It is the student’s responsibility to initiate their accommodations by scheduling a private meeting with each instructor during their office hours or an agreed-upon time to discuss how the approved accommodations will be delivered in each course. Students are told that instructors must be given reasonable advance notice to make arrangements. Accommodations such as extra time for exams may be arranged within a week; however, accommodations such as sign-language interpreting, Braille, video description and closed captioning may take up to a month to put into place. The Office of Disability Services for Students encourages students to meet with their instructors as soon as possible. Accommodations become valid and are forward moving when the student meets with their instructor. Accommodations are not retroactive.
It is the responsibility of the instructor/faculty member to share detailed course expectations with his/her student and thoroughly explain how their accommodations will be delivered during the course. We recommend developing a semester plan for testing accommodations with your student. The plan should outline when and where testing will occur and address any potential scheduling conflicts.
Due to limited space in the DSS office, we ask all instructors to arrange testing accommodations in their departments when possible. When providing testing accommodations within your department, please keep the following items in mind:
- Extended test time cannot interfere with another regularly scheduled class.
- For quizzes, your testing plan must allow the student to complete the quiz with their accommodations without missing your lecture.
If you have difficulty making arrangements or are unable to deliver exam accommodations within your department, see the section on Exam Accommodations.
If your student has either “Classroom—Flexible Absences” accommodations, you should allow extra time to complete a disability-related accommodation agreement with your student.