Accommodations in Higher Education under the Americans with Disabilities Act: A No-Nonsense Guide for Clinicians, Educators, Administrators, and Lawyers

This practical manual offers essential information and guidance for anyone involved with ADA issues in higher education settings. Fundamental principles and actual clinical and administrative procedures are outlined for evaluating, documenting, and accommodating a wide range of mental and physical impairments. Contributors draw upon extensive hands-on experience with managing ADA issues. Throughout, chapters provide helpful diagnostic roadmaps, sample reports, and resource listings. Cutting through the morass of confusion surrounding current disability mandates, this book steers clear of political and ideological debates. Its balanced coverage and straightforward approach help it fill a vital need for mental health clinicians, learning disabilities and rehabilitation specialists, administrators in postsecondary institutions and testing organizations, and legal professionals.

Table of Contents:
Contents Foreword, Alta Lapoint Preface, Michael Gordon and Shelby Keiser 1. Underpinnings, Michael Gordon and Shelby Keiser 2. Documentation Requirements for Educational Accommodations: An Administrator's View, Joan M. McGuire 3. Documentation Requirements for Test Accommodations: An Administrator's View, Shelby Keiser 4. The Americans with Disabilities Act: Legal Requirements for Clinical Evaluations, James G. Frierson 5. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Michael Gordon and Kevin R. Murphy 6. Language Based Learning Disabilities, Barbara J. Lorry 7. Mood and Anxiety Disorders, Lauren Wylonis and Edward Schweizer 8. Physical Disorders, Stanley Wainapel 9. Visual Disorders, Dysfunctions, and Disabilities, David A. Damari 10. Last Words, Michael Gordon and Shelby Keiser Appendix A. The AHEAD guidelines for Learning Disabilities Appendix B. Consortium Guidelines for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

About the Author :
Michael Gordon, PhD, is a professor of psychiatry and Director of the ADHD Program at SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse, NY. His many publications include How to Operate an ADHD Clinic or Subspecialty Practice (GSI Publications, 1995). Shelby Keiser, MS, is manager of the Office of Test Accommodations at the National Board of Medical Examiners. She is a member of the AHEAD Ad Hoc Committee on Documentation of Learning Disorders and the Consortium on Documentation of ADHD, and has served as a consultant in the diagnosis and remediation of reading and learning disabilities.

Review :
This book is the perfect primer for lawyers who want to understand how the ADA applies to higher education and professional testing. It provides a crystal clear window into the identification of psychiatric, learning, and physical disorders, and should be in the library of every attorney involved with disability law. --Nancy C. Hill, Esq., Partner in the law firm of Carey, Hill & Scott, Charleston, West Virginia This book provides well-written, practical, and user-friendly guidance for professionals who deal with students claiming a need for accommodations in instruction or testing....A 'must-read' for any clinician or administrator who handles these types of student-oriented disability issues. --David K. Fram, Esq., Director, ADA & EEO Services, National Employment Law Institute This book does not shy away from the important questions, challenges, and controversies facing the accommodation process. It expands the grasp of tools available to educators and administrators committed to doing the right thing by the students and institutions they serve. --Louise Harding Russell, Director, Student Disability Resource Center, Harvard University [This book] should be essential reading for any clinician evaluating students who are requesting educational accommodations under the ADA. It provides detailed information concerning how to conduct appropriate evaluations of mental disabilities, particularly ADHD and learning disabilities, to specifically examine educational accommodation need and rationale. --John D. Ranseen, PhD - Important and timely....Gordon, Keiser, and other contributors raise the big questions that need to be asked. --Contemporary Psychology, 2/17/2000ƒƒ An exceptionally valuable resource. --Readings, 2/17/2000ƒƒ Will be of interest to anyone who is in the position of making judgments about whether a person is entitled to an accommodation under the ADA. The book is particularly useful in describing what type of background reports should be prepared to document clinical conditions and to inform applicants of an employer's disability-related decision. --ADA Update, 2/17/2000