• Explaining the accommodations they use and why
• Checking email and student portals regularly
• Scheduling appointments
• Asking professors respectful, direct questions
• Describing needs without apologizing for having them

A student does not have to become an advocacy superhero overnight.  They simply need a starter script and the confidence to use it.

Know What May Change

College accommodations are designed to provide access, not to guarantee a particular grade, reduce academic standards, or remove essential course requirements.  A student may receive accommodations such as extended testing time, reduced-distraction testing, captioning, accessible materials, note-taking support, adaptive technology, priority registration, housing-related supports, interpreters, or communication access services—depending on their disability and the institution.

But high-school supports may look different in college.

That does not mean college is less supportive.  It means the support system is structured differently.  A student may need to ask for help sooner, use office hours, visit tutoring or writing centers, and learn to treat their calendar as a life-support device rather than a decorative suggestion.

Request Accommodations Early

Once approved, students often receive an accommodation letter or electronic notification to share with instructors.  They should not assume professors automatically know about their accommodations.

Encourage your student to send the notice early in the term and, when useful, schedule a brief conversation.  The conversation can be simple:

“Hello Professor Lee, I am registered with Disability Services and have approved accommodations for this course.  I have submitted my accommodation letter through the university system.  I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss how we can implement them in your class.  Thank you.”

No long explanation is required.  The student does not need to provide a diagnosis to a professor unless they choose to.  They only need to communicate the approved accommodations and work out logistics.

Important: accommodations are often not retroactive.  If a student waits until after a difficult exam or a major missed deadline, the disability office may be able to support future access but may not be able to revise the past.  Request early; panic later only if absolutely necessary.

Ask About More Than Tests

When families hear “college accommodations,” they often picture extended time on exams.  That may be important, but it is only one possibility.

Students should consider barriers across the full college experience:

• Classroom access: Captioning, interpreters, accessible seating, assistive listening systems, alternative formats, communication supports
• Testing: Extended time, breaks, screen readers, assistive technology, reduced-distraction settings
• Executive functioning: Priority registration, coaching referrals, planning supports, reduced course loads when appropriate
• Housing and dining: Accessible housing, single rooms when medically justified, emotional-support-animal processes, dietary accommodations
• Attendance and flexibility: Disability-related flexibility may be possible in some circumstances, but it is individualized and must be discussed early
• Clinical, internship, and field-placement programs: Accessibility planning may need to begin months before placement
• Technology: Text-to-speech, speech-to-text, accessible e-text, recording tools, captioning, and organization apps

A useful question is not, “What accommodations can my student get?” Instead ask, “What barriers might interfere with equal access, and what reasonable support would help remove those barriers?”

Include the Student in College Visits

If possible, include disability services on the campus-visit checklist.  A polished website is nice; a clear answer from a real human is better.

Questions students can ask include:

• What is the process for registering with disability services?
• What documentation do you require, and how recent must it be?
• How long does the review process usually take?
• How are testing accommodations arranged?
• How are accommodations communicated to faculty?
• Does your office handle disability-related housing requests?
• What assistive technology, tutoring, coaching, or accessibility supports are available?
• Is there a student disability or neurodiversity organization on campus?
• How does the office manage accommodations during internships, labs, clinical placements, or study abroad?

Pay attention not only to the answers, but to the tone.  Does the office sound collaborative and knowledgeable?  Do they speak directly to the student?  Do they explain processes clearly?  A college’s disability-services office should feel like a resource—not a locked escape room built entirely out of forms.

Keep the Records, Lose the Panic

A simple system can prevent last-minute chaos:

1. Create a secure folder with current evaluations and accommodation records.
2. Identify the disability-services office at every college under consideration.
3. Review each college’s documentation requirements and deadlines.
4. Submit paperwork soon after choosing a school—or earlier if the college allows it.
5. Confirm approval and learn how to activate accommodations each semester.
6. Have the student contact instructors early and keep copies of accommodation notices.
7. Revisit needs after the first few weeks; college may reveal new barriers and new strengths.

Students may need to renew accommodations each semester or year, and some supports—especially housing, interpreting, captioning, and alternate-format materials—can require advance notice.

A Final Word for Parents

Your job is not to make college effortless.  It is to help your student build the tools to navigate it.

