Who Can Complete Alberta's Disability Verification Form? Qualified Assessors by Disability Category

Alberta Student Aid's Disability Verification form does not name a single profession. Section 4 of the form names a different acceptable professional beside each disability category, and that per-category list is printed inside the PDF itself — which is why Alberta students so often book the wrong appointment and arrive with a letter Alberta will not accept.

This page reproduces that list. Two points of orientation first.

The form is not Schedule 4. In Ontario, "Schedule 4" is the OSAP form a physician fills in. In Alberta it is a different document that a physician cannot complete any part of — its Section 1 is headed "Nature of Disability (Must be completed by Accessibility Advisor/School Official)" and Section 2 is "For Educational Institution Use Only". The clinician document in Alberta is the Disability Verification form, footed "ASA Disability Verification - Revised: Aug 17, 2026". We cover the difference in detail in Schedule 4 vs the Disability Verification form in Alberta.

Check you are on the right province's form. Alberta, British Columbia and New Brunswick all publish a document titled almost exactly "Disability Verification Form". The rules below are Alberta's and do not transfer.

1. The Short Answer

A physician is named on Alberta's Disability Verification form for every specific disability category — the exceptions are Learning Disability, which does not use the form, and "Other/Chronic Illness", which names no profession.

That single sentence resolves most students' question. If you already have a diagnosis of a mobility limitation, a psychiatric or psychological condition, or ADHD, a licensed physician is a named acceptable assessor and can complete the form. For a chronic illness, the form asks only for "the appropriate medical professional" without naming one.

Learning Disability is the exception, and it is a firm one — the form is not used for it at all. Section 3 below explains what replaces it.

Everything else is nuance: two categories where Alberta's own documents disagree with each other, and a short list of professionals whose documentation is rejected outright.

2. Qualified Assessors by Disability Category

Section 4 of the form, headed "Nature of Disability (check and complete all that apply) (must be completed by the Medical Assessor)", names an acceptable professional beside each category. Here is that list, from the Disability Verification form revised August 17, 2026.

Category, as printed on the form	Who the form says may complete it
Hearing Impairment	"an Audiologist or physician and include the degree of hearing loss"
Visual Impairment	"an Optometrist or Ophthalmologist or physician"
Mobility/Agility Impairment	"a physician or medical specialist"
Brain Injury/Cognitive Impairment	"a physician or neuro-psychologist"
ADD/ADHD	"physician, Registered Psychologist, or psychiatrist"
Psychiatric/Psychological (include the DSM)	"physician, Registered psychologist or psychiatrist"
Pervasive Development Disorder (ex. Autism)	"physician, Registered psychologist or psychiatrist"
Speech	"physician or speech language pathologist"
Other/Chronic Illness	"the appropriate medical professional"

Cells in quotation marks reproduce the form's own wording, including its inconsistent capitalization of "Registered Psychologist" and "Registered psychologist".

Two details worth noticing. First, the form calls the signing clinician the "Medical Assessor" (Section 7 asks for the "Name of Qualified Medical Assessor") — a phrase that appears on this form and essentially nowhere else in Alberta's documentation, which elsewhere says "medical professional", "regulated health professional" or "Qualified Professional(s)". Second, "Other/Chronic Illness" is deliberately open-ended: Alberta names no specific profession, only "the appropriate medical professional" for the condition in question.

3. Learning Disability: the One Category the Form Does Not Cover

For a Learning Disability, Alberta does not want the Disability Verification form — it wants a psycho-educational assessment, and it will not accept a physician's diagnosis on its own.

The Funding for Students with Disabilities Guide 2026-2027 states it plainly: "Physician diagnosis alone is not acceptable." A note from a family physician confirming a long-standing reading difficulty will not, on its own, satisfy Alberta Student Aid for this category.

The form sets the recency rule for the assessment you attach instead: it must be "less than 5 years old or was completed when applicant was 18 years or older".

On who may perform the assessment, Alberta's own Guide is inconsistent, and you should know both versions before you spend money:

• Page 19 names a "Registered Psychologist, Neuropsychologist".
• Page 22 says it "must be completed by a registered psychologist".

Those are not the same rule. A neuropsychologist's assessment is acceptable under one page and arguably not under the other. Because a psycho-educational assessment is an expensive appointment, confirm with the Alberta Student Aid Service Centre at 1-855-606-2096 and with your campus Accessibility Advisor before booking.

4. Can a Nurse Practitioner Complete the Form?

Alberta has not answered this publicly, and its two governing documents point in different directions — so confirm before you book.

Here is exactly what each document says, with nothing added:

• The form (revised August 17, 2026) names only physicians and specialists across its categories. The phrase "nurse practitioner" appears zero times on it.
• The Funding for Students with Disabilities Guide 2026-2027 takes a wider view. Its "Documentation by Disability Type and Qualified Professional" table lists Nurse Practitioner across hearing, vision, speech, mobility and physical, ADHD, and psychiatric or psychological conditions.
• The Guide also allows a different instrument. Page 18 accepts plain "Medical documentation (letter describing...)" in place of the form, and a nurse practitioner can author such a letter.
• The Guide's tiebreaker, on page 5, reads: "Where differences exist, governing legislation and formal policy take precedence."

We are not going to resolve that for you, because Alberta has not resolved it in writing. If your assessor is a nurse practitioner, call the Alberta Student Aid Service Centre at 1-855-606-2096, describe your disability category, and ask whether an NP-signed form or NP letter will be accepted for your application. Get the answer before the appointment, not after.

