Privacy and Disability Accommodations

Confidentiality at the Disability Resource Center.

Rules Regarding Protected Information

The DRC follows the standards of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Under FERPA, your status as a student registered with the DRC is disclosed on a need-to-know basis only. The information you provide to the DRC can only be accessed by DRC staff. Your student records, degree, and transcript will not reflect your registration with our office.

Disclosure of Protected Information

While you may feel comfortable talking about your disability, you don’t have to talk to anyone outside the DRC about your diagnosis or symptoms. However, you will likely need to talk with your instructors about how to implement your approved accommodations in their class.

You can talk about how to implement accommodations without disclosing your diagnosis or symptoms. For example, to discuss flexible deadlines, you can say, “I want to talk about how my DRC-approved flexible deadline accommodation will work if I need to use it in your class.” This way, you can talk about what the instructor needs to know while maintaining your privacy.

If at any time you feel that an instructor or staff is asking about your diagnosis, you can refer the person to the DRC. You can also schedule an appointment with our Student Success Interns to strategize around having these conversations with your faculty.

Need-to-Know

The DRC will only talk to PSU faculty and staff who are responsible for providing or facilitating your accommodations.

If you do not want an instructor to know that you are registered with the DRC, you can choose not to request accommodations for the class. However, it is important to know that the instructor is not required to provide accommodations if you choose not to enter your service request.

DRC Mandatory Reporting Requirements

As part of the PSU community, we have a responsibility to support health and safety. There are rare occasions when we may need to disclose confidential information without a written release.

If a student talks about thoughts of harm, or experiencing discrimination, harassment, or assault, we will follow up even if they prefer that we not disclose.
To ensure your health, if a medical emergency occurs in our office we will provide medical information to the emergency responders.
If we hear about academic dishonesty, we are obligated to follow up.
If a student registered with the DRC files a lawsuit against PSU, we may be required to turn over a copy of their records to the PSU attorneys. The attorneys will then decide who gets to see the information.

Authorizing Disclosure and Requesting Copies from Your File

If you want the DRC to communicate with your provider, a family member, friend, or other person, first fill out a DRC Release of Information form. We can email the form to you, or you can pick it up at our office. Without this release, we won't be able to speak with anyone outside of the university.

You can request copies of documentation from your DRC file by coming to the DRC office with a photo ID (PSU ID, driver’s license, passport, etc.). If you are out of state, we can mail copies to the current address in PSU’s Banner system. You can update your address in Banner at any time.

If you have questions about the information on this page, please contact the Disability Resource Center.

Email: drc@pdx.edu
Phone: 503-725-4150

Check our home page for our hours and contact information.