That may mean sitting beside them while they complete a form, helping locate an evaluator’s report from 2023, practicing an email, or gently asking whether they have checked their university inbox lately.  It also means resisting the urge to become the undercover CEO of their academic life.

College disability services are not a favor, a shortcut, or an admission of defeat.  They help ensure disability-related barriers don’t keep a student from showing what they know, contributing what they can, and building a future that fits.

AAC Awareness Month: More Than a Device, It’s a Way In

October is AAC Awareness Month, a time to celebrate the many ways people communicate beyond spoken words.  AAC—augmentative and alternative communication—includes gestures, facial expressions, sign language, picture boards, alphabet boards, tablets, and speech-generating devices.

AAC is not a “last resort,” a reward for trying hard enough to speak, or a shiny electronic object that lives permanently in a backpack.  It is access to language, connection, choice, learning, humor, self-advocacy, and the absolutely essential ability to say, “No,” when someone offers you an unwanted bite of casserole.

Why AAC Matters

For people who cannot consistently rely on speech to be understood, AAC can supplement or compensate for speech-language difficulties and support communication at home, school, in healthcare, and in the community.  It gives people ways to request, reject, greet, ask questions, comment, tell stories, share opinions, advocate for themselves, and participate in relationships.

That last part matters.  Every child deserves more than a way to request crackers or ask for a favorite video.  They deserve language for “That was funny,” “I am worried,” “I changed my mind,” “Leave me alone,” “Tell me more,” and “My sibling is being extremely suspicious.”

AAC can also reduce frustration by making communication more available in the moment.  When a child has thoughts, needs, jokes, questions, and big feelings but does not yet have a reliable way to express them, communication breakdowns can pile up quickly.  AAC helps build a bridge between what a person wants to say and the people who need to listen.

AAC Is Not Anti-Speech

One of the most persistent myths about AAC is that it will prevent a child from talking.  The evidence says otherwise: AAC can support, and in some cases increase, spoken-language development when used as part of a multimodal communication approach.

Think of AAC as adding ramps, not removing stairs.  If spoken language is available and useful, great—use it.  If speech is hard to access, inconsistent, tiring, unclear, or unavailable in a particular moment, AAC offers another route.

A child does not need to choose between speaking and using AAC.  Most people already communicate in multiple ways: talking, pointing, texting, waving, typing, using facial expressions, and occasionally communicating an entire paragraph through one very dramatic sigh.  AAC users deserve the same flexibility.

“But Are They Ready?”

The short answer is this: access comes before mastery.

Children do not need to prove that they are “ready” for AAC by demonstrating prerequisite skills such as matching pictures, sitting still, making eye contact, understanding every symbol, or producing a certain number of spoken words.  ASHA recommends considering AAC as early as possible when communication needs are present, and early AAC exposure can support language development and vocabulary growth.

We do not wait until a child can read before surrounding them with books.  We do not wait until a child can cook before letting them into the kitchen.  Similarly, we should not wait until a child has mastered communication before giving them access to communication tools.

What Counts as AAC?

AAC is much broader than a tablet with a voice.  People may use one communication method or a combination of methods, depending on the setting, their access needs, and what they want to say.

