Office of Disability Accommodation Support Processes

Requesting Academic Accommodations

The Office of Disability Accommodation Support (ODAS) exists to provide online students with disabilities equal access in their courses.

If you are an online student with a documented disability and would like to receive academic accommodations, please complete the following steps:

1. The student must apply to, and be accepted by, Liberty University Online. The application process with ODAS cannot begin until you have been accepted into the university.
2. Set up an LU Accommodate account with ODAS in order to officially notify the university of his or her disability and need for accommodations. 
3. The student must submit appropriate and comprehensive medical documentation to the ODAS staff through their LU Accommodate account. As different conditions call for different specifications in medical documentation, we have provided you with a list of documentation requirements for many of the major categories of impairments, disabilities, and chronic illnesses. Please refer to these requirements for your specific area of need when sending in medical documentation, and be sure that all criteria are met before having your doctor submit the medical documentation. The ODAS staff will need to be informed of your condition so that they can offer an appropriate response regarding your specific medical documentation requirements.
   • Should you have multiple disabilities that cover a range of areas, be sure to include the appropriate information for each of these areas.
   • Should your specific area of need not be covered in any of the documentation requirements, please contact our office for the requirements of your medical documentation.
   • Finally, if you have any questions or concerns regarding the acceptability of your medical documentation, what some of the requirements mean, or what category your impairment, disability or chronic illness may fall under, please feel free to contact the ODAS office by email (preferred) at luoodas@liberty.edu or speak to an academic advisor over the phone by calling (800) 424-9595. Our office strives for a 24-48 hour response time for all students, with the exception of weekends and holidays. Please wait until after 2 business days have passed before contacting our staff again regarding the same issue.
4. Once medical documentation is received, the ODAS staff will review, verify, and assess the documentation. If further information is needed or if the documentation submitted is insufficient, the student will be notified. After the review process is complete, the ODAS staff will determine what academic accommodations, if any, a student is eligible to receive.
5. If a student is eligible to receive academic accommodations in his or her classes, the ODAS staff will send the student an email requiring his or her signature to confirm that the correct accommodations have been sent to his or her instructors. This email will inform the student of what accommodations he or she is eligible to receive, as well as what his or her responsibilities are for receiving the accommodations each subterm.
   • The student must sign and return it to the ODAS staff before accommodations can be made effective. By signing, the student acknowledges that he or she is responsible to complete the expected requirements by their due dates in order to receive academic accommodations.
   • Academic accommodations cannot be backdated for courses already in progress or completed. If sufficient notice is not given to the ODAS staff for special accommodations such as an alternate format for textbooks or transcripts for audio files once a student goes on file, these accommodations may be withheld until a later semester when sufficient notice is provided.

Receiving Academic Accommodations

1. The student must first complete the requirements listed above in the Requesting Academic Accommodations section.
2. Each subsequent semester, a student requesting academic accommodations is required to fill out a “Semester/Term Request” in LU Accommodate in order for his or her accommodations to be linked to that semester’s courses. The student is encouraged to follow up with faculty regarding details of the accommodation letter (i.e. modified attendance or a make-up test) and self-advocate as needed. 
3. Once the required information is received by ODAS staff by the required due date, the staff will notify the appropriate parties (i.e., publishers, professors, etc.) to ensure that the student receives his or her accommodations. The ODAS staff is not responsible if a student does not receive academic accommodations in his or her classes due to the student’s failure to notify them of the necessary information by the required due date (i.e., transcript requests two months in advance, accommodation requests one week in advance, etc.).
4. If the student’s medical condition changes, it is the student’s responsibility to notify the ODAS staff as soon as possible.
5. In accordance with Section 504, medical documentation will be reviewed on a regular basis. If the documentation is outdated or if further information is required at that time, the student will be notified. The student will also be notified if, during the review process, any changes are made to the student’s academic accommodations.