Information for Faculty on Student Accommodations

The Center for Accessible Resources' (CAR) goal is to have an interactive process with faculty. CAR staff are available for consultation on specific students and/or accommodations.

If you are a student looking for information on accommodations please visit Student Accommodations.

This page has information for faculty about:

Student agreements

Students are required to sign agreements every term they are eligible for accommodations. The agreements outline student responsibilities and expectations. As a part of the interactive process, students are responsible for understanding the information presented in these agreements and seeking clarification, if needed, from their CAR primary advisor.

Please see the student agreements page.

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Testing accommodations

Directions for faculty

Hours of testing operation

9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday
For exceptions to testing hours contact the Center for Accessible Resources Testing (CARTesting).

General information

Test accommodations apply to all quizzes (including pop quizzes), tests, midterms, exams, and finals.
Faculty and students are encouraged to create or plan for a site where tests will be administered.
Possible locations include a department office, classroom, Resource Center, or CAR.
Students with test accommodations should be held to the same makeup/late policy as stated in the syllabus. Contact the CAR for assistance in determining if an exception related to disability is appropriate.

Moodle tests

Students with extended time accommodations may be accommodated directly in Moodle by setting a user override.
For assistance please visit this knowledgebase article from the Academic Technology Center (ATC) Faculty Support page. Contact ATC at extension 3377 for assistance.

Testing through CAR

Faculty members need to complete the testing agreement included with the Letter of Accommodation (via email).
Tests need to be received by noon the day before the scheduled test.
Tests will be returned the same day taken.
If during a test you provide the class with additional instructions or make modifications, contact CAR immediately so we can alert the student.

Security

Maintaining test security is very important to our department.

All tests are held in a secure, locked location.
During testing, students are monitored at all times by trained CAR staff.
If a student is witnessed using unauthorized material, or breaking any other established procedures, an incident report form will be completed and sent to the faculty member to determine consequences.

Pop quizzes

Contact CAR two business days prior to the quiz.
Arrangements will be made without disclosure to the student.

Please see testing duplication accommodation for more information.

If you are concerned you are not receiving CAR e-mails, please visit our troubleshooting page.

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Alternate format

The process of converting materials and books to an alternate format (audio, electronic text, enlargements, or Braille) can be quite time-consuming. The Center for Accessible Resources (CAR) must have the re-formatted materials in the student's hands within a reasonable time frame, as required by law. If an alternate format was requested reasonably far in advance, the student should be able to receive the reformatted materials at the same time that all other students receive their materials.

If manual production needs to be completed by our department or conversion to Braille or other specialized formats, the material may need to be hand-edited, line by line, before being converted. This often requires a considerable amount of time and resources. For this reason, it is essential that CAR staff receive a copy of your course syllabus with reading assignments as soon as possible so that they can prepare only the material required for the course. It is imperative you make every effort to meet the bookstore deadline for ordering your course materials. Students often need to purchase their books and materials weeks in advance so that their reformatted materials will be ready the first day of class.

When submitting materials for conversion to an alternate format

If materials are submitted on a CD or flash drive, please provide them in Microsoft Word with the material saved in either Rich Text Format or Plain Text if possible.
Hard copies that need to be scanned should be sent on "clean", clear, sequentially-numbered pages. Use white or cream colored paper and black ink. Colored paper or text does not scan well and produces files that are difficult to read for those with a visual loss.

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Equipment

Assistive Listening Devices (ALD):

Students with hearing loss may have difficulty hearing the lecture, classroom comments, or questions without assistance. The purpose of the ALD is to amplify the sound of the speaker for the listener.

Faculty may need to wear a clip microphone, attached to clothing near the mouth (or ask for a headset mic), and a small transmitter (put in a pocket, or attach to waistband), and turn it on. It is the student’s responsibility to keep equipment in between class sessions.

The student will use the receiver and some sort of listening accessory (headphones, etc.) to amplify the lecture to the volume needed.

If small group discussion is part of the coursework, the student can ask for a "conference" mic, which will amplify the voices of all group participants.

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Furniture

The Center for Accessible Resources (CAR) works closely with Facilities to make sure students who have alternate furniture accommodations have adequate chairs, etc. Alternate furniture needs, such as chairs and tables, must be requested through CAR and listed on the student’s Letter of Accommodation (LOA).

Important information for faculty:

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) chairs are marked at the base with faint gold paint.
There may be multiple chairs in a classroom as the number of students with an alternate accommodation may vary by class section.
Please don’t move or relocate these chairs.
If you notice that you have a chair with gold paint in your office, please return it to the classroom.
Issues? Contact CAR (x 5150) instead of Facilities.