• Unaided AAC: Communication that does not require materials or technology.
• Examples include gestures, pointing, facial expressions, body language, signs, eye gaze, vocalizations, and meaningful movements.
• These forms can be quick, natural, and available anywhere.
• Low-tech AAC: Communication tools that do not require batteries or charging.
• Examples include picture boards, core-word boards, visual schedules, communication books, paper-based choice boards, alphabet boards, and written messages.
• Low-tech options are useful backups for high-tech systems and can be especially helpful during water play, travel, technology problems, or the dreaded “device battery at 2 percent” moment.
• High-tech AAC: Electronic tools that may produce spoken messages.
• Examples include speech-generating devices, tablets with AAC apps, dedicated communication devices, keyboard-based systems, and eye-gaze systems.
• These systems can offer extensive vocabulary, personalized messages, voice output, literacy supports, and flexible ways to communicate across settings.
• Multimodal communication: Using more than one communication method.
• A child may speak, gesture, sign, point to pictures, type, and use a device—all in the same day or even the same conversation.
• This is not confusion; it is communication flexibility.  Most people already communicate this way when they talk, text, point, wave, and use facial expressions.
• AAC supports receptive language as well as expression.
• Visual supports, symbols, schedules, and modeled words can help children understand routines, directions, choices, new vocabulary, and expectations.
• Seeing and hearing language together can make communication more accessible.
• AAC for expressive language: AAC gives people ways to share their own messages.
• It can support requesting, refusing, commenting, asking questions, telling stories, participating in class, and connecting with others.
• The goal isn’t simply for a child to press buttons correctly; it’s for them to communicate authentically.
• AAC for literacy: Robust AAC systems can support reading and writing.
• Access to letters, words, symbols, and language patterns can help children participate in literacy activities.
• Children who use AAC deserve opportunities to explore books, write messages, spell words, and develop their own voice on the page and through speech.
• AAC for self-advocacy: AAC can help people communicate needs, preferences, boundaries, and rights.
• Useful messages include “I need a break,” “Please give me more time,” “I do not understand,” “Talk to me,” and “I said no.”
• Self-advocacy is not an extra feature; it is one of the most important reasons communication access matters.

AAC can support language, literacy, participation, and communicative competence when communication partners consistently provide it and model it.

Beyond “I Want”

Requesting is useful.  Everyone should be able to ask for food, toys, breaks, music, and help.  But if AAC is only used for requests, it can become the communication equivalent of being handed a restaurant menu and told you may only order water.

Robust AAC should also support:

• Protesting: “Stop,” “No,” “Not that,” “I don’t like it”
• Social connection: “Hi,” “Look,” “Guess what,” “That’s silly”
• Sharing opinions: “Awesome,” “Boring,” “Gross,” “I disagree”
• Asking questions: “Where?” “Why?” “What happened?”
• Learning: Answering, commenting, retelling, predicting, and participating in class
• Self-advocacy: “I need more time,” “I do not understand,” “Please talk to me, not about me”
• Emotional expression: “I’m nervous,” “I’m excited,” “I’m angry,” “I need a break”
• Personality: Humor, sarcasm, storytelling, strong preferences, and perfectly timed side-eye

Communication isn’t just about meeting needs.  It is about being known.

What Parents Can Do

Parents do not need to become AAC experts overnight.  In fact, most effective AAC support happens through ordinary, repeated moments—not formal drills, flashcards, or lengthy “Say this before you get the cookie” negotiations.

Model, Don’t Quiz

Use the child’s communication system while you speak.  This is often called aided language input or AAC modeling.

If you are saying, “Let’s go outside,” touch or select “go” and “outside” on the AAC system.  If you are saying, “Wow, that was funny,” model “funny.” If your child looks like they are plotting to throw their broccoli, you might model “no,” “all done,” or “yucky.”

You do not need to model every word in a sentence.  Start with one or two meaningful words, then build over time.

Keep It Available

AAC cannot help if it is in the car, in a closet, charging in another room, or tucked safely away “so it does not get lost.” Keep the device or communication board available throughout the day, including during play, meals, schoolwork, outings, and conversations.

A device is not a reward.  It is not something a child earns after “good behavior.” It is their voice.

Honor Every Communication Attempt

Watch for gestures, body movements, signs, facial expressions, vocalizations, eye gaze, typed messages, pictures, and device selections.  Respond as though the child’s communication matters—because it does.

If a child pushes something away, pauses, reaches, looks toward an item, or uses a repeated sound, treat it as meaningful.  You can respond and model language: “You said no,” “You want more,” “You are looking at the bubbles,” or “You need help.”

Give Time

AAC communication often takes longer than speech.  After asking a question or making a comment, pause.  Resist the urge to fill the silence immediately.

A helpful rule of thumb: say less, wait more, and give the child a chance to respond in their own way.  The pause may feel long, but it creates space for communication instead of accidentally finishing every thought for them.

Include AAC in Real Life

Use AAC where life actually happens:

• At breakfast: “More,” “all done,” “hot,” “banana,” “help”
• During play: “Go,” “again,” “big,” “funny,” “my turn”
• At the store: “Look,” “want,” “not that,” “where?”
• At bedtime: “Book,” “tired,” “one more,” “tomorrow”
• During hard moments: “Break,” “stop,” “help,” “mad,” “quiet”

The goal is not perfect performance.  The goal is repeated access to meaningful language.

