UC Berkeley Extension's Disability Support Services (DSS) provides equal access and opportunities to all of our offerings for persons with disabilities and special needs. To ensure access to our courses and programs, DSS facilitates collaboration between students, instructors, academic departments, and the campus community, including the UC Berkeley Disabled Students' Program, which determines the eligibility of accommodations for all UC Berkeley Extension students.
If you are a student with support needs, and are currently enrolled or plan to enroll with UC Berkeley Extension, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can provide guidance to our resources and so that we can arrange any required support services for you in a timely manner.
Email: extension-dss@berkeley.edu
Call: (510) 643-5732
We will send you instructions to request an intake appointment with the UC Berkeley Disabled Students' Program (DSP). Their office will review your disability documentation and determine your eligibility for academic accommodations. Read documentation requirements.
Complaints about the failure to timely authorize eligibility for an appropriate accommodation must be addressed directly with the UC Berkeley DSP through that group's informal or formal complaint resolution procedures.
Once your eligibility has been approved, you will work with DSS to implement your accommodations.
If you have worked with UC Berkeley Extension's DSS before, please plan to contact us in advance of each enrollment as well as to ensure we are in receipt of any updated accommodation letters by reaching out to extension-dss@berkeley.edu.
When a student is dissatisfied with any academic accommodations, the fastest process for resolving the issue is to directly contact the student’s DSP Specialist.
A student may pursue informal resolution of a complaint by emailing the DSP Director or scheduling a meeting to discuss the complaint and explore possible avenues of resolution. If a satisfactory solution cannot be reached, the student may initiate formal resolution by putting the student’s complaint in writing and addressing as described below.
If a satisfactory solution cannot be reached, you may pursue more formal resolution procedures for failure of UC Berkeley Extension to timely implement a Letter of Accommodation or to accommodate a student in a campus activity (discrimination on basis of disability). Please follow the resolution procedures outlined on UC Berkeley's Disability Compliance Office website.
A formal complaint regarding a decision made by DSP or provision of (or denial of) an academic disability accommodation or service must be made in writing, must state unambiguously that it is a “formal complaint,” and must be sent to the Disability Access and Compliance Office at access@berkeley.edu.
The formal complaint must describe the specific accommodation or service issue that is the subject of the complaint, the date that the issue arose, the facts on which the complaint is based and the resolution requested. Formal complaints must be submitted within thirty days from the time the student knew or could reasonably be expected to have known of the DSP staff or supervisor action that is the subject of the complaint. The campus may treat untimely complaints as having been waived by the student based upon failure to assert the complaint in a timely manner.