Disability & Testing Services FAQs

Yes!  While our physical offices are on the Klamath Falls and Portland-Metro campuses, we support and provide accommodation to students at all of our campuses: Klamath Falls, Portland-Metro, Chemeketa, Online Learning, and Seattle.  Our staff is able to meet in-person (campus specific) as well as virtually through Video Call or over the phone to support students from different geographical areas.

Disability & Testing Services does not offer tutoring on course content or academic skills. However, we strongly encourage students to visit and explore Peer Tutoring available on the Klamath Falls and Portland-Metro campuses, as well as online!  Peer Tutoring coordinates free drop-in tutoring for all students. For more information visit Peer Tutoring website.

Disability & Testing Services does not offer any scholarships at this time. However, we encourage students to visit the Financial Aid website for information on available scholarships and other sources of funding.  We also encourage students to check for external scholarships available for students with disabilities.

You can contact Oregon Tech's ADA Compliance Officer by emailing our office: access@oit.edu 

It is helpful if you include details such as:

• Which Oregon Tech campus and the location/building on campus
• The date and time you noticed the accessibility concern
• Any other pertinent information that will help us address the concern 

For elevator issues on:

• Klamath Falls campus: contact Campus Safety at 541-885-1117
• Portland-Metro campus: contact the CIC Desk at 503-821-1250

For the Klamath Falls campus, provide the building and/or location of the elevator that is experiencing the issue so that Campus Safety can provide you with assistance.

If the elevator outage is impacting your ability to attend class, communicate that with the staff person and they can provide assistance.

We can provide temporary accommodation for students who have experienced an injury that is likely to heal (ex. broken arm/leg/limb; surgery recovery; concussion/TBI, etc.).  Students with temporary need still need to go through our interactive process.  To expedite the process, ensure that your documentation outlines the nature of the injury, the impact it is causing on your daily life activities, and the anticipated recovery time.  

Yes!  Through collaboration with other higher education institutions, we have crafted a document that highlights the differences between high school and college accommodations.  We recommend visiting our Parents & Supporters page for some examples.

We recommend starting the process at least several weeks before the start of a term.  If starting in a Fall Term, we recommend starting the process in July or August, as that provides the most time for us to ensure that any approved accommodation can be implemented by the start of the Fall Term (typically late September/early October).  The closer we get to the start of the term, the busier we get and the increased possibility that we may not be able to meet with you and have accommodation approved/implemented by the start of the term.

If starting at Oregon Tech for Winter Term (January), Spring Term (March), or Summer Term (June), we recommend starting the process at least three weeks prior to the start of the term to account for holidays and breaks.

It can vary but typically it can take only 3-7 days if everything we need is provided and the student schedules an appointment quickly.  Variables that can impact the timeline include:

• Not having complete or sufficient documentation - if we need more details or additional documentation, that will likely result in more time.  If at all possible, attaching complete documentation is ideal for increasing the efficiency of our process.  If you have any questions about documentation, we are happy to help provide guidance.
   
• Not responding to the scheduling invitation - if a student doesn't schedule promptly after receiving the meeting invitation, that will result in more time.  There have been some students who have scheduled for the next day (after receiving the meeting invitation) and had the process completed in 2 days - start to finish.  There have also been other students who scheduled 3-4 weeks after receiving the meeting invitation and the process took over a month for them - start to finish.
   
• Starting the process during a busy time (ex. week before the start of a term or in the first few weeks of a term) - the week before the start of a term and into the first few weeks of the term are often busy times for our office and staff.  The summer months are the best time to connect with our office, especially late July and throughout August when Summer Term is already underway.  Once we reach September, the closer we get to the start of Fall Term, the busier we get and the less availability we may have.
   
• Staff availability - accommodation meetings are only a part of our responsibilities and there are times during the term that we are busier with other responsibilities and may have less availability.  The summer months (late July through August) are the best times to meet with our office.  The week before a term and the first few weeks of a term tend to be our busiest time when we have less availability.

When meeting with our staff to have accommodation requests evaluated, the initial meeting is scheduled for one hour however, the average is probably closer to 45 minutes.  We recommend planning for an hour so that we can ensure that we cover everything we need to cover, address all of your questions, and provide you with everything you need to know.  We are available for initial appointments in-person (campus specific), virtual over Teams Video Call, or by phone - so, when invited to make that appointment, we strongly recommend scheduling your appointment at a time when you have the full hour available just in case it is needed.

