{"id":325,"date":"2019-12-02T01:22:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T01:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/?p=325"},"modified":"2019-12-02T01:22:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T01:22:16","slug":"your-questions-answered-with-accessibility-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/2019\/12\/02\/your-questions-answered-with-accessibility-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Questions Answered with Accessibility Services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whitney Horton & Jen Herr
Director & Assistant Director, Accessibility Services<\/em>

Currently, we have over 550 students affiliated with Accessibility Services and that number continues to grow. You may be very familiar with our processes or you may receive your first accommodation letter tomorrow. Either way, it is likely that you will have students with accommodations in your classes. When it comes to accommodations and the services provided by Accessibility Services, we are asked thoughtful questions by faculty and we wanted to share the answers more broadly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a better way to keep track of my students\nwith accommodations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"keys\"<\/code>We are very excited to roll out the ability for faculty to login to our online portal called Accommodate. By logging into Accommodate, you can see your whole class roster which includes the accommodations listed next to the students, see who the note-taker is in your class and the notes they upload (if that is applicable to your class), upload future exams and see all of your exam requests in one place!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A user guide is available within the Resources tab with step-by-step instructions. Login here<\/a> using your Rollins credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if an accommodation is in conflict with the pedagogy\nand learning outcomes of my class?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accommodations\nare approved based on a student\u2019s diagnosis to best meet their need to equally\naccess the educational environment. They are approved generally \u2013 not with\nindividual classes in mind. If you believe one of the accommodations poses a\nfundamental alteration (meaning, they are in direct conflict with the course\nlearning objectives), faculty are always welcome to engage a conversation with\nAccessibility Services to discuss that accommodation in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My student hasn\u2019t come to talk\nwith me about their letter. Should I reach out to them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we have our initial meeting\nwith a student, we talk to them about self-advocacy and going to talk to their\nprofessor about their accommodation letter. We send their letters out for them\nto make sure that you are informed of their accommodations as soon as they are\nin place, but our hope is that they do come talk to you about it as well. A\ncommon theme that we\u2019ve heard from students about why they may not initially reach\nout to their professors about their accommodations is that they may be nervous because\nthey don\u2019t want you to think less of them or they have experienced negative\nreactions in the past. Keeping that in mind, we\u2019ve seen positive outcomes when\nfaculty reply to the accommodation letter via email to open the lines of\ncommunication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did I get an accommodation letter so late into the\nsemester?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students have\nthe ability to request new accommodations or renew their current accommodations\nat any time, which is why you may receive an accommodation letter about one of\nyour students at any point throughout the semester. One important thing to note\nis that accommodations are not retroactive. So as an example, if you receive a\nletter in November that has \u201cModified Attendance Accommodation\u201d listed,\nabsences prior to that point are not automatically excused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My student is asking for an accommodation that is not on\ntheir accommodation letter. What should I do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your student\nis requesting additional accommodations from you that are not outlined in their\naccommodation letter, that is up to your discretion. If you ever have questions\nor concerns about a student\u2019s request that may seem outside of what is listed\nin their accommodation letter, please contact us and we would be happy to talk\nthrough it with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accommodation-Specific Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not comfortable with a student recording my class.\nAre there any times I can say not to record?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students with\ndisabilities may record the audio of class lectures, as an accommodation, if\nthey have a disability that significantly impacts their ability to\nindependently take notes (which is permitted via Section 504 of the\nRehabilitation Act). Each student that is approved for a note-taking\naccommodation using recording technology signs a Recording Agreement that\noutlines their responsibilities. If you would like to see the full Recording\nAgreement, we can share it with you via email. You do have the ability to ask\nfor any recording to stop if what is being discussed in class will not be\nassessed on an assignment or exam. For example, if you are engaging in a\nsensitive discussion that is occurring to aid in the learning of the material\nbut nothing from that discussion will be on an exam, you can ask students to\nstop recording. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a \u201cno-technology\u201d policy in my class. How do I\naddress students that have the accommodation to use computers in class?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing\nto keep in mind is that the accommodation to use a computer in class is\napproved based on a student\u2019s diagnosis. While we certainly understand the\ndistractions that technology can cause, we do want all students to be able to\nequally access the classroom environment. One example could be that a student\nhas dysgraphia (something you may not be able to notice by observation) so\nhaving access to type their notes would be the only option for them to\naccurately capture the lesson. One caveat to keep in mind is that, similarly to\nrecording, if there are discussions or lectures that will not be assessed, you\ncan ask for all students not to use technology. Secondly, if you notice that\nthe student with the accommodation is using their technology inappropriately\n(browsing the internet, checking email, etc.), we can help to address that\nbehavior and determine whether their accommodation needs to be adjusted if they\nare unable to focus while using technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My advisee told me they have an accommodation for a\nforeign language course substitution. Is that accurate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a student has\nbeen approved for a foreign language course substitution, it will be noted in\ntheir Degree Works. If you do not see it notated in their Degree Works, please\ncontact Accessibility Services to confirm. It is important that students either\nbegin the language course progression or seek the foreign language course\nsubstitution early in their career in case they need time to seek the proper\ndocumentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is my help needed in the note-taker recruitment\nprocess?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accessibility\nServices will facilitate the note-taker recruitment process from start to\nfinish. We may reach out to you if we have not heard back from any of the\nstudents in your class. If you are interested in knowing who the note taker is\nin your class, that information can be found on Accommodate. Please keep in\nmind that partnership is anonymous so the note-taker should not know who the\nnote-receiver is, and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exam Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do I get so many emails for exam requests?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recognize\nthat you receive several exam request emails, especially when you have multiple\nstudents with accommodations in your class. It is the student\u2019s responsibility\nto decide which quizzes and tests they would like to take using their\naccommodations. For that reason, the students place a request for each\nquiz\/test they would like to take using their accommodations. When a student\nplaces their exam request, that email is generated automatically and sent directly\nto you (which is why you may receive some in the middle of the night!). You\nwill receive an automated reminder email 24 hours in advance of your student\u2019s\nexam. Feel free to ignore that reminder email if we already have everything we\nneed from you for the exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My student has double-time as their extended time\naccommodation. Is that accurate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standard\nextended time is now time-and-a-half, unless otherwise stated in the student\u2019s\nmedical documentation. It is likely that you will see a combination of both\ntime-and-a-half and double-time. The accommodation listed in the student\u2019s\nletter is accurate to what is needed based on their documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is my exam secure?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Director,\nAssistant Director, and two graduate-level Coordinators are the only staff\nmembers with access to proctoring@rollins.edu. Before and after your exams are\nadministered, they are locked in our filing cabinet until you, or a\nrepresentative from your department, pick them up or until you give us\npermission to shred them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If these questions spurred new questions or left you with any unanswered questions, please contact us at (407)975-6463 or access@rollins.edu<\/span><\/a>. We hope for smooth sailing for the rest of the semester and good luck with finals!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image credit: Linus Bohman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whitney Horton & Jen HerrDirector & Assistant Director, Accessibility Services Currently, we have over 550 students affiliated with Accessibility Services
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[39,40],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-resource","tag-accessibility","tag-accommodations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/endeavor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}