Frequently Asked Questions

The Center for Accommodation and Access (CAA) is Columbus State University’s designated office to verify students’ eligibility for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The CAA assists students in developing and implementing reasonable accommodations that are specific to the individual.

We are in the Schuster Student Success Center, room 102.

We do not provide any testing at the CAA. If you are interested in being tested, we recommend contacting the CSU Counseling Center as they provide psychological testing for students.

We support all disabilities covered by the ADA. These can include (but are not limited to) physical, psychological, and medical/systematic disabilities.

We base accommodations off the documentation and self-report data the student provides during our initial meeting process. Because this process is so individualized, please contact the CAA directly for any accommodation concerns and your program coordinator will reach out to you to provide more specific information during the initial meeting process.

No. When a student submits a letter request, we provide the professors information regarding the accommodations the student has registered with our office. We provide no information to professors regarding the disability we have on file. It is up to the student to determine if they would like to disclose any information related to their disability to their professors.

How long a document is considered “current” depends on many factors, including the disability type, student’s age when written, and the type of documentation. If you have any questions regarding if documentation would need to be updated, please feel free to reach out to your program coordinator and they will be more than happy to meet with you to clarify if updated documentation is needed.

Yes, the CAA offers both temporary and provisional accommodations.

A temporary accommodation is in place for a set period due to a disability that will not be permanent, such as breaking your hand.

A provisional accommodation occurs when a student provides some documentation but needs to provide further documentation in order for their accommodations to become permanent.

Both types of accommodations expire after a set time determined by the program coordinator and student, and any further extensions of these dates must be discussed over a meeting with a program coordinator and student to determine if an extension is possible.

We do not require students to go through the entire process every semester. Once you have been registered with the CAA, all you need to do is request your instructor letters each semester you would like accommodations.

A faculty accommodation letter lists the accommodations a student has been approved for within the CAA office. Each semester, the student will request faculty notifications in MyCSU and these will be sent electronically to the faculty member with the student copied on the email.

We encourage students to use this notification as a start to a conversation with their faculty members about how best to implement the accommodations in their courses.

We recommend requesting your letters a few weeks prior to courses starting but there is not a set deadline. Students will not be able to schedule tests with accommodations without requesting faculty notification.

Faculty members are not required to grant accommodations unless they are notified. CAA does not grant retroactive accommodations.

Any receipt (digital or printed) showing proof of purchase is acceptable as long as a copy is provided to the CAA office or student’s program coordinator.