Under the law, the University is not required to provide accommodations that are overly burdensome or unreasonable.  However, given the financial and human resources of the campus, and the fact that UMass is a public institution, these standards are quite high for the University.  Accordingly, faculty/instructors should never deny an accommodation, but should instead work with Disability Services to address any questions or concerns related to level of burden or reasonableness.  If the accommodation in question serves to fundamentally alter the pedagogic intention of the course or assignment, then an alternative accommodation may be possible.  Disability Services will be able to advise you in this regard. 

In rare cases when an informal resolution (e.g., the identification of an acceptable alternative accommodation) is not possible, faculty/instructors may initiate a dispute via the campus’ ADA Compliance Officer.  Information about the accommodation dispute policy is available upon request, but it should be noted that in order to ensure that the student does not suffer any negative academic consequences, the disputed accommodation(s) should be provided while the dispute is considered.  Potential exceptions to this provision include when the accommodation involves program extensions, curricular modifications, or activities that could result in injury or harm.  These exceptional cases will be handled on a case-by-case basis.           

Cost will typically not be a basis for denying an accommodation.  If a specific academic program does not have available funds to provide a specific accommodation or service, then the need for additional funds should be communicated along budgetary reporting lines so the required funding can be identified and allocated.  In this regard, Disability Services strongly encourages academic programs and departments to plan for exceptional expenses associated with disability access to course activities.  For example, if an instructor is planning a field trip to an off campus site, consideration should be given to the possibility that a student who uses a wheelchair may take the course and require an accessible bus to participate.  It is generally not appropriate to cancel a planned activity, excuse the student with a disability, or provide a stigmatizing/exclusionary means of access (e.g., having a student who uses a wheelchair take a wheelchair accessible van alone while the rest of the class takes a bus).  Recall that we are seeking full, meaningful, and equitable inclusion.  By setting aside funds and anticipating disability access requirements, academic departments can allocate or request necessary funds in a timely manner.  

As the course instructor, it is incumbent upon you (and any co-instructors and/or teaching assistants) to create an educational experience that is inclusive of, and accessible to, people with a wide range of disability access requirements.  Disability Services is prepared to assist you by sending notices of accommodation eligibility, and we are a willing resource when questions and concerns arise.  Therefore, at a minimum, it is the instructor’s responsibility to respond to accommodation notifications in a timely manner and to provide accessible course instruction materials.  However, we encourage you to begin thinking about access long before the semester begins and notifications are sent. 

Although important, disability accommodations are not always sufficient or ideal.  The idea behind accommodations is that a special modification must be made to the program or services (e.g., a course) in order for the person with a disability to participate.  While this does work, a better practice is to consider the access requirements of people with disabilities while designing your course.  In recent decades, this concept has been formalized under a number of names such as Universal Design for Instruction, Universal Curricular Design, and Universal Design for Learning.  A quick Google search for any of these terms will produce numerous useful and informative links, so we will not go into their various principles here.  Instead, we will offer you some readily employable suggestions.

• Start with your syllabus.  Make sure your syllabus is clear, comprehensive, and broadly accessible. Universal Design in Higher Education offers a number of helpful suggestions for improving the accessibility of your syllabus as does Equity and Excellence in Higher Education: Universal Course Design. 
• Utilize the expertise available from the IDEAS team to design your course accessibly. 
• Consider your pedagogic priorities.  Do you discourage the use of memory aids during tests because memorization is important, or because that is how you were taught?  If you are more concerned with the application of concepts and ideas, maybe memory aids can be permitted (or provided in the body of an exam), thereby reducing the need for exceptional practices.  Many other applications of this process are possible, including the provision of copies of lecture notes/slides, additional time for exams, and offering multiple means of evaluation.  
• Encourage participation in the accommodation process.  Be sure your syllabus includes a statement about disability that informs students of your willingness to provide reasonable accommodations, and encourages them to work with Disability Services to inform you of their accommodation eligibility.  Please note: there is only one Disability Services office at UMass.  Accordingly, be sure to remove any mention of Learning Disabled Student Services (LDSS) and Psychological Disability Services (PDS), as they no longer exist, and referrals to them will confuse or discourage students. 
• Distribute accessible electronic copies of course materials.  Electronic materials are useful to students with diverse disabilities because they can be saved and accessed as needed, and some electronic formats (e.g., .pdf documents) are compatible with screen reading software.  However, electronic materials that are image files (e.g., .jpeg and non-optical character recognition (OCR) .pdf files are not widely accessible.  With enough advance notice, Disability Services may be able to advise and/or assist you with making your course materials accessible.  
• Share accommodation information with TA's regarding the needs of any students enrolled in the course that they are responsible for evaluating. Our technology does not allow for us currently to list more than the instructor listed in SPIRE, which does not always include TA information. 

