<p>It is not clear if you have had your son tested for the variety of disabilities you are reporting. If you have not done so you need to get it done by an appropriate professional so he/she can determine what your son’s disabilities are and make recommendations for academic adjustments in college. Inclusion of proposed accommodations by the assessing professional must be clearly related to the disabilities and are very important. The disability office will play very close attention to the recommendations. The testing should be fairly recent. Make sure that the tests used are listed and that the results are discussed. The tests need to be appropriate for the disability being tested for. Make sure that the tests used are age-appropriate,i.e., he should be tested as an adult. </p>
<p>If your son is not yet in 12th grade it is possible that you can request that your local school district undertake the testing regardless of whether your son is in public school. Do that immediately. School districts do not have any obligation to test students to determine accommodations in college only for successfully completing school. </p>
<p>If you do not want to go that route, go to a private person–a testing psychologist or psychiatrist would be a good option. Do not go your GP and have them just write a note on a prescription pad. That will probably be rejected by a college as insufficient. </p>
<p>A private professional will be expensive, but it will be worth the money. Do not skimp on this. Submit the documentation early in the summer before he enters college so there will be time for you to dispute the college if they reject some or all of the proposed accommodations. Make sure that you and your son understand the procedures used by the disability office of the college and follow them. Failure to follow procedures that are reasonable and non-discriminatory could serve as the basis for a refusal to provide accommodations. It would be a mistake for your son to try and get accommodations from individual professors without providing them with a letter from the disability office. </p>
<p>If you and your son haven’t already begun this process, college is the time to let your child with a disability go as much as possible and have him become his own advocate. Have him take advantage of all the support programs, like writing and speaking clinics and counseling, that the college offers so he can succeed in the work environment once he is out of the educational system. There are very few jobs these days, and especially in the sciences, where people do not work in groups and have to get along with other people to be successful.</p>