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If you are a person needing an accommodation, contact:

Employees and applicants- Faculty and Staff Disability Services

Students- Student Disability Services

Visitors- ADA Compliance Officer

 

State and National Resources

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Job Accommodations Network (JAN)

Iowa Department of Human Services-Mental Health and Disability Services
Mental Health America (MHA)
National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH)
World Health Organization (WHO)

 

Anxiety Disorders

When anxiety becomes excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, and has become disabling (NIMH).

There are five major types of anxiety disorders --

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by chronic anxiety, exaggerated worry and tension, even when there is little or nothing to provoke it (NIMH).

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Repetitive behaviors such as hand washing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away (NIMH).

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress (NIMH).

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

An anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat (NIMH).

Social Anxiety Disorder

Also called Social Phobia, an anxiety disorder characterized by overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations (NIMH).

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Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

ADHD is a neurobehavioral disorder characterized by pervasive inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity and resulting in significant functional impairment (CDC).

There are three types of attention deficit disorders --

Predominantly Inattentive Type

It is hard for the individual to organize or finish a task, to pay attention to details, or to follow instructions or conversations. The individual is easily distracted or forgets details of daily routines (CDC).

Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type

The individual fidgets and talks a lot, finds it difficiult to sit still for long, or feels restless and has trouble with impulsivity. It is hard for the individual to wait their turn or listen to directions (CDC).

Combined Type

Combinations of Inattentive Type and Hyperactive-Impulsive Type (CDC) .

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Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes dramatic mood swings—from overly “high” and/or irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again, often with periods of normal mood in between (NIMH).

Description -- Unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Severe changes in energy and behavior go along with these changes in mood. The periods of highs and lows are called episodes of mania and depression (NIMH).

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Depression

Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration (WHO).

Forms of Depression -- disorder, dysthymic disorder, psychotic depression, postpartum depression and seasonal affective disorder. The most common are major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder (NIMH).

Major Depressive Disorder

Characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with an individual's ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy once–pleasurable activities. Major depression is disabling and prevents an individual from functioning normally. An episode of major depression may occur only once in an individual's lifetime, but more often, it recurs throughout an individual's life (NIMH).

Dysthymic Disorder

Characterized by long–term (two years or longer) but less severe symptoms that may not disable an individual but can prevent one from functioning normally or feeling well. People with dysthymia may also experience one or more episodes of major depression during their lifetimes (NIMH).

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Developmental Hearing Impairments

Hearing loss severity is based on how well a person can hear the frequencies or intensities most often associated with speech. Severity can be described as mild, moderate, severe, or profound (CDC).

There are two definitions of hearing impairment --

Deafness

Used to describe someone who has an approximately 90 dB or greater hearing loss or who cannot use hearing to process speech and language information, even with the use of hearing aids. (CDC)

Hard of Hearing

Used to describe people who have a less severe hearing loss than deafness. Unilateral loss: A loss that affects one ear. Bilateral loss: A loss that affects both ears.(CDC)

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Fibromyalgia

A chronic condition characterized by widespread pain in your muscles, ligaments and tendons, as well as fatigue and multiple tender points — places on your body where slight pressure causes pain (Mayo Clinic).

Description -- Signs and symptoms of fibromyalgia can vary, depending on the weather, stress, physical activity or even the time of day.

The cause of fibromyalgia is unknown. Current thinking centers around a theory called "central sensitization." This theory states that people with fibromyalgia have a lower threshold for pain because of increased sensitivity in the brain to pain signals.

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Headache Disorders

Headache is a symptom of a range of neurobiological disorders, including some of the most common and ubiquitous. Adults aged 20-50 years are the most likely sufferers but children and adolescents are affected too. The term headache disorder encompasses a number of conditions which vary in severity, incidence and duration (WHO).

Description -- The most common of headache disorders -- tension-type headache (TTH), migraine, cluster headache and the so-called chronic daily headache syndromes – cause substantial levels of disability (WHO).

