Disability Services
It is Seattle University and Seattle University School of Law policy that no qualified person, on the basis of disability, be excluded from participation, denied benefits, or subject to discrimination in any university job, facility, program, or activity. The Law School Disability Services Office provides support for students with a wide range of needs: learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health conditions, chronic illnesses, and more. Depending on your individual needs and situation, you may be eligible for reasonable accommodations that provide you equal access to programs, services, and opportunities on campus.
Definitions and Procedures
What Is a Disability?
A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. A disability may be temporary or permanent. Major life activities include (but are not limited to): learning; reading; writing; computing; focusing/thinking; communicating; sleeping; breathing; eating/digestion.
Disability and diagnosis are not synonymous. Not everyone with a diagnosed condition is disabled by it, and not all disabilities result in a substantial limitation or impairment that requires accommodation.
If you are experiencing a challenge with major life activities while in law school, we encourage you to learn more about our office and applying for accommodations. You can apply for accommodations at any point during the year, though some accommodations may have priority deadlines for timely implementation.
What Is the Purpose of Disability Accommodations in Law School?
If you have a newly diagnosed disability, you might be wondering what receiving accommodations entails, and if you have received disability accommodations in the past, you may be accustomed to things being done in a different way.
For those students who have disabilities that require accommodation, our purpose is to assist you in getting equitable access to your law school education. This is different, however, from the purpose of accommodations in primary and secondary education. While in elementary school and high school, the goal of accommodations is to help you be as successful as possible, at the university and postgraduate level, the goal is to ensure equal access and level the playing field.
When Should I Apply for Disability Accommodations?
Students with disabilities can apply for accommodations at any time – it is never too late; however, it is your responsibility to provide us with adequate notice of your disabilities and anticipated need for accommodations. In addition, to allow sufficient time for implementation, exam accommodation requests must be submitted no later than November 1 for fall semester finals, or April 1 for spring semester finals.
What Is the Typical Accommodations Process?
There are five stages to the accommodations process:
- Application
- Intake Assessment
- Accommodations Confirmation and Notification
- Intermittent Accommodations Activation
- Preparation for MPRE and Bar Accommodation Requests
Application:
To submit an application for accommodation, please complete the School of Law Disability Accommodation Request Form.
Students requesting accommodation are required to provide appropriate documentation for the disability from a qualified diagnostician that establishes the nature of the disability and provides evaluative data supporting the current need for accommodations and a listing of recommended services.
- The documentation must include:
- A statement identifying the nature of the disability experienced by the student;
- A description of the type of evaluation methods or procedures used, the results, and the date of the evaluation;
- A description of the current functional impacts(s) of the disability; and
- The credentials of the diagnosing professional(s).
- Cost and responsibility for providing the evaluation are borne by the student.
You may request an intake appointment while you are still in the process of obtaining the above documentation, but you will ultimately need to submit the required documentation in order to receive permanent accommodations at the law school.
Intake Assessment:
After submission of the application, you will be routed to a link to set up an intake appointment with Mr. Alex Mentkowski or Dean Erin Fullner.
The intake appointment is an initial meeting where we will discuss your condition and how it impacts you, as well as talk about the documentation you have provided. We will discuss possible options for accommodations and/or additional information the Law School Disability Services office may need. We will also outline how accommodations are handled generally within the law school, as this may be different from how things were done at your previous educational institutions.
Depending on the type of condition you have, and/or how in-depth your documentation is, we may also do pre-counseling to discuss the documentation standards necessary to receive accommodations on the MPRE and Washington State Bar Exam. For a preview of those standards, please review the Bar Exam and MPRE Accommodations Information and Certification Request Form
After engaging in an interactive process, Mr. Mentkowski or Dean Fullner will determine if accommodations are necessary and identify effective reasonable accommodation. Please note that the law school is not required to make academic adjustments or program modifications that are essential to the program of instruction or that fundamentally alter the nature of the program, goods, or services, or that create an undue burden for the law school.
Accommodations Confirmation and Notification
After your intake meeting, you will be sent a confirmation notice from Mr. Mentkowski that details any accommodations that you have been granted, and any conditions on those accommodations. Depending on the accommodation, you might also receive a supplementary notice that has additional instructions or information on how the accommodation is facilitated.
If necessary, a notification is also sent to appropriate third parties who are involved in facilitating and implementing your accommodations. This information is provided on a "need-to-know" basis – only those individuals who need to know about your accommodations will be told, and only the minimum information necessary to effectively assist you will be shared. Most often, those are the following individuals:
- All accommodations: Alex Mentkowski, Disability Services Coordinator and Erin Fullner, Associate Dean for Student Development
- Exam-related accommodations: Sheila Underwood, Registrar and Assistant Dean; Blake Stemen, Assistant Registrar; and Sam Jones, Assistant Registrar of Operations & Systems
- In-class accommodations: faculty member teaching the relevant course
- Facilities-related accommodations: H Juul, Senior Director for Finance & Administration and Loren Wells, Director of Information Technology
Intermittent Accommodations Activation
If you have received classroom accommodation that involves intermittent use, you will be instructed to forward your accommodation notice right away to the faculty members who are teaching you that semester. Hold onto this notice; you will need to forward it to your professors at the start of each term going forward.
After that initial notice to your faculty, you must email the professor with a copy the SULawAccom email address any time you need to use the intermittent accommodation.
An example of intermittent accommodation is attendance consideration. If a student has an attendance related accommodation, they must notify their faculty at the start of the semester (or when they first receive the accommodation, if it is approved mid-semester) and must email their professor and SULawAccom each time they use the accommodation.
Preparation for MPRE and Bar Accommodation Requests
The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) and individual state bars have their own requirements, processes, and timelines for disability accommodations requests. While the Law School Disability Services Office will provide certification notices of the accommodations a student has received while in law school and may be able to provide resources about relevant providers, we have no additional involvement in the MPRE or bar exam accommodation application process itself. It is your responsibility to initiate timely accommodation requests through the NCBE and state bars, and to obtain and provide any documentation required by those bodies. Because requirements, processes, and timelines vary from state to state, students are encouraged to research what they will need for their state bar of choice early in their law school education. It is also recommended that you meet with Mr. Mentkowski as early in your law school education as possible, since some examining bodies require substantial documentation and testing that can take a significant amount of time.
Information about applications for accommodations on the MPRE and bar, as well as the process for requesting certification notices from our office, are available here: Bar Exam and MPRE Accommodations Information and Certification Request Form
Physical Accessibility to Sullivan Hall
If an accommodation request relates to facilities or physical accessibility to Sullivan Hall, the student should contact the Senior Director for Finance and Administration, Mx. H Juul.
