We at Iowa are committed to your success and welcome students of diverse learning abilities on campus. We have found students who are able to develop self-advocacy skills during their college experience find their time on campus to be most enriching. Self-advocacy can be defined as the ability to understand your needs and effectively communicate them to others. These skills can be applied both in your time as a student and beyond college. Examples of self-advocacy in college include:

  • Identifying your values: determine which classes are of interest to you, what type of decor and food you prefer to have in your room, and who you can turn to on campus for support.
  • Resiliency: the ability to recover from setbacks and to understand your worth through challenges
  • Positive academic behaviors: meeting with faculty and asking questions regarding things that are unclear, using organization aides to manage your time, and avoiding procrastination
  • Practice: Identify individuals you can turn to for support on campus and practice self-advocacy skills in a variety of situations

We encourage students to become involved on campus as part of the IOWA challenge. Ways to become more involved in the campus community can be found here.

Additionally, the University of Iowa’s Student Disability Services (SDS) is a resource available to students. SDS strives to provide academic accommodations for students who experience barriers toward success in their studies due to their documented disabilities. SDS can assist students in obtaining certain types of assistance for students with documented disabilities. They provide accommodations to balance the needs of the student and the academic objectives of the course or program.

The University of Iowa’s SDS office is at 141 University Capitol Centre.

You can contact the SDS office via email at sds-info@uiowa.edu or call them at 319-335-1462. More information regarding Student Disability Services for students can be found on the SDS website.

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