For contrast: StudentAid BC's form is explicit on the point, naming "Physician, Nurse Practitioner, Psychologist" as its qualified medical assessors. Alberta simply does not carry that line.

5. Autism: Alberta's Documents Disagree

The form permits a physician for autism; some of Alberta's documentation guidance does not name one.

This is the second place where Alberta's documents conflict, and the two readings point you toward different appointments.

• The form lists "Pervasive Development Disorder (ex. Autism)" as completable by a "physician, Registered psychologist or psychiatrist".
• Alberta's documentation guidance has listed, for autism, a psychologist's report or a letter from a psychiatrist, without naming a physician.
• MacEwan University's documentation chart likewise excludes physicians for ASD.

The safe reading is the narrower one. If autism is the disability you are verifying, plan on documentation from a Registered Psychologist or a psychiatrist, or confirm with the Service Centre first. Nobody should promise you that a physician can verify autism for Alberta funding without flagging this conflict.

6. Documentation Alberta Will Not Accept

Several regulated professionals are explicitly excluded, and students routinely arrive with a letter from one of them.

Alberta Student Aid states, in its own words:

• Physiotherapists: "Physiotherapist reports alone are not acceptable for the purpose of disability verification."
• Occupational therapists: "Occupational Therapists are also not an approved medical professional, which can be used to verify a PD or PPD."
• Provisional psychologists: a provisional psychologist's report is not accepted without a Registered Psychologist's signature on it.
• Irlen's Syndrome: documentation "must be a Certified Irlen's Screener".

None of this is a judgement about those professions — it is a documentation rule applied at intake. A detailed physiotherapy report describing genuine functional limitation is still not accepted on its own for disability verification.

Campus rules add a further layer. Athabasca University's Accessibility Services, for example, states that "Prescriptions are not considered valid documentation" and requires that "The medical professionals' signature and/or stamp must be on the verification document." Your institution's accommodation file and your Alberta Student Aid application are separate processes — meet with your campus Accessibility Advisor about the first.

7. What the Assessor Actually Has to Fill In

Section 7, "Medical Assessor Authorization", carries seven fields marked "(required)" — and the medical office stamp is not one of them.

The required fields are:

• Name of Qualified Medical Assessor
• Registration Certificate No
• Specialty
• Office Address
• Signature
• Date Signed (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Telephone No

The medical office stamp is not marked required. Some institutions ask for one anyway for their own accommodation files, so if your campus office has requested a stamp, that request is theirs rather than Alberta Student Aid's.

The assessor also completes Section 5, "Functional Limitations (must be completed by the Medical Assessor)", which is scored in an educational setting rather than a clinical one, and Section 6, where they may recommend specific services and equipment.

Alberta reimburses the cost of getting the form completed. The Guide's appendix lists "Disability Verification Costs" — including "Completion of medical forms" — as reimbursable at "100% of the assessment cost, up to a maximum of $3,500." Three conditions catch people out: "Invoices are not eligible for reimbursement" (you need a paid receipt showing payment in full); the document must be dated no more than six months before your current start of studies; and "Students cannot have verification costs reimbursed for a previously verified condition."

8. Alberta Does Not Ask Where Your Assessor Is Registered

Alberta's form asks only for a "Registration Certificate No" — there is no province-of-registration field on it.

Compare StudentAid BC's near-identically titled Disability Verification Form, which includes a "Province of Registration" field and states that qualified medical assessors "Must be registered to practice in the Canadian province or territory where the assessment is undertaken."

Alberta prints no equivalent line. That silence is worth stating accurately: Alberta has not published a rule requiring the assessor to be registered in Alberta, and it has not published one permitting an out-of-province assessor either. If your circumstances make this relevant — you are studying in Alberta but being assessed elsewhere, or the reverse — call 1-855-606-2096 rather than reading the absence of a field as permission.

For the full walk-through of the form itself, section by section, see our Alberta Disability Verification form guide. If you are applying in Ontario instead, our OSAP disability grant page covers that province's equivalent, and our medical forms page lists the third-party documents we complete. Our Alberta page covers what else we offer in the province.

Getting the Form Completed

If your diagnosis is already established and you need a physician to confirm it and describe its academic impact — the case Alberta's Guide describes on page 18 — a physician registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta can review your history and functional limitations, complete Sections 4 through 7, and sign.

What we cannot do is anything the form does not permit a physician to do: we do not perform psycho-educational assessments, so we cannot verify a Learning Disability, and we do not complete Schedule 4 — that is your campus Accessibility Advisor's section. Documentation also does not guarantee funding. Alberta's disability grants each require assessed financial need on top of accepted documentation: the Canada Student Grant for Students with Disabilities and the Canada Student Grant for Services and Equipment – Students with Disabilities each require at least $1 of assessed federal financial need, and the Alberta Grant for Students with Disabilities requires at least $1 of provincial assessed need plus full-time enrolment. A student can hold perfect documentation and still receive nothing. Your campus Accessibility Advisor is part of the process too — Alberta expects students at public Alberta post-secondary institutions to meet with an Accessibility Advisor or Accessibility Counsellor to have their Schedule 4 reviewed.

Sources: Alberta Student Aid (studentaid.alberta.ca), Government of Alberta — Disability Verification form, revised August 17, 2026, and the Funding for Students with Disabilities Guide 2026-2027, revised July 20, 2026. Alberta Student Aid Service Centre: 1-855-606-2096.