Housing Accommodations

Accessible housing is available on campus.

In college, it is up to each student to decide whether to disclose his or her disability. Upon request, Alma College will provide accessible housing to individuals with mobility impairments and also provides an accessible venue for any college program scheduled to occur in college-owned housing.

Requesting Housing Accommodations

In college, it is up to each student to decide whether to disclose their disability. However, if a student would like to receive housing accommodations at Alma they must register with the Assistant Director of Student Success in the Center for Student Opportunity and provide the appropriate documentation.

1. Request Accommodations

This can be done through the Housing Accommodation Request Form or by emailing disability_services@alma.edu. Certain spaces, such as single rooms, are limited on campus. Students are encouraged to request accommodations and go through the accommodation request process at least 30 days prior to housing selection or when the accommodation is needed.

2. Submit Documentation

Documentation can be attached to the Housing Accommodation Request Form.

The documentation must come from a licensed or credentialed professional qualified to diagnose the stated disability and it must include:

A clear diagnostic statement that describes how the condition was diagnosed, provides information on the functional impact, and details the typical progression or prognosis of the condition.
A description of the diagnostic criteria, evaluation methods, procedures, tests and dates of administration, as well as a clinical narrative, observation, and specific results.
Information on how the condition currently impacts the individual and a description of any expected changes in the functional impact of the disability.
A description of current and past accommodations, services and/or medications.
Recommendations for accommodations, adaptive devices, assistive services, compensatory strategies, and/or collateral support services.

You can download a printable version of this list of documentation requirements here.

Please note: Requests for assistance animals have a different documentation requirements and process. Please see the Assistance Animal webpage for more information.

3. Discussion with the Assistant Director of Student Success about:

How your condition impacts a major life function.
Expectations of higher education including code of conduct, housing policies, etc.

Please note: For certain types of accommodation requests, such as meal plan exemptions, a meeting with additional staff, in this case the Dining Hall Manager, may be encouraged to determine if that entity can meet a student’s needs. These meetings would be set up by the Assistant Director of Student Success.

4. Determination of Reasonable Accommodations

A committee made up of Academic Support and Disability Support Services staff, Housing and Residence Life staff, and Counseling and Wellness staff will meet on a weekly basis to determine what accommodations are best. This process can take between 1-2 weeks.

Please note: At times an accommodation may be deemed reasonable but our spaces that meet that accommodation(s) are at capacity. In those cases, we will work with the student to determine other reasonable accommodations and/or put the student on a waiting list until there is an opening available.

5. Notification of Staff

The Assistant Director of Student Success will e-mail PDF copies of accommodation letters to the student’s Alma email account. They will ask permission to send accommodation letters to any necessary staff, such as Housing and Residence Life Staff or Financial Aid Staff.

6. Continued Interaction

Students are encouraged to work with the Assistant Director of Student Success at any point, but especially if they are experiencing any difficulty with their housing accommodations, have a new diagnosis to share, are experiencing different impacts due to medication changes or ongoing disability-related treatment or progression, or wish to discuss support resources that may be available to aid in their success.