Resources for Parents

Below are 15 resources parents can explore.  Some offer research and professional guidance; others provide practical ideas, advocacy tools, device support, or family-centered learning.

1.  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)  

ASHA’s AAC practice portal explains what AAC is, who may benefit, and why people with communication needs should consider AAC early. It also highlights AAC’s potential role in language, literacy, and participation in communication.

2. ASHA Early Intervention AAC Resources  

This resource is especially helpful for families of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.  It explains that families can introduce AAC early and that it does not hinder speech development.

3. HealthyChildren.org from the American Academy of Pediatrics 

The AAP’s parent-facing AAC guide explains that AAC can be used at any age, including infancy and toddlerhood, and encourages families to consult experienced SLPs and early-intervention providers.

4. CommunicationFIRST  

CommunicationFIRST centers communication access as a civil-rights issue and advocates for the autonomy, dignity, and rights of people who cannot rely on speech alone.

5. CommunicationFIRST Resource Library  

Families can explore materials on communication rights, accessible participation, advocacy, and practical guidance from AAC users and allies.

6. International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC)  

ISAAC offers international AAC information, awareness materials, and opportunities to learn from AAC users, families, researchers, and professionals.  AAC Awareness Month has been internationally recognized each October since 2007.

7. United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC)  

USSAAC connects families and professionals to advocacy, awareness efforts, training, and AAC-focused events.  It is a useful starting point for finding national AAC community resources.

8. AAC Institute  

The AAC Institute provides education, research, and training related to AAC assessment and implementation.  Families may find its materials helpful when considering long-term communication support and participation.

9. AssistiveWare  

AssistiveWare offers practical AAC education, videos, articles, and parent-friendly strategies for modeling language and supporting communication in everyday routines.

10.  PRC-Saltillo  

PRC-Saltillo provides training, implementation resources, device information, and support materials for families and schools using robust AAC systems.

11.  Tobii Dynavox Learning Hub  

Families can find webinars, activities, training resources, and practical supports related to speech-generating devices, literacy, and AAC access.

12.  PrAACtical AAC  

PrAACtical AAC shares articles, implementation strategies, and free resources that help communication partners move beyond simple requesting toward richer language use.

13.  Jane Farrall Consulting  

This resource is particularly useful for families interested in robust AAC, literacy, vocabulary access, and supporting language beyond basic choice-making.

14.  Closing the Gap  

Closing the Gap offers information about assistive technology, AAC tools, webinars, and products.  It can help families compare technology options or learn about broader access supports.

15.  A Local AAC-Specialized Speech-Language Pathologist or AAC Team  

A knowledgeable speech-language pathologist can help identify communication strengths, evaluate access needs, trial systems, train communication partners, and collaborate with schools.  The AAP specifically recommends consulting professionals with AAC experience when a child is having difficulty communicating.

Questions to Ask a Team

When talking with a Speech-Language Pathologist, school team, early-intervention provider, or AAC consultant, parents may find these questions useful:

• What communication strengths is my child already showing?
• What does my child need to communicate that they cannot reliably communicate now?
• Can we trial more than one AAC option?
• Does the system include words for commenting, protesting, asking questions, socializing, and learning—not only requesting?
• How will my child access the system: touch, eye gaze, switches, keyguard, partner-assisted scanning, or another method?
• How will adults model and support AAC at home and school?
• What vocabulary will be available for classroom learning, play, routines, and relationships?
• How will AAC support literacy development?
• What happens if the device is damaged, lost, or not available?
• How will we measure progress without limiting communication to a checklist of requests?

These questions shift the conversation from “Can they use it?” to the more important question: “What supports will help them communicate most effectively?”

A Better Way to Think About AAC

AAC is not a test of intelligence.  It doesn’t prove that someone has “failed” at speech.  It is not an obstacle to connection.

AAC is a tool for access.

It gives a child more ways to say what they think, feel, know, want, reject, remember, imagine, and dream.  It gives families more chances to hear their child’s personality.  It gives educators more ways to include a student in real learning.  It gives communities a chance to listen better.

This AAC Awareness Month, let’s make one commitment: keep communication available, presume competence, model real language, and remember that every person has something worth saying.