Reasonable accommodations must be supported by proper documentation. Not all accommodations are suitable for all students. Reasonable accommodations are determined by individual needs.
Learn more about Assistive Technology here.
Extended Time for In-Class Assignments: Provide extra time to complete in-class assignments. Extended time will reduce the impact of the disability by allowing students additional time for symbol recognition and decoding, cognitive processing, and/or to reduce the stress of the testing environment.
Materials in Alternative Format: Provide overheads, PowerPoint slides, and other visual aids or electronic access to the student in advance. Copied materials or materials in alternate text reduces the impact of a disability by providing access to written material for individuals with visual, physical, or cognitive processing difficulties.
Routine Check-in Meetings: Student meets with the accessibility coordinator on a regular basis to survey obstacles, successes, and motivation.
Service Animal: Defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. Individuals should not pet a service animal while it is working, feed a working service animal, or deliberately startle, tease, or taunt a service animal. They are trained to be protective of their partner, and petting distracts them from their responsibility. Individuals also should never separate or attempt to separate an individual from his/her service animal.
Emotional Support Animal: Emotional support animals must be restrained at all times on a harness or in a carrier. The dog, nor the carrier, may sit on tables or desks. All waste must be disposed of. In the event of complaints that suggest the animal is causing disruption to the educational environment or a threat to personal health and safety of others, we will re-evaluate. When the animal is on campus, they are a “working” animal and therefore, others should not feed or pet the animal. Students using an emotional support animal should have a conversation with each faculty member.
Alternate Testing Format: Reduces stress and improves student’s ability to display knowledge in a content area without barriers of format.
- No Scantron: Modification to test format. The professor may select use of written, oral, multiple choice through different format, etc. This reduces the impact of student concentration.
- Computer Access: This allows for the use of a laptop in class to type a test. Laptops reduce the impact of a disability by providing an alternative mode of essay tests due to visual, cognitive, hearing, or physical impairments.
- Verbal/Audio Responses: Modified format to assess acquired course material. This assists students that have difficulty with writing.
Arranged seating: Preferential seating reduces the impact of a disability by providing a comfortable learning area due to physical challenges or more direct access to a lecture source and/or presentation materials when issues related to effective hearing or vision are encountered. The student provides the Accessibility Center with their class schedule every semester. The Accessibility Center then coordinates with physical plant to provide appropriate seating to accommodate their disability.
- May include preferential seating toward the front of the room and away from noise sources.
- May include preferential seating at the table/chair that physical plant has provided.
Copies of instructor notes, outlines, etc., if available: Provide a preview to class outlines/notes so that students have adequate time to process class content. This allows students to engage more productively in class discussions.
Flexibility Accommodation: Flexing course policy can provide an alternative way for a student to meet essential course requirements. The student must have a proactive conversation with all faculty to discuss an action plan as to not modify the integrity of the course. Because courses have specific requirements, this accommodation requires a course-by-course assessment to determine what is reasonable and appropriate. Not every class can or will be flexed in the same way. All flex plans are at the discretion of the professor.
- Absences, conditional use: Must be documented by certified professional for usage. Faculty are responsible for analyzing each course and developing an action plan with students regarding exam schedules and deadlines.
- Temporary/Medical: Usage may be due to temporary need such as concussions, breaks, treatment, etc. or medically related needs. Reach an agreement with the student regarding absences from class that are related to a medical condition (flex plans). The student is responsible for contacting the instructor to discuss the need for absences and the impact of the absences on course objectives and activities. The student understands that:
1. Excessive absences may impact the instructional integrity and educational objectives of a course.
2. The instructor determines the course attendance policy and makes decisions regarding satisfactory academic progress.
Reach an agreement with the student regarding the need to miss a quiz or exam due to a medical condition. The student is responsible for contacting the instructor to discuss alternative arrangements. The student understands that:
- A plan should be agreed upon in advance. A Flexible Absence Action Plan Agreement is available at the Accessibility Center. The agreement assists the student and faculty with a proactive conversation to determine a plan for flexible absences. Completion of the agreement is recommended by the Accessibility Center to help set clear expectations for the student and faculty.
- The instructor determines course policy regarding quizzes and exams and makes decisions regarding exceptions to this policy.
Allowance for absences reduces the impact of a disability by providing flexibility when making appointments for medical emergencies, testing or health maintenance.
Assist the student in identifying a notetaker. The student is responsible for identifying a student who is enrolled in the same class; this student will provide a copy of their notes. Notetakers should contact the Accessibility Center to receive pay.
Notetakers are provided to reduce the impact of a disability by providing support in the symbol recognition and decoding process, to eliminate or decrease the latency in short-term cognitive processing, to eliminate or decrease the physical fatigue of extended on-task activities, or to supplement a student’s notes when hearing, visual, or distraction impairments exist. The student is responsible for identifying a student who is enrolled in the same class, and this student will provide a copy of their notes. Note takers should contact the Accessibility Center to receive pay.
Recording of Lectures: Allow the student to record all lectures, unless it goes beyond the learning objectives of the class. The instructor should reach an agreement with the student regarding confidentiality and the times when recording is not appropriate. Unless permission is otherwise granted by an instructor, the recorded material is to be viewed only by the student with a disability. If there are concerns of confidentiality or intellectual property, contact the Accessibility Center. The instructor may request that a recording device is turned off if it violates the confidentiality rights of others. Recording of lectures reduces the impact of a disability by providing a mechanism to review verbally presented material when short-term memory, cognitive processing, or visual impairments exist.
Testing Accommodations: This service is designed to reduce distractions or anxieties and/or improve the student’s concentration. Extended testing can be provided in the classroom, but if the testing center is preferred, then arrangements can be made by contacting their office.
- Extended Time (time and 1/2): Provide extended time at 150% (time and one-half) the normal testing allowance. Extended time is designed to reduce the impact of the disability by allowing students additional time for symbol recognition and decoding, cognitive processing, and/or to reduce the stress of the testing environment. Extended testing can be provided in the classroom, but if the testing center is preferred, then arrangements can be made by contacting their office.
- Reduced Distractions Room in Testing Center: Reduced distraction testing is provided to decrease the impact of a disability on a testing event by cutting down on extraneous triggers that cue a person to divert their attention from a task or that induces a stress reaction. Common triggers are sound (including humming and high-pitched sounds, such as a computer or television set, shuffling of paperwork, etc.), extraneous light (including flashes from windows and blinking overhead lighting), and misc. activity (including peer movement within the room, instructor pacing, motion in the hallway, etc.).
- Scribe/Reader: Scribes and/or readers help to reduce the impact of a disability by providing alternative forms of information assimilation and expression. Scribes augment the symbol encoding skills of students with visual, cognitive, and physical impairments, or help to eliminate or decrease the physical fatigue of extended on-task activities. When used during testing, scribes/readers are not allowed to interpret, add to, or subtract from the material being tested. They read and/or write verbatim what is presented to them. Students should submit copies of course syllabi with exams highlighted to the Accessibility Center. The student should confirm the day/time of the exam at least one week in advance with the instructor and let the Accessibility Center know as soon as the test is scheduled so that a scribe/reader can be assigned.
Use of Calculator for Test: Allow the use of a calculator for tests that involve mathematical calculations, unless it goes beyond the learning objectives of the class. The use of a calculator reduces the impact of a disability by providing an instrument that assists in digit sequencing, sequencing of mathematical steps or converting mathematical symbols into operational functions.