The Ross Center for Disability Services

Documentation Guidelines

• Physical Disabilities Documentation Guidelines
• Head Injury Documentation Guidelines
• Blind/Visual Impairment Documentation Guidelines
• Deaf/Hearing Impaired Documentation Guideline
• Learning Disability Documentation Guidelines
• Attention Deficit (Hyperactive) Disorder Documentation Guidelines
• Psychiatric/Emotional Disabilities Documentation Guidelines

Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder Documentation Guidelines:

Students requesting accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act or 1973 must provide documentation of a diagnosed learning disability that limits a major life activity. Documentation and recommendations must be appropriate to the postsecondary setting. The report must describe the current impact of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder on the student’s academic performance.

Accommodations are individually determined each semester. Once the Ross Center receives documentation, it is the student’s responsibility to make an appointment with the Ross Center to discuss eligibility and receive academic accommodations that semester.

Confidentiality Statement

Ross Center for Disability Services will not release any information at any point in the disability accommodation process regarding an individual’s diagnosis or medical information without his or her informed written consent or under compulsion of legal process. Information will be released only on a “need to know” basis, except where otherwise required by law. All documentation will be stored in a secure place.

Relevant Terminology

AD/HD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder): Include but are not limited to inattention or hyperactivity-impulsivity behavior existing since childhood and persisting for at least six months to a degree that is maladaptive or immature for required academic performance. Major life activity: Examples of major life activities include walking, sitting, standing, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, caring for oneself, and performing manual tasks. Current functional limitation: A substantial impairment in an individual’s ability to function with respect to the condition, manner, or duration of a required major life activity.

Documentation Guidelines

Documentation must be current showing history: The assessment of AD/HD must be current, valid and comprehensive, and reflect present functioning. The evaluation must be completed by a qualified, licensed professional who has experience with adolescents and/or adults with AD/HD. Documentation must be typed and include the name and qualifications of the evaluator. Actual test scores and data must be provided and specify the diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Assessment instruments should be selected based on reliability and validity for use with an adult population. It is not acceptable to administer only one assessment for diagnosis. The documentation must indicate the student’s history of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, give evidence of current impairment, must give a specific diagnosis using DSM-IV criteria in 5 axes, and must contain an interpretative summary. The necessary sections of the evaluation are listed below:

Diagnostic History

• Summary of relevant historical, medical, academic, employment, and psychosocial information establishing symptoms indicative of AD/HD throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Information should consist of more than self-report and may be gathered from a resume, transcripts, teacher comments, tutoring evaluations, and/or past psycho-educational testing
  
  
• A statement of the presenting problem should be provided and include evidence of ongoing impulsive, hyperactive or inattentive behaviors that significantly impair functioning in two or more settings.
  

Relevant Assessments  

• Neuropsychological or psycho-educational testing provides information on how the disorder may impact the student’s academic achievement. Selected subtest scores from measures of intellectual ability, tests of memory, attention, tracking tests, or continuous performance tests do not in and of themselves establish the presence or absence of AD/HD.
  
  
• The data must logically reflect a substantial limitation to learning for the individual that is requesting the accommodation.
  
  
• Checklists and/or surveys may supplement the diagnostic profile, but by themselves are not adequate for the diagnosis of AD/HD.
  
  
• Information processing assessments and achievement assessments must be individually administered. Aptitude assessment / intellectual assessment scores should contain subtests of the assessment or a summary of the subtests. Recommended assessments include:  

1. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III
2. Raven’s Progressive Matrices
3. Woodcock Johnson Psycho-educational Battery-III: Test of Cognitive Ability
4. Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test, Second Edition (Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test-2)
5. Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude – Adult (DLTA-A)
6. Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test-Revised (LACT-R)

Diagnostic Reporting  

• A diagnostic summary should include specific recommendations for academic accommodations. Accommodations must be based on significant functional limitations and must be supported by the diagnostic assessment.
  
  
• The diagnostic report should include DSM-IV criteria for AD/HD both currently and retrospectively, and specify the student’s symptoms. This report should indicate clear evidence of significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning, and discuss present symptoms which do not occur exclusively during the course of a pervasive developmental disorder, schizophrenia, or other psychiatric disorder.
  
  
• Diagnostic assessment should examine the possibility of co-existing diagnoses.

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