Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of our frequent questions- for further information, reach out to our office at 601.266.5024 or by email at sasFREEMississippi.
Student Accessibility Services (SAS) is Southern Miss’s designated office to verify students’ eligibility for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). SAS assists eligible students on an individual basis to develop and coordinate plans for the implementation of reasonable accommodations that are specific to their disabilities. Reasonable accommodations are offered in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Student Accessibility Services (SAS) assists students with learning disabilities (reading, writing, and math), mobility impairments, systemic or chronic illnesses and injuries, psychiatric impairments (including anxiety and depression), ADHD or ADD, hearing impairments, visual impairments, temporary disabilities and pregnancies.
If you are unsure if your disability or medical condition is covered, please contact our office at 601.266.5024 or sas@usm.edu.
1. Complete the Student Accessibility Services (SAS) Online Application.
2. Submit documentation of a disability diagnosis to our office. Documentation may be uploaded online when completing the application. Alternatively, it may be sent after completing our application in the following ways: email at sas@usm.edu, fax to 601.266.6035, delivered in person to the SAS offices on the Hattiesburg campus (Bond Hall, room 114), or mailed to the following address:
Student Accessibility Services
118 College Drive, Box #8586
Hattiesburg, MS 39406
3. Once approved, students will be contacted directly via USM email and phone to schedule an intake appointment with our office.
Students may register with SAS at any time during their academic career at USM. Students must first be fully enrolled at USM to register with SAS.
It is recommended that incoming freshmen and transfer students register with SAS before their first semester classes begin.
If you are requesting a housing accommodation, it is recommended to contact our office as soon as you are eligible to register for housing.
The documentation should be a letter (Five [5] years old or less) from a certified medical provider that states the disability diagnosis, any medications taken and any recommended accommodations, such as extended test time for exams. The medical documentation should be typed, on the doctor's letterhead and signed/dated by your doctor.
If you have a learning disability in a specific area (such as reading, writing, math, etc.) we will need your test scores and full psychometry report that is no more than 3 years old.
While IEPs or 504 Plans can be useful for our office in determining reasonable accommodations for students, our office does not accept either in lieu of documentation from a certified medical provider.
Please contact our office if you need further clarification on this.
Students who are 18 years old or older are legally recognized as adults. In this case, the student is responsible for their own accommodation requests and disability-related decisions. However, students are encouraged to have an open dialog with their parents. Parents can be a wonderful source of support.
Academic accommodations include, but are not limited to, extended test-taking time, ASL interpreters, captioning, notetaking services, readers, alternative formats of course materials, preferential seating and assistive technology. SAS also assists students with housing accommodations.
Students should follow the same application process for an ESA. In addition to the application, the University ESA form must be filled out in its entirety by someone licensed in the state of MS, or the student’s home state if that is a different state. This form must be submitted to both Student Accessibility Services and Housing and Residence Life.
ESAs are also known as comfort or assistance animal and they provide companionship, comfort, and may help to alleviate the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Emotional support animals are not limited to dogs, as are service animals. Emotional support animals can be any animal that does not create a danger or hazard to the living environment or to those residing in the living environment.
Where can a Service Animal or an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) be excluded?
Service animals and emotional support animals or comfort animals can only be excluded from an allowable environment if:
- The handler is not in full control of the animal. A service animal must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered while in a public place, except when the use of such hinders or interferes with the duties of the service animal. In these situations, the handler must use voice commands, hand signals, or other means to control the animal. Handlers may not allow the animal to wander an environment.
- The animal is disruptive or out of control and the handler does not take action to control the animal’s behavior. Examples of disruptive behavior include excessive barking and/or whining, damaging the property of the University or others, and threatening behavior including growling, snapping, or lunging.
- The animal is not house trained.
- The animal poses a health or safety risk in a particular environment. For instance, a service animal may be allowed in a patient’s hospital room but not in a surgical suite or it may be allowed on the deck of a public pool but not in the pool itself.
- The presence of a service animal or emotional support/comfort animal fundamentally alters a program or environment. In most settings, a service animal will not create a fundamental alteration of a program or environment. For example, a service animal may create a fundamental alteration if a residence hall has set aside an area specifically for students who have allergies to dogs.
SAS does not offer an accommodation to have face-to-face or hybrid Chat classes offered in a fully online format. Face-to-face classes should be attended in-person. Many courses are offered online. It is recommended by SAS that if a student wants a specific course format they should speak to their academic advisor and complete their advisement for the upcoming semester early.
Student Accessibility Services (SAS) respects students’ privacy and keeps information related to students’ disability confidential. Communication with other campus offices or instructors is limited to providing guidance on how to implement approved accommodations. With a student’s permission or request, SAS will consult with parents, spouses, faculty, staff and relevant professionals. SAS does not disclose information about a student’s disability or the nature of the disability unless the student specifically requests SAS to do so. Student records are kept electronically encrypted and only SAS staff have access.
Students may request that more information be shared with parents or spouses by completing a FERPA Consent Form. For questions about FERPA or the FERPA Consent Form, please contact the University Registrar's Office at 601.266.5006 or registrar@usm.edu. The completed FERPA Consent Form should be sent to the University Registrar's Office directly.
Instructors of record for your courses (professor listed in SOAR for the course) are notified via email of your accommodations. The email will contain a list of all the approved accommodations.
If you are registered with SAS, letters are sent in the weeks before the start of a semester. If you register after the beginning of the semester, your accommodations are emailed out after your intake appointment which completes your registration. You will be copied on any accommodation emails that are sent to your professors. These can be found on your USM email account (@usm.edu).
If you believe that a letter was not sent to your professor or your professor says that they have not received your letter, please contact our offices immediately at 601.266.5024 or sas@usm.edu.
If you change your course schedule after your accommodation letters have been sent out or you come back to USM after taking a Fall or Spring semester off, be sure to contact our office letting us know this information. If you do not contact our office to inform us of these events, your professors may not be notified of your accommodations.
No, class attendance policies are determined by the department or the instructor of record, and class attendance is an expectation of all Southern Miss students. A statement regarding consideration for disability-related absences or tardiness may be added to your letter of accommodations, but it is only to alert the instructor that the student may have to miss class.
If you are absent due to your disability, please contact the Office of Student Outreach and Support. This office will authenticate your doctor’s excuse and provide official Notices of Absences to your professors. Your professor will make the final decision regarding the Notice of Absence. To reach the Office of Student Outreach and Support, please contact them directly at 601.266.4025 or email them at osos@usm.edu.