In order to be eligible for accommodations, students with disabilities must first register with Disability Services.  The registration process involves the completion of an intake form and the submission of supporting diagnostic documentation.  Intake forms are available on the Disability Services website, and diagnostic documentation will typically be a letter or report completed by a qualified medical or psychological professional.  Once these items are received, the documentation is screened in order to verify disability status and provide a basis for accommodation eligibility.  Students will typically learn about the status of their application within ten business days, but the process can take longer during administratively demanding times such as the first two weeks of a semester and finals week.      

Once determination of accommodation eligibility is complete, the student must then request that notification of their accommodation eligibility be sent to their course instructors.  Typically, Access Coordinators will send notice of a student’s eligibility to course instructors (i.e., the instructor of record listed in SPIRE).  Please note that absent a request by the student, Disability Services will not send notifications.  If a student approaches you about accommodations and you have not yet heard from Disability Services, please ask the student to contact our office and request that official notification of their eligibility be sent to you. 

While we do our best to send notifications early in the semester, due to the number of students enrolled with our office (i.e., over 3,200 students), it is not possible for us to send all notifications during the first two weeks of each semester.  Further, many students only become aware of their disability and/or need for accommodation because of feedback and experiences at the University, so it is likely that you will receive notifications at any point in the semester.  Regardless of when you receive notification, we ask that you work with students to address their accommodation requirements.  However expectations should be reasonable in accordance with the timing of the notification, and accommodations are not retroactive.  Therefore, we recognize that it may not be possible to provide an accommodation if you do not receive adequate notice (e.g., the exam is scheduled for the next day), and you are not required to allow a student to re-take or revisit an exam administered prior to your receiving notice of their eligibility.

Disabilities (not to mention people!) are heterogeneous in nature, so it is unlikely that any two students—even two with the same diagnosis—will respond to specific accommodations identically.  Accordingly, the accommodation process is frequently recursive, requiring periodic evaluation and reconsideration of accommodation eligibility.  Typically, the evaluation of accommodations takes place during regular meetings with a Access Coordinator here at Disability Services.  For instance, a student might describe incongruence between their knowledge of a particular subject and their performance on a related assignment.  In response, the Access Coordinator will consider if additional or different accommodations are appropriate.  If so, a new round of notifications might be sent to instructors.  Another important aspect of evaluation involves course instructors.  It is not uncommon for an instructor to notice that something more is required for a student to perform to their potential.  In cases like this, the student and Disability Services should be consulted as soon as possible to consider possible changes in accommodation eligibility and/or approaches to teaching/learning.  

Many students with disabilities will find it prohibitively difficult, or impossible, to physically take notes in class.  Others may not be able to attend to the lecture while taking notes, resulting in gaps in comprehension.  In cases such as these, the student will be made eligible for notes.  This need for notes can be met in a number of ways; the primary methods being the provision of notes/materials by instructors and the identification of a note taker from the students enrolled in the course.  A discussion of these approaches follows.    

Instructor provides copies of prepared lecture notes, slides, and other course material before class, if available.  These materials can be emailed or posted to classroom management software in advance of the class session that the material will be covered.  Please take a moment to inform the Disability Services Note Taking Coordinator if you provide notes in your course and in what format. A brief email to notes@admin.umass.edu will allow us to spread the word to eligible students on how to access your notes. For many students, the provision of this accommodation will mitigate the need for an in-class note taker.  In recent years, many instructors have made a general practice of sharing their outlines or power point slides with all students, and we at Disability Services encourage this trend as a form of universal design.

Access to in-class notes produced by a note taker. When acceptable notes are not available from the course instructor, efforts should be made to identify an in-class note taker.  We ask that instructors continue to recruit volunteer note takers.  Note Takers can earn 1 undergraduate, P/F, practicum credit or 45 hours of community service for providing notes for the full semester. Uploading is easy and can be done online.

