To obtain disability services and accommodations, students must register with SDS by providing current and appropriate medical or professional documentation and by meeting with an SDS coordinator for an intake appointment. Based on the individual student's documentation, the coordinator will assess the student's functional limitations and academic needs, and from those, will determine the necessary services and accommodations for which the student is eligible. After registering for classes each semester, students are responsible for scheduling an appointment with their coordinator to arrange reasonable accommodations and services for that semester.

In addition to the general services available to all students registered with SDS, the following services may be available to students who are deaf, hard of hearing and/or have speech impairments:

• Interpreting/transliteration service for class lectures, advising, counseling and other University activities and events
• Notetaker
• Classroom Captioning Services
• Assistive listening devices
• Caption decoder for classroom use
• Curriculum adjustment for oral communication requirement
• Alternative to oral recitation requirement in classroom unless it is essential to the course
• Test accommodations
  • Extended time
  • Computer
  • Spell checker
• Hearing and speech evaluations and speech therapy through the University of Memphis Speech and Hearing Center
• Tutor Referral

Classroom interpreting and classroom captioning services should be requested at least one month before classes begin and earlier. Currently enrolled students with disabilities have access to early registration in order to plan appropriately for their disability related needs. New students should be admitted to the University early enough to register for classes in order to meet the advance notice requirement. The student's specific class schedule should be finalized a month in advance to allow time for arranging interpreting or classroom captioning services. If a student does not meet the request deadline for these services, SDS will attempt to fill the request, but cannot guarantee the services can be arranged. Students who are eligible for interpreting and classroom captioning services may have one or the other, but not both services in the same classroom simultaneously. An interpreter and a notetaker will be provided simultaneously for those who are eligible.

Requests for interpreting service for University sponsored events outside the classroom should be made separately on an as-needed basis and should be done as far in advance as possible, preferably a week or more. Every effort will be made to fill all legitimate interpreting requests, given the availability of qualified interpreters in the area.

When students are going to be absent from class, it is their responsibility to cancel an interpreter or classroom captioning service in advance. Repeated failure to do so, except in an unexpected emergency, can result in termination of the student's interpreting service. Interpreters and captionists have permission to leave class after fifteen minutes when the student is late or does not show up for class, although they must be paid for the full class period for which they are under contract. Interpreting and classroom captioning services are expensive and students are expected to act responsibly by making timely cancellations when necessary.