Subsequent appointments, if needing to discuss accommodation questions, are scheduled for 30 minutes but can vary depending on the topic(s) the student is wanting to discuss. 

Absolutely!  We are happy to partner with parents/guardians/supporters in an effort to provide a more holistic support. However, while you can have anyone you want join in the conversation, it is important that we are having the conversation with you: the student.  We believe in developing and encouraging self-advocacy skills and encourage students to speak for themselves through our conversations.

No - all students need to engage in our interactive process for accommodation approval through our office.

Accommodation is approved on a case-by-case basis designed to address the individual, unique barriers the student is experiencing, so it is difficult to state "common accommodations".  That said, we approve academic accommodation - with examples including classroom access, testing, etc. - as well as non-academic accommodation - with examples being housing, dietary/nutrition, etc.  Academic accommodation tends to be more common.

It may be possible to receive an accommodation for Financial Aid, however, the student's documentation must speak directly to that impact.  Additionally, there may be restrictions on what is possible as there are different aid types with different requirements (ex. institutional aid has different requirements than federal aid).

Yes, we do provide Housing Accommodation for students with a disability-related need.  Housing Accommodation goes through the same process as academic accommodation.  It is important that documentation for Housing Accommodation specifically states the disability-related impact in the housing environment.  Housing Accommodation is only provided to students on the Klamath Falls campus as our other campuses (Portland-Metro, Chemeketa, Seattle, and Online Learning) do not have university housing.

We don't have an accommodation for a private room/space for student testing.  We have a Reduced Distraction Environment (RDE) accommodation that is designed to reduce the auditory and visual distractions that might exist in other environments (ex. the classroom, library, common areas, etc.).  The RDE accommodation is not for a specific place and can be met in several environments including: campus Testing Center, adjacent empty classroom, faculty member's office, reserved conference room, etc.

No - while your approved accommodation remain active and approved as long as you are a student at Oregon Tech, students have the responsibility to declare each term what accommodation (if any) they are using in their course(s).  They do not get applied to your courses automatically.

No, you are not required to use your approved accommodation.  However, accommodation is not retroactively applied and we strongly encourage students to review course syllabi to make an informed decision on what approved accommodation they want to use in a course, if any.  You can indicate in AIM that you are not needing to use your accommodation in a course, if you decide that you do not need the accommodation.  You can also modify that selection throughout the term, if you change your mind.  As a reminder, though, the accommodation is not retroactively applied, so if you wait until midterm (or later) to decide to use an approved accommodation, it can only be applied to future events and not tasks or exams, etc., that have already happened.

No - if you are using an approved accommodation in a class, we recommend making that notification early in the term and having a conversation with your instructor at the start of the term about how the approved accommodation will be implemented in their class.  This helps reduce or eliminate miscommunications or misunderstandings around the use of some accommodation.  Your instructor cannot deny you the use of your approved accommodation.

If an instructor has a concern that an approved accommodation creates a fundamental alteration to their course's learning objectives, they have a process they follow to have the claim reviewed by a committee.

Non-academic accommodation is any accommodation outside of the classroom or academic environment.  It can include housing accommodation, campus/building access accommodation, etc.  Non-academic accommodation requests go through the same process as academic accommodation.

We do not have an accommodation for a specific placement.  All of our residential buildings are able to meet our housing accommodation - like a Single Room or proximity to a kitchen/bathroom, etc.  Therefore, we defer to the Housing & Residence Life (HRL) office to find a space that is available that will meet the approved accommodation.  You can always communicate a preference to the HRL office, but the accommodation does not guarantee that the preference will be met. 

Yes - while our office receives and processes accommodation requests (both academic and non-academic) year-round, the Housing & Residence Life (HRL) office has deadlines for housing requests.  We recommend checking their website or contacting their office for any applicable deadlines.  If you request and are approved for a Housing Accommodation (that impacts your housing placement) after that deadline, you will go onto their waitlist, and the HRL office will communicate your status and placement on their list.

An individual who uses a Service Animal is not required to register the animal with our office. However, students are strongly encouraged to register with us so that the presence of the animal on campus is documented as part of approved accommodation and we can provide better support for you and your Service Animal.  For example: if residing in campus housing, if we know a student is using a Service Animal, that can be communicated to the Housing & Residence Life office to reduce the risk of having the Service Animal interact with another student's Emotional Support Animal. 

The Emotional Support Animal (ESA) accommodation is an approved accommodation to a student's housing environment.  ESAs are not granted the same protections as Service Animals and have different restrictions on where they are permitted.