Please be aware that there are a growing number of third party vendors that hire students to serve as note takers and allot them payment by the amount of traffic they bring to their site. UMass Disability Services is not affiliated with ANY of these companies, nor do we endorse the use of such measures.

Note Taking Accommodation Information

Contact: Zoe Kopec, Note Taking Coordinator

Email: notes@admin.umass.edu                             

Phone:  413-545-0892               Fax: 413-577-0122

In some cases, the nature of the student’s disability will result in tardiness or missed classes.  While attendance is important—sometimes essential—this accommodation calls for the most flexibility possible in a particular context.  The spirit of this accommodation is that the student will not be penalized for missed class time, but in some cases (e.g., laboratory sections and discussions) attendance is critical to the evaluation of a student’s learning.  In these cases, we advise that you speak with the student about the essential nature of attendance and contact Disability Services for guidance and potential alternative forms of accommodation.  

When appropriate, Disability Services supports access to classrooms and course content by assigning a classroom access assistant to work with a student.  These assistants are analogous to personal care assistants, only their function is limited to academic activities.  For instance, an assistant could manipulate lab equipment and measure chemicals for a chemistry lab assignment.  Instructors should speak directly to the student—not the assistant.  

Extended time on exams.  Perhaps the most common and fundamental exam accommodation is the provision of additional time.  Students will typically be eligible for either time and a half (150% time) or double time (200% time), but in very rare cases a student may be eligible for longer or “untimed” exams (which may extend to a full business day).  Determination of the accommodation length is based upon the clinical recommendations found in the student’s diagnostic documentation, the experiences of the qualified student, and the professional judgment of the student’s Consumer Manager at Disability Services. 

A distraction reduced setting. This accommodation calls for you to arrange an alternative setting, one with less likelihood of auditory or visual distractions.  For small classes, this accommodation may not be necessary (speak with the student to determine if this is true); but for larger classes, where the sounds of students moving, zipping up bags, moving chairs, and turning in exams can be distracting, it is necessary to schedule an alternative room for the students receiving this accommodation to take the exam.  If you are unable to provide this accommodation, the proctoring center at Disability Services can offer assistance. For remote instruction, the student has to manage their home environment as best they can to reduce distraction.

Use of a computer.  In some cases, the nature of a student’s disability requires the use of a computer to access or respond to an exam.  In these cases, Disability Services is prepared to support the student with appropriate hardware and/or software via our exam proctoring services.  When necessary, Disability Services will provide test takers with appropriate assistive technologies access such as JAWS, Kurzweil, and MathType.     

Large print version of test.  In many cases, this accommodation only requires that you make an enlarged copy of an exam with your department’s photocopy machine.  If the materials are electronic, they can typically be accessed through the accessibility features native to most computers. The student should be consulted to determine the degree of enlargement/font size required.

Night Exams. Evening exams are often a challenge for students who need extended time or other exam accommodations. In order to provide proctoring assistance, if needed, night exams should be scheduled for 5pm. Those who require time and a half (150% time) will have until 8 pm to complete the exam and those with double time (200%) will have until 9 pm to complete the exam  You may contact the EPC Coordinator to provide approval for students to take their exams during the day of the exam or the day after, but students cannot book those exams without instructor approval. From time to time, we can provide 2 proctors for evening exams held elsewhere. This requires considerable planning, so please notify the Coordinator of this request as soon as you schedule your exams.  

Mt. Ida campus. Students should follow the same procedure on Clockwork, but if there are exams scheduled after 5 pm, or exams that must be scheduled at a time that does not overlap the class, please contact Patricia Link at examsaccess@admin.umass.edu  7 days in advance to make arrangements. All exams are to be taken remotely. Please be aware that lab practicals and practical exams in the Veterinary Technology program must take place in the allotted location and during the schedule time-frame for the course. Extended time cannot be provided for these types of exams. Standard (lecture) exams can be accommodated by the Disability Services Exam Proctoring staff. Simply log in to Clockwork at www.umass.edu/disability, 7 days in advance to request a proctored exam accommodation (if eligible). 

Use of a scribe *and/or* reader for exam.  The purpose of a scribe and/or reader is to allow the student to access exam content and accurately represent their responses.  Readers and scribes do not correct answers or clarify the meaning of questions.  Some instructors prefer to provide these accommodations themselves so they can ensure that the student understands the questions fully, but Disability Services is prepared to offer a scribe or reader as needed remotely, assuming the request is received seven business days prior to the exam date.