Requesting Accommodations
The Accessibility Services Office works alongside students with documented disabilities to determine reasonable campus accommodations and facilitate communication with other campus partners. Students with disabilities might register for accommodations with our office for various reasons, including learning needs, psychiatric conditions, physical limitations and medical diagnoses.
Accommodation categories
We offer reasonable accommodations for various areas of campus life; for more specific information, follow these links:
What is a reasonable accommodation?
A reasonable accommodation is a predetermined reasonable alteration or modification that allows students to have equal access to campus life and educational opportunities.
Reasonable accommodations provide equal access to education but must not interfere with academic/technical standards or essential course requirements (defined as core curriculum that students must master and that to alter would affect the integrity of the course). Accommodations must be directly linked to a student’s functional limitations as determined by a comprehensive review of documentation completed by the Accessibility Services Office.
Notably, accommodations that are determined to be proper in a high-school setting are not automatically deemed as reasonable in the higher-education setting. We will work closely with you to help determine the scope of reasonable accommodations that meet your needs in this new setting.
For more information on the differences between high school and college, please reference the table located on the For Parents page of this website.
What’s my responsibility as the student?
As a young adult who is likely learning to advocate for your disability for the first time, it is important that you are the one to initiate the registration process with our office and maintain your accommodations each semester. It is your choice whether or not to identify yourself as a student with a disability. While we advise that you contact us before you start at Merrimack, you may begin this process at any time in your college career.
It is often a big transition from high school to college. We welcome contact with your parents and families, but you are the driver in this relationship. We hope that once you establish a relationship with our friendly and helpful staff, you will feel comfortable working alongside us to learn how to advocate for all your campus needs.
Establishing a plan
Students interested in receiving an accommodation must:
Step 1
Gather up-to-date, appropriate documentation of your disability. For more information, visit one of the links above.
Step 2
Request accommodations through the appropriate online form AND submit documentation by attaching electronic documents to the form or emailing the documentation to accessibilityservices@merrimack.edu.
Step 3
Complete the process. You will be contacted by an Accessibility Services staff member to either schedule a meeting or discuss next steps.
Review process
The Accessibility Services staff will keep you informed of where you are at in the process of registering with us. Please note that your request for accommodations and documentation activates the process, but other steps are required before you are registered with Accessibility Services.
For academic accommodations, you will meet with one of our staff members to develop a plan and complete the process. For more information, visit the Academic Accommodations page on this website.
For other accommodations, visit the Medical Parking Accommodations and Medical Housing Accommodations pages.
Next steps:
For more information about your needs, follow these links: