Office of Accessibility : Student Information

Guidelines for Documentation of TBI/ABI

(Traumatic Brain Injury/Acquired Brain Injury)

Students who are seeking assistance from the Office of Accessibility based on a diagnosis of TBI/ABI must submit documentation to verify the diagnosis. The purpose of the documentation is to determine eligibility for academic accommodation(s). Eligibility to receive accommodations under Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is based upon the existence of a disorder that currently substantially limits some major life activity including learning.

The following guidelines assure that documentation verifies eligibility and adequately supports requests for reasonable accommodations, academic adjustments, and/or auxiliary aids. The Learning Disability Specialist is available to consult with the diagnostician regarding any of these guidelines (Office of Accessibility, 419.530.4981, TDD #, 419. 530.2612).

TYPES OF INFORMATION REQUIRED

• A qualified professional who has had post-doctoral training in the identification and treatment of TBI/ABI must conduct the evaluation. Examples of qualified professionals include educational psychologist with post graduate concentration in cognitive strategy development and remediation, neuropsychologist, and relevantly trained clinical psychologists, relevantly trained medical doctor or clinical team: educational, medical, and counseling professionals with training and experience in this field. It is inappropriate for professionals to evaluate members of their own family.
• All reports must be typed, dated, signed, and otherwise legible and must include the name(s), title(s), and professional credentials of the professional(s) who administered the assessments and certified the disability.
• A neuropsychological evaluation should contain assessments of intellectual, conceptual, and cognitive competence; personality; motor facility of all extremities; sensory, perceptual, and processing efficiency; visual, auditory, and tactile facility; speech, language and communication ability; and evaluation of memory and attention.
• Although evaluation techniques are implemented at the discretion of the evaluator, measures, such as the following, are expected.
  1. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS III)--preferred or
  2. Woodcock Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Cognitive
  3. Bender-Gestalt (or selected parts)
  4. Selected parts of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability (ITPA) or other psycholinguistic test
  5. Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude-4 (DTLA- 4) or Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude-Adult (DTLA-4)
  6. Luria Nebraska Battery (or selected parts);
  7. Peabody Achievement Test (PIAT) or other adult individual achievement test
  8. Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised
  9. Woodcock Johnson Psychoeducational Battery--Achievement
  10. Spache Written Language Assessment
• An interview should include a description of the presenting problem(s); developmental, medical, psychosocial and employment histories; family history (including primary language of the home and the student's current level of English fluency); and a discussion of dual diagnosis where indicated.
• An integrated summary should include
  1. The substantial limitations to major life activities posed by the specified brain injury
  2. The extent to which these limitations impact the academic context for
  3. which accommodations are being requested.
  4. Suggestions on how the specific effects of the brain injury may be accommodated
  5. Statement(s) of how the effects of the brain injury are mediated by the recommended accommodations.

Adapted from the following guidelines: The University of California at Berkeley and The University of Connecticut