DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES

If you have a documented disability, want to enroll in one of our classes or programs and need assistance to do so, it is your responsibility to let the IEL Disability Support Services office know your needs.

Documentation of Disablilty

Documentation requires the following information:

• The nature and the extent of the disability
• How the disability interferes with your ability to learn
• A description of the treatment plan, if any, including medications and side effects
• Suggestions regarding possible accommodations

A physician, pychologist, learning disabilities specialist or rehabilitation counselor usually provides documentation.

What Services are Available?

Reasonable accommodations are determined on an individual basis according to the needs of the student. The focus of accommodations is to provide disabled students equal access to educational opportunities. Accommodations are not additional assistance in succeeding in the coursework, but rather they are efforts to remove obstacles to learning. Examples may include, but are not limited to:

• Assistance with completing forms and paperwork
• Academic advising
• Career counseling
• Referral to resources in the IEL and in the community
• Use of assistive technologies (adaptive software, assistive listening devices, etc.)
• Priority registration
• Classroom accommodations (note takers, sign language/oral interpreters, alternate testing, etc.)

How Do I Get Services?

• Contact the DSS office directly at:

Spokane

• Paul Susac or 509.279.6037 or 509.279.6063 (TTY)
• Shannon Spangler or 509.279.6063

Colville Center

• Norma Martinek or 509.685.2122
• Jo D. Anderson or 509.279.6737

Whitman County Center

• Della Blahak or 509.332.2706 or 888.743.4767
• Contact your instructor or counselor for help making contact with the DSS office.
• Discuss your situation in a confidential interview with a DSS staff member.
• Make arrangements to furnish the required documentation of your disability.
• Upon DSS staff review of your documentation, appropriate and reasonable acommodations will be determined and implemented with our approval.
• Start the process now. In some cases it may take up to four to six weeks to make all the arrangements.

Who Will Be Able to See This Information?

All information will be kept confidential in a separate file. Only DSS staff will be able to see it without a signed release from you. Faculty and staff do not have a right to know this information; they only need to know what accommodations are appropriate to your situation.

Primary IEL contact information page.