Disability Services
For Faculty - What the legal guidelines mean in your courses
You should never feel required to fundamentally
alter the content or goals of your course.
For example, consider the scenario of teaching an education course
that involves a classroom observation. You have a student with a visual
impairment in class. Does the course require visual observation of the
classroom? Is it sufficient to have someone describe the scene to the
student, who would be responsible for writing the summary and making conclusions? Would
hearing the situation be sufficient? Your objective is to determine what
activities are essential to your course and why. This will help determine
reasonable accommodations.
Your focus in dealing with students with disabilities
should be on ACCESS, not SUCCESS.
The accommodation letters you receive are intended to outline means
of providing this access, whether through the use of note takers, books on
tape, enlarged handouts, or extended time on tests.
Students with disabilities should be graded by the same standard as all other students. Because students with disabilities are considered “otherwise qualified” to be enrolled in college, they should be evaluated by the same criteria as any other qualified individual. This is true regardless of the means of submission of the assignment (i.e., on tape or orally rather than written). You may choose to modify a deadline for an assignment or make other modifications that appear to be appropriate given a certain student’s disabilities, but these are not always mandated by law and should not be considered in grading unless you have explicitly explained the potential effect when making the accommodation.
Keep in mind that accommodations are designed to
level the playing field, not to provide a certain student with advantages
over her/his peers.
Accommodations are created based on documentation provided to Disability Services. They
compensate for a recognized disability by allowing equal access to educational
materials and activities. They are not unfair to students in the course
who do not have accommodation letters.
An extended deadline on an assignment is very rarely an appropriate accommodation, while extended time on tests is often appropriate. The difference between these two types of extensions is significant when considering application in an employment setting after college. Most students recognize this and recognize that it is not appropriate to expect deadline extensions. You may allow these extensions yourself, but this is very rarely necessary according to documentation and legal requirements
- Contact Disability Services
- Paul Hastings, Director Academic Assistance and Disability Services
- email: phastings@wheelock.edu
