Once a student has registered with Disability Services and been granted academic accommodations, i.e. those for the classroom and for exams, those accommodations are available throughout their time at UMass Amherst (unless explicitly granted as temporary). It is the student's responsibility to notify their instructors of their accommodations each semester; this is an important part of the self-advocacy that Disability Services seeks to foster in students.
Accommodations cannot be applied retroactively, so students are encouraged to notify instructors at the beginning of the semester whether or not they anticipate needing the accommodations. Nevertheless, students have the ability to choose exactly which accommodations are communicated to each instructor. Please note that diagnostic information is never shared with anyone beyond the staff at Disability Services, and our office respects the student’s right to decide if they will disclose the nature of their disability to instructors.
Academic accommodations are communicated to instructors through Clockwork, which is the most secure way to transmit the data. Instructors must login to their own Clockwork portal to access the accommodation letters; the letters themselves are not sent via email, only a notification that there is a letter in Clockwork.
Accommodations for exams and for course notes are also managed, in part, through Clockwork, and cannot be accessed by the student until those accommodations are communicated through the system.
How to Send the Letter(s)
Students should visit Clockwork, and choose the module called Review and Request Accommodations (Submit Letters), then select Accommodations from the black menu bar. This section is behind Single Sign-On (SSO), so students need to login with their UMass email and password.
Selecting the Request button from the any course will begin the process. Students can choose which accommodations to include, and for which courses. If all courses will have the same accommodations, everything can be completed on the same screen. Otherwise, students can Request different options from their approved accommodations for different classes.
This document is a two-page PDF with some screenshots of the process and a high-level outline of the steps to complete.
Step-by-Step Video Tutorial
This video will cover how to send accommodation letters to instructors. This tutorial contains screenshots of the process, and at many points a red rectangle outline is added to orient you to section being discussed. This video is best viewed in full screen mode, and you can also turn on captions and adjust the playback speed in YouTube under Settings.
After Sending the Letter(s)
Once the accommodation letters have been sent, students can choose to download a copy of the each letter by selecting the Get Letter button. If the student enrolls in new classes during add/drop, or additional accommodations are granted after the letters have already been sent, the process will need to be repeated.
Students are also encouraged to reach out to their instructors, introduce themselves, and review the approved accommodations in order to set expectations and discuss any additional classroom needs. Again, this is an important aspect of self-advocacy, and students are not required to disclose the nature of their disability in order to communicate their needs. If a student has concerns about how their approved accommodation can apply to a specific course or learning experience, they are encouraged to contact their assigned Access Coordinator as soon as possible.
At times, while an accommodation may be approved and deemed reasonable for disability reasons, it may not be reasonable within the context of a specific academic experience, such as if the accommodation would lower academic expectations or pose a fundamental alteration to the essential learning objectives of a particular course.
If an instructor has concerns that a student’s approved accommodation may be unreasonable within the unique structure of their course, they should consult with Disability Services as soon as possible; it is important to consult with Disability Services and explore potential alternatives before denying the student access to their formally approved accommodations.