Tips for Freshmen Parents
High Point University > Office of Accessibility Resources and Services > Tips for Freshmen Parents

How to Prepare Your Student for Freshman Year

  1. Ensure your student understands their disability and functional limitations.
  2. Practice/Role Play with your student so they are comfortable discussing their needs openly and independently.
  3. Encourage your student to become a self-advocate by doing the following:
    1. Allow your student to independently initiate the OARS process.
    2. Allow your student to take the lead in the OARS Intake Meeting.
    3. Parents should offer encouragement and advice to the student.  Please note that OARS can only act upon the student’s request and information shared by the student.
    4. Respect your student if they choose not to request accommodations.
  4. Help your student understand the OARS process.
  5. Encourage your student to explore academic survival skills (time management, study skills, goal setting, etc.).
  6. Encourage your student to explore shared living strategies (managing roommate expectations, conflicts, etc.)
  7. Explore assistive technologies with the student.
  8. Work to identify resources and establish routines that promote academic success.

Important Transition Points to Consider

  • OARS cannot provide accommodations for limitations related to lack of time management, lack of study skills, lack of social skills, etc.
  • Be mindful that HPU OARS typically does not provide a human reader for tests or a human scribe for note-taking.  If this is something your student is accustomed to, this will be a huge change for them at the college level.
  • OARS anticipates that a student is practicing appropriate self-accommodation strategies, such as taking medications to mitigate the impact of the disability, participating in counseling to manage mental health challenges, etc.
  • A person with a disability is “qualified” with respect to postsecondary education services if the person meets the academic and technical standards requisite to admission or participation in the recipient’s education program or activity.  34 C.F.R. § 104.3(l)(3). The qualified student engages fully in the entire accommodations process.

Question to Consider: Is my child ready for college?

For many bright-eyed college-bound students, the prospect of living away from home for the first time, meeting new friends, finding a brand-new rhythm from what they have known, is like planning a trip to Disney World.  The anticipation of the fun and adventure among other people with at least one similar interest much more outweighs the hassle of navigating through an airport, being pressed into a full airplane, and the very, very long lines to their favorite rides, not including the hassle of traveling back to the reality of home, where dreams are often hard-earned (no fairy dust involved).  Preparation and even determining eligibility (if you can afford it or if you can stay 2 or 6 days, etc.) comes into play.  You may find yourself in a similar framework around preparing your child for college.

Is my child academically, socially, mentally, and emotionally ready for the step to collegiate aspiration?  The following articles present competencies necessary for persistence and success in the college setting.

College Readiness & Executive Functioning: Is Your Student Ready for College?

Is My Teen Academically Prepared for College?  How to Know.

Is My Child with Depression Ready To Go To College?

Important terms and concepts

Term/Concept

Definition and how it applies to OARS
Equal Access The same opportunity as others
 Disability Under the ADA, a person is considered disabled if they:

  • Have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities (e.g., eating, sleeping, learning, concentration, breathing, communication).
  • Have a record of such an impairment.
  • Is regarded as having such impairment.
Functional Limitation
  • Reported level of difficulty in a major life activity that results in the inability to access or perform an essential component of a course, activity, or program.
  • OARS primarily uses CURRENT functional limitations identified by the student and/or doctor to inform reasonable accommodation decisions.
Barrier to Equal Access
  • A part of the institution’s program or environment that prevents a student with disabilities access to the same instruction and opportunities as their peers who do not require accommodations.
  • If OARS can identify (with the student) disability-related functional limitations connecting to a barrier that needs to be removed, a reasonable accommodation will be approved as a path to equal access.
  • Accommodations may not be appropriate if there are no institutional barriers to remove.
  • In every higher education institution, there are necessary barriers embedded in the programs in the form of tests, technical standards of each course, etc. that may not be removed.  For example, a request for exemption from tests would not be a reasonable accommodation, as this is a fundamental part of the course.
Interactive Process A meaningful, individualize conversation between the student, the OARS Specialist, and as necessary other HPU Staff and/or faculty to establish disability-related functional limitations that warrant the removal of an institutional barrier through reasonable accommodations.
Fundamental Alteration
  • A modification/change to an essential component of a course expectation or program.
  • If a requested accommodation is found to be a fundamental alteration, it will not be approved and/or implemented.