Migraine

Adults with migraines describe episodic attacks with specific features:

  • Headache that is moderate or severe in intensity, one-sided and/or pulsating, aggravated by routine physical activity.
  • Duration is 2-3 days.
  • Accompanying symptoms are nausea and/or intolerance of normal levels of light and sound. (WHO)

Tension Type Headache

As experienced by very large numbers of people, episodic TTH occurs, like migraine, in attack-like episodes. These usually last no more than a few hours, but can persist for several days. It is described as pressure or tightness, like a band around the head, sometimes spreading into or from the neck. It lacks the specific features and associated symptoms of migraine (WHO).

Cluster Headache

CH is one of a group of primary headache disorders of uncertain mechanism that are characterized by frequently recurring, short-lasting but extremely severe headache. Strictly one-sided intense pain develops around the eye once or more daily, mostly at night, until the pain diminishes after 30-60 minutes. The eye is red and waters, the nose runs or is blocked on the affected side and the eyelid may droop (WHO).

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Learning Disabilities

The term learning disability is used to describe the seeming unexplained difficulty a person of at least average intelligence has in acquiring basic academic skills (NCLD).

Learning disabilities can be divided into three broad categories: developmental speech and language disorders, academic skills disorders, and other. Each of these categories includes a number of more specific disorders, including dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, and auditory perceptual and visual perceptual deficit (JAN).

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Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, potentially debilitating disease that affects the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord. Multiple sclerosis is widely believed to be an autoimmune disease, a condition in which the immune system attacks components of the body as if they're foreign (Mayo Clinic).

Multiple sclerosis is unpredictable and varies in severity. In some people, multiple sclerosis is a mild illness, but it can lead to permanent disability in others.

Whatever the multiple sclerosis cause or trigger, the disease occurs in four main patterns (Mayo Clinic).

Relapsing Remitting

Characterized by clearly defined flare-ups, followed by periods of remission. The flare-up typically appears suddenly, lasts a few weeks or months, and then gradually disappears. Most people with MS have this form at the time of diagnosis (Mayo Clinic).

Primary Progressive

People with this less common form of multiple sclerosis experience a gradual decline, without periods of remission (Mayo Clinic).

Secondary Progressive

More than half the people with relapsing remitting MS eventually enter a stage of continuous deterioration referred to as secondary progressive MS. Sudden relapses may occur, superimposed upon the continuous deterioration that characterizes this type of multiple sclerosis (Mayo Clinic).

Progressive Relapsing

People with this less common form of multiple sclerosis experience a gradual decline, without periods of remission (Mayo Clinic).

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Personality Disorders

A personality disorder must fulfill several criteria. A deeply ingrained, inflexible pattern of relating, perceiving, and thinking serious enough to cause distress or impaired functioning is a personality disorder (MHA).

There are 3 categories of personality disorder:

Cluster A

Cluster B

Cluster C

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Sleep Disorders

Sleep disorders are neurological conditions that can affect sleep in a variety of ways (JAN). There are many different types of sleeping disorders with varying symptoms.

The most common types of sleep disorders are insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and shift- work type.

Insomnia

Insomnia is characterized by an inability to initiate or maintain sleep. It may also take the form of early morning awakening in which the individual awakens several hours early and is unable to resume sleeping (CDC).

Narcolepsy

Excessive daytime sleepiness combined with sudden muscle weakness is the hallmark signs of narcolepsy (CDC).

Sleep Apnea

Individuals with sleep apnea characteristically make periodic gasping or “snorting” noises, during which their sleep is momentarily interrupted. Those with sleep apnea may also experience excessive daytime sleepiness, as their sleep is commonly interrupted and may not feel restorative (CDC).

Shift Work

A primary complaint of insomnia or excessive sleepiness temporally associated with a work period that occurs during the habitual sleep phase.

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Vision Impairments

Vision impairment means that a person's eyesight cannot be corrected to a "normal" level (CDC).

Low Vision

Visual Acuity of 20/70 and 20/400, with the best possible correction. Visual acuity is the clearness of one’s vision.

Visual field of 20 degrees or less. Loss of visual field is where the eye cannot see as wide an area as usual without moving the eyes or turning the head. (WHO)

Blindness

Visual acuity worse than 20/400, with the best possible correction.

Visual field of 10 degrees or less.

“Legal blindness” is defined as a visual acuity of 20/200 or worse, with the best possible correction, or a visual field of 20 degrees or less. (WHO)

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