Documentation Guidelines: Recording Responses

When requesting an accommodation to record responses, documentation should demonstrate:

• The student’s disability
• The impact of that disability on the student’s visual, fine-motor, and visual-motor integration abilities
• The impact of that disability on the student’s written expression

For Students with Physical Disabilities

Requests made on behalf of a student with physical disabilities—such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, or traumatic brain injury—should include:

• Documentation of the student’s physical disability, including a medical examination and/or occupational therapy evaluation, as appropriate
• A clear statement explaining why the student has difficulty writing and why the student needs the requested accommodation
• Descriptive information from school, which could be submitted via the Teacher Survey Form

For Students with Learning Disabilities and Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is defined as a type of disability in which students have fine-motor problems that affect their writing skills. Poor handwriting, in and of itself is not a disability. Please include:

• Documentation of a fine-motor/visual-motor problem related to the disability
• Documentation of difficulty with written expression. For students with dysgraphia, it is important to demonstrate that the fine-motor deficits impact writing ability (i.e., organization, presentation of ideas, and complex language structure)