Speak Up: Your Guide To Self-Advocacy
Landmark College The premier college for students with learning disabilities and/or AD/HD.
We Connect Now – We Connect is dedicated to uniting college students with disabilities in access to higher education and employment issues.
Teaching Students with Disabilities: A Proactive Approach
Maintaining Academic Integrity in a Program While Accommodating Students with Disabilities
Test-taking Strategies (Powerpoint)
Assignment Calculator (from the University of Minnesota Libraries)
How to Get Good Grades in College
Exactly What Are “Appropriate Academic Adjustments” (Accommodations) and How Are They Implemented?
The terms “academic adjustments” and “academic accommodations” are frequently used interchangeably, with the former being the preferred term in a post-secondary setting. When used alone, the word “accommodations” generally refers to non-academic modifications such as housing or transportation arrangements. An appropriate academic adjustment is a modification to the learning environment or learning process that removes a barrier to full participation and allows equal access for students with disabilities. Academic adjustments are meant to eliminate discrimination by equalizing opportunities, not to provide an unfair advantage to eligible students.
When a student registers with the DS, accommodations and academic adjustments are jointly determined by the student and the Disabilities Specialist. All requested accommodations and/or academic adjustments must be determined to be appropriate to the student’s documented needs.
Outright denial of an accommodation or academic adjustment without due deliberation could result in claims of discrimination and in litigation against the individual faculty or staff member, or institution.
A student must give a faculty or staff member adequate time to honor his/her request for accommodations or academic adjustments. Depending on the level of complexity of the request, a minimum of one week’s advanced notice is suggested.
Appropriate academic adjustments fall into four categories:
- Services – e.g. notetaking, reader services, scribing, interpreting
- Alternative media – e.g. large print, recorded textbooks, braille materials
- Adaptive technology – e.g. adaptive computer keyboards, assistive listening devices, computer voice input and output, magnifying microscopes
- Modifications to Policies, Procedures, Practices – e.g. alternative testing procedures, alternate test formats, extended deadlines, course substitutions
DS staff are available to assist faculty in implementing any needed academic adjustments. In situations where course materials need to be obtained in or converted to alternative formats such as large print or braille, it is essential that faculty and DS staff work closely to ensure that materials are available to the student in the desired format in a timely manner.
Off-campus experiences. Faculty need to assure accessibility when planning class trips or field work experiences outside of the college. Faculty should verify the accessibility of museums and other destinations. Accessible vans and buses can be reserved through transportation companies. Students with disabilities may require assistive listening devices, interpreting services, or audio-taped descriptions when participating in field trips. DS staff can be notified for assistance in making arrangements.
Field placements and internships are important components of some academic programs. Transportation, job site modification and job accommodations may be necessary for students with not readily discernible disabilities, as well as for those with more obvious needs. Faculty responsible for placements should openly discuss accessibility needs with the students, and may contact the DS for assistance in arranging the appropriate sites and/or job accommodations.
Fundamental alteration not required. Meaningful access, as defined by the federal laws, does not require that the college fundamentally alter the nature of programs or services, nor does it require providing modifications that would impose undue financial burdens on the college. Students are involved in planning for their academic adjustments, but historically the laws have been interpreted to favor the institution (as represented by DS) as having the ultimate right to choose the manner in which meaningful access is provided. Recent Office of Civil Rights (OCR) rulings have challenged this interpretation in favor of supporting the student’s preferred mode of academic accommodation.
Great booklets you can order:
Item #181 – How to Get Good Grades in College
Item #182 – Getting the Most Out of College
from Woodburn Press