How to Register with DS

Disability Services (DS) determines accommodations that promotes equal access to all university programs and activities for students with disabilities. If you are a student in need of accommodations, please complete the registration process below.

What Type of Documentation Should I Provide?

Your accommodation request may affect what type of documentation is needed.

Please read below to review what type of documentation is needed for your accommodation request. 

  • Types of academic accommodations include but are not limited to:

    • Extended time on examinations
    • Reduced distraction environment for testing
    • Note-taking assistance
    • Alternative format text
    • Assistive technology
    • Special Groups (Early) Registration for classes
    • Preferential seating in the classroom

    Documentation is recommended to include relevant information from external sources can help to substantiate the presence of a disability and the need for accommodations. This information should provide evidence of the functional limitations of the disability and their impact on the student’s life. Criteria for the source, scope, and content of documentation differ by disability type. 

    Documentation may include assessments, reports, and/or letters from qualified health care providers, psychologists, or diagnosticians, and/or information from a previous school (e.g., 504 plan, IEP, or ARD documents). In order to ensure an objective assessment, the professional completing the evaluation must be an impartial individual who is not related to the student.

    Students may provide a Disability Summary Report Form to be completed and signed by a qualified healthcare professional. DS asks qualified healthcare professionals to fax the completed form to the our office at 512-245-3452.

    1. Securely submit an Emotional Support Animal Information Form completed by a mental health care provider. 
    2. Securely provide documentation from a veterinarian stating that the animal is in good health and up-to-date on its vaccinations.

    Please Note: If an ESA is approved, then DS will provide a notification of approval to TXST’s department of Housing and Residential Life (HRL). You will need to meet with a HRL representative before bringing your ESA into on-campus university housing.

    While your documentation may indicate a need for an ESA, certain animals may not be suitable for on-campus university housing (e.g., reptiles). If an ESA is not approved or additional documentation is needed, then DS will notify you via email. 

  • Documentation must be relevant to the housing request. It is recommended to include relevant information from external sources can help to substantiate the presence of a disability and the need for their housing accommodation request. 

    This information should provide evidence of the functional limitations of the disability and their impact on the student’s life on-campus. Criteria for the source, scope, and content of documentation differ by disability type. 

    Documentation may include assessments, reports, and/or letters from qualified health care providers, psychologists, or diagnosticians. In order to ensure an objective assessment, the professional completing the evaluation must be an impartial individual who is not related to the student.

    Students may provide a Disability Summary Report Form to be completed and signed by a qualified healthcare professional. DS asks qualified healthcare professionals to fax the completed form to our office at 512-245-3452.

  • Types of accommodations for Deaf/Hard of Hearing students include but are not limited to:

    • Sign language interpreting services
    • Captioning (speech-to-text) services

    The criteria used by DS to determine if interpreting or real time captioning services is a reasonable accommodation for an individual student may include but is not limited to:

    1. It is required to provide results of the student’s most recent audiological evaluation (within the last 3 years) documenting the nature and severity of the hearing loss in order to receive services,
    2. Age of onset of the student’s hearing loss and type of loss,
    3. The student’s ability to benefit from accommodations such as preferential seating and amplification with an FM system,
    4. The student’s previous experience using sign language or oral interpreters.
    5. The student’s English literacy skills. For captioning services, English proficiency should be sufficient to allow for reading and comprehension of the captioned text of the lecture.

If you do not have a copy of the requested documentation, you can complete a Consent for Release of Confidential Information Form, and the DS can request this information on your behalf. Please fill out your name, on-campus or off-campus provider information, and the signature portion at the bottom. You may email the completed form to our office to be faxed to your listed provider.

For further information, please review our documentation guidelines.

Please Note: Because email is not considered a protected form of communication, please do not email any confidential information or documentation to the office.

After registration is completed,

Remember To Request Your Semesterly Accommodation Letter

Students who have officially registered with DS and who need academic accommodations or auxiliary aids should request their accommodation letters each semester. To request their accommodation letter, students will need to complete the accommodation letter request process.