What Services Can Students With Disabilities Get In College?
Updated: November 20, 2025. Reviewer: Dr. Rose Sebastian, Ed.D.
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Transitioning to College With an IEP
Many students with disabilities go on to college. Some transition after having a 504 in high school. Some transition after having had an IEP with a case manager and, at times, other service providers.
No matter what type of supports they had in high school, in college they will be on whatever that college calls their 504 plan. That’s because IDEA, the law behind IEPs and that provides for special education teachers, stops when students graduate high school.
College students get support under a different law– Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. That is the law behind 504 plans. It does not provide for direct services but it does provide for accommodations.
That’s why college students get disability accommodation letters that say things like, “Time and a half on tests,” or “Can take tests in a separate setting.” But many college students do not get a case manager.
Some college fund tutoring or drop in centers to better support college students with disabilities. That is not a requirement of 504– which means that it is up to colleges what they want to, and can afford, to provide.
If you want those services in college, you need to be proactive and ask about disability services before you commit to a school– because anything beyond accommodations is not guaranteed by law.
What Happens to IEPs and 504s in College
What 504 Says & Means
The language of 504 is: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 705 (20) of this title, shall, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
What it means is that it is against the law for any institution that receives federal funding to keep people from participating in their program because of their disability. So if you needed extra time to succeed on your test because of your disability, you get that. If you need access to an elevator to get into the building, you get that (you also get that under ADA, because… well laws overlap).
What 504 Gets You in a College Classroom
504 does not get you services like a tutor or case manager. It gets you protection from discrimination.
In practice, that means the same type of accommodations that students in 504 plans get in high school. Each university will phrase them differently but normally that means a choice from accommodations such as:
- Extra time on tests or assignments
- Excused absences for disability related appointments
- Access to slideshows, if not already provided by the professor
- Copies of peers’ or professors’ notes
- Breaks as needed during class (note that this and preferential seating are quite useless at colleges and so rarely appear on accommodation letters)
If a student is blind, Deaf, visually impaired, or hearing impaired, 504 includes more.
What 504 Covers for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students
There is another key provision of 504 that applies to students who are hearing impaired or Deaf. The law says, “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 705 (20) of this title, shall, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
That means that, if universities are not already partnering with vocational rehabilitative services for ASL interpreters, they need to provide that service for students who need it. The university also needs to support FM systems and other technologies that DHH students need.
What 504 Covers for Visually Impaired and Blind Students
That same section of 504 also applies to students who are visually impaired. In 1998, the federal government released a statement on higher ed’s obligations under 504 that reads, “It is, therefore, the school’s responsibility to provide these auxiliary aids and services in a timely manner to ensure effective participation by students with disabilities.”
The statement then lists auxiliary aids and services that colleges need to provide for educational access. These include– copied directly from their website:
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How Students Get Disability Services in College
IDEA requires child find. That means that, in K-12, schools are legally required to seek out students with disabilities.
That is not true in college. Colleges have no legal obligation to find students with disabilities and serve them.
That means that it is up to students. Students have to go to disability services and request supports. The university will ask for proof of disability and have information on what qualifies a student for services at that college.
Because, you guessed it, qualifying is different from the K-12 world.
What Counts as a Qualifying Disability in College?
The short answer is, ask disability services at your college.
The slightly longer answer is that you need to have “a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities;” Each of those terms is defined below. But, in practice, what it means is that you need to have a disability like ADHD or Autism or diabetes AND proof of it. What counts as proof will vary school to school but a doctor’s note, 504 plan from high school, or IEP plan are generally accepted.
The text of 504 says:
Handicapped individual
(a) Handicapped individual means any person who—
(1) Has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities;
(2) Has a record of such an impairment; or
(3) Is regarded as having such an impairment.
(b) As used in the proceeding paragraph of this section, the phrase:
(1) Physical or mental impairment means—
(i) Any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the following body systems: neurological; musculoskeletal; special sense organs; respiratory, including speech organs; cardiovascular; reproductive; digestive; genito-urinary; hemic and lymphatic; skin; and endocrine;
(ii) Any mental or psychological disorder, such as mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities.
(iii) The term physical or mental impairment includes but is not limited to such diseases and conditions as orthopedic, visual, speech and hearing impairments, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, muscular distrophy, multiple sclerosis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental retardation, emotional illness, and drug addiction and alcoholism.
(2) Substantially limits means the degree that the impairment affects an individual becoming a beneficiary of a program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or affects an individual’s employability. A handicapped individual who is likely to experience difficulty in securing or retaining benefits or in securing, or retaining, or advancing in employment would be considered substantially limited.
(3) Major life activities means functions such as caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, and receiving education or vocational training.
(4) Has a record of such an impairment means that the individual has a history of, or has been misclassified as having, a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more life activity.
(5) Is regarded as having such an impairment means that the individual—
(i) Has a physical or mental impairment that does not substantially limit major life activities but that is treated by a recipient as constituting such a limitation;
(ii) Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits major life activities only as a result of the attitudes of others toward such impairment; or
(iii) Has none of the impairments defined in paragraph (b)(1) of this section but is treated by a recipient as having such an impairment.
Can a College Reject My IEP?
This is another big question. Sadly, the answer is yes. If your testing has not been done in the three years before college and you are trying to get services through an educational disability (like a learning disability), a college has the right to ask for more recent assessments. And then you have to pay for them.
What this means is that if you are planning to go to college, do NOT waive your 3 year re-eval at your high school. You need the new data for college.
Maybe your college won’t require it but privately paid for evaluations cost in the thousands. Don’t gamble with that much money– ask for re-evaluations in high school.
But My College Has More Services Than That!
Many colleges do more than the law requires. The law requires extra time, not tutoring or extra supports.
If those supports are important to you, ask when you are looking at college. Advocate for yourself and ask what types of services they offer for students with disabilities.
The more you self-disclose, the more you can learn. Do they have quieter dorm room options for students with Autism? Is there a fast-track into counseling for students with severe anxiety?
Ask questions before day 1 of school so that there are no surprises. Because the law requires very, very little. And beyond the law, what colleges do is up to them. Navigating college with a disability requires self-advocacy.
