For Faculty:
Accommodations Information
Accommodation Letters:
Students who qualify for academic accommodations are advised to schedule a time to meet with their professors during office hours as soon as possible to discuss academic accommodations. Disability related information is confidential; students are told that they do not need to disclose or discuss information specifically related to their disorder; however they can should they choose to do so. They will need to discuss where they will take tests if they qualify for additional time and a distraction reduced location. They also need to let you know if they plan to take exams in Disability Services.
Faculty information about testing accommodations for students with disabilities:
Students registered for a course who qualify for testing accommodations will give you a letter from our office. You and the student can decide on a mutually acceptable method of meeting this accommodation: with you in the classroom, with you or another staff member in an office, or in one of the testing rooms in Disability Services. Students who use assistive technology such as a screen reader will need to take tests in sites where this is available. Should you both decide the best location is in our office, it is the student’s responsibility to schedule the exam with Tammie Longsderff longsdtl@etown.edu , Assistant Director of Disability Services, at least 48 business hours prior to the exam date. You will receive a confirmation email detailing the time/date of the student’s request with a reminder to send a copy of the exam if you have not already done so.
- The student should schedule their exam at the same time/day as when the class is taking the exam, however they may need to start earlier or stay later than the class to have their full allotted time. Should a student need to take their exam at a different time due to a conflict with another scheduled class, they should speak with you prior to scheduling the exam with our office. We are generally able to proctor exams between the hours of 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, contingent on staff availability.
- Students requesting testing accommodations will bring a form from our office for you to complete. The student will complete Section 1and you should complete Section 2. Please be sure to indicate how you can be reached during the exam in the event questions arise.
- If you are delivering a hard copy of the test, please bring exams to BSC 226 at least 24 hours prior to the test. Alternatively, you can email the exam as a WORD or PDF attachment to longsdlt@etown.edu at least 24 hours prior to the time of the test. Exams are filed in the office of the Assistant Director of Disability Services (BSC 226). The room is locked when unattended.
- Students who arrive more than 15 minutes after the arranged time will not be permitted to take the exam without your permission to do so either by phone or in writing (email).
- Either a student proctor in the testing rooms will monitor students taking exams. Proctors are trusted student employees working in Disability Services. When student proctors are unavailable, the Director or Assistant Director of Disability Services monitors exams via video camera. Issues pertaining to academic integrity will be reported immediately so faculty can review the video.
Flexibility with regard to attendance:
Faculty teaching at most colleges and universities consider attendance and participation mandatory. While ADA clearly stipulates academic accommodations and adjustments must not alter essential features or requirements of courses, it also protects students with disabilities from discrimination. Please refer to the guidelines below from the Office of Civil Rights decision regarding Cabrillo Community College, Case No. 09-96-2150 (OCR Region IX 1996) in determining whether attendance is an essential aspect of a course:
1. Is there classroom interaction between the instructor and students, and among students? Do student contributions constitute a significant component of the learning process? Does the fundamental nature of the course rely upon student participation as an essential method for learning?
- To what degree does a student’s failure to attend constitute a significant loss to the educational experience of other students in the class?
- What do the course description and syllabus say?
- Which method is used to calculate the final grade?
- And what are the classroom practices and policies regarding attendance?
2. After these factors have been examined, a reasoned judgment should be made about whether a waiver of the course attendance requirement would be acceptable.
3. Pay attention to possible claims of differential treatment. Occasionally, a professor has a strict attendance policy on paper but has modified it for others. It is important to consider any exceptions you may have made; either to your own policy or that of the program/school, especially for nondisabled students (athletes, death in the family, unplanned surgery, flu outbreak, etc...).
4. Regardless of the outcome, the deliberative process should be well documented, so that others who were not involved in the process can understand the alternatives considered and the reasons for the final decision.
Accessibility:
On occasion, students with print (vision, reading) disorders need all course material converted into accessible format. Disability Services will convert written documents as quickly as possible and we strive to stay up with text book assignments on the syllabus. If you are aware of other printed material that will need to be converted during the semester, such as reserved material in the library, please let Disability Services know as soon as you’re able so that we can convert these documents into an accessible format. In some cases, exams will also have to be converted. Please give us a reasonable amount of time to do this if the student is expected to take the exam during the same time period as others in the class.
Showing films/videos in class – students who are deaf or hard of hearing will not be able to access information presented in this format. It is the student’s responsibility to let you know if they are unable to access course material. Please contact Disability Services with any concerns so we can consider methods to ensure accessibility of all course material. When you update your video libraries or borrow films, please consider requesting films/videos that are available in captioned form. We'd be happy to help you with this.