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Guidelines for Faculty
(see also FAQs on these issues)
- Syllabus statement: Faculty play a key role in informing
students of the College’s commitment to ensure equal access to
our programs, activities, and services. You can assist the College with
disability compliance by including the following statement on your syllabi:
If you have a disability and require accommodations for this
course, please speak with me privately as soon as possible so that
your needs may be appropriately met. If you have not already done
so, you will need to register with Disability Services (Learning Commons
at Tutt Library, Room 152, 227-8285), the office responsible for coordinating
accommodations and services for students with disabilities.
- Meeting with students regarding their disability:
It is recommended that professors make arrangements to meet with students
who choose to identify themselves as having a disability in order to
discuss the particular accommodations that will be necessary. Due to
the very personal and private nature of some disabilities, it is important
that meetings take place in a location that protects the student’s
right to privacy.
- The request for accommodation: Faculty should provide
accommodations to students who 1) notify you in a timely manner of any
accommodation that needs to be made for a particular course and 2) provide
you with a copy of the student's letter of accommodation signed by the
Director of Disability Services and the Associate Dean of the College.
If the student does not provide a letter of accommodation or if you
do not have knowledge that the student has been approved for accommodations,
please refer the student to Disability Services (DS).
- Providing accommodations: Faculty members should
provide appropriate classroom accommodations as indicated on the student’s
letter of accommodation, consulting the DS webpage for accommodation
policies and procedures or contacting DS for assistance.
- Inappropriate accommodations: Do not feel obligated
to provide accommodations if a student with a known disability has not
requested them. In other words, you are not asked to guess or predetermine
what a student might need. Students have the right to choose not to
use accommodations. On the other hand, if a student asks retroactively
to fix a problem because he/she has failed to use accommodations, you
are not under any obligation to do so.
- A collaborative relationship: Faculty can best provide
accommodations for students with disabilities by collaborating with
the student and DS. Although DS is the office designated to review documentation
of disability and determine eligibility for specific accommodations
for students, in order for most accommodations to occur, professors,
students, and DS staff must collaborate, communicate, and follow through
on commitments in a timely fashion.
- Accommodations and academic standards: Please keep
in mind that every effort will be made to implement reasonable and appropriate
accommodations for students when necessary. However, requests that lower
the academic standards of the College or fundamentally alter the College’s
courses, programs, or degree requirements will be denied. If you have
concerns about a particular accommodation, please contact DS.
- If you suspect a disability: If a student is having
difficulty in class and you think he/she may have a disability, you
may want to talk privately with the student about your concerns regarding
the student’s performance. If so, please keep the following tips
in mind:
- Keep a positive tone. Emphasize positive aspects of the student’s
performance while noting areas in which the student’s performance
might be inconsistent.
- Be very specific about the observations you have made about the student’s
performance.
- Don’t announce your belief that the student has a disability.
Instead, ask if the student is aware of some of his/her areas of difficulty
in the course. For example, you could say, “I’ve noticed
that you seem to be struggling a lot in this class (noting specific
difficulties). Have you had difficulty with this in the past?”
- Also, when appropriate, ask the student if he or she is aware of the
services offered in the Learning Commons. It may be helpful for you
to provide the student with a list of resources that includes DS. Other
useful resources are the Learning Consultant in the Colket
Student Learning Center (389-6168), the Colket
Fellow in Reading and Rhetoric (227-8291), the Office
of First-Year and Sophomore Studies and Advising (389-6986), the
Quantitative Reasoning
Center (227-8289), and the Writing
Center (389-6742).
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