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Service providers

Service providers are Center for Accessible Resources (CAR) staff who function in-class as sign language interpreters, readers, notetakers, scribes, or aides for lecture or lab classes. A service provider may be scheduled to be in class full-time or part-time as needed.

Service providers are not registered for the class, and should not participate except to ask for in the narrow scope of their role (examples include asking for clarification, or assisting students with manual tasks as necessary) as a part of the student’s approved accommodations. Service providers are not tutors, and do not have contact with students outside of class. Seating will need to be available for these service providers. Service providers may contact faculty directly to request use of a textbook or other materials used in class.

In-class aides may be provided for eligible students, attending class to assist with academic-related tasks. Duties may include: describing visual material presented in class, assisting with classroom activities or in-class assignments; setting up materials and doing the "hands-on" work in labs.

Service providers, in-class aides/readers/scribes, and sign language interpreters are not replacements for captioning and providing visual descriptions; these in-class helpers will not describe video. If possible please provide a transcript of video or audio materials shared in class.

Lab classes

In-class aides and service providers in labs will only help to carry out lab procedures that students are unable to complete due to their disabilities. All information about actual lab processes and procedures are the student's responsibility. In-class aides…

Will perform only those tasks directed by the student.
Will not function as a teacher or tutor.
Will not prompt or guide a student in performing a lab task.
Will adhere to proper lab procedures.

Note: The college does not provide personal care attendants or aides to assist students with disabilities in carrying out personal functions or physically navigating campus.

In rare cases, a non-staff "Support Person" may accompany a student if there are specific personal assistance needs. This is not considered an accommodation and is contingent upon faculty approval for an additional, non-student to be in the classroom. Request written guidelines from the Center for Accessible Resources.

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In-class accommodations

Extensions on specific assignment deadlines

We are no longer including the accommodation "Extensions on specific assignment deadlines" on student LOAs. Over time, it has become clear that this accommodation, which has been broadly written, is confusing to both students and faculty. It has been difficult to determine how and when to use it, and individual situations vary greatly.

Instead, the Center for Accessible Resources (CAR) is asking students to immediately contact their CAR Advisor if they need to request extended time for assignments due to their disability. CAR will review the specific situation and discuss strategies the student might use. In some cases, there will be a need for a student to have extensions on assignment deadlines, and CAR will contact the faculty member to work this out. We hope this will be a more efficient and clear way of implementing this accommodation.

Movement/breaks

Some students may need to move frequently—to stand up, stretch, walk around, or even leave the room.

Students are responsible for lecture material, and should be considerate of others, causing as little disruption to the educational environment as possible when standing, stretching, leaving or re-entering the classroom.

Recorded lectures

Students with a range of disabilities may choose to record lectures for a variety of reasons.

Students may record any lecture or lab information that might be included on an exam.

Faculty members have the option of establishing some reasonable limits related to recording lectures in order to protect students' privacy. It may not be appropriate to record when personal information is being shared by classmates. Faculty may clarify the student's use of the recorded information or establish a time limit for maintaining the audio recording (i.e. for the term).

Faculty may ask a student to sign an agreement establishing reasonable limitations to recording lectures. CAR provides such an agreement to students when they check out an audio recorder. For more information about the laws surrounding audio recording, see our guide on obtaining contents of communications.

Volunteer notetakers

Students are asked to identify classmates who are willing to function as volunteer notetakers. CAR can provide NCR paper (carbonless paper). This paper should be used by the volunteer notetaker and a copy shared with the student.

The student may ask the faculty member for assistance in identifying a volunteer notetaker. The faculty member may approach a specific student for this task or make a general statement to the class.

Suggested statement: "There's a need for a volunteer notetaker who will share notes with another student. Please notify me at the break if you are available for this."

The student and notetaker work directly with each other.

If no volunteer notetaker can be identified, it is the student's responsibility to return to Center for Accessible Resources and ask for further assistance.

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Service animals

Please see the College Online Policy and Procedures on Service Animals.

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Disability-related absences

Some students have an accommodation where exams/quizzes should be rescheduled if there is a disability-related absence.

Attendance considerations

This is not a specific accommodation.

Some students may have absences during the term that are related to their disabilities. If this should happen, the Center for Accessible Resources (CAR) requests some flexibility on your part: to work with the student to allow the opportunity to make up missed assignments and/or adjusting attendance policies where possible.

CAR acknowledges that attendance is crucial to student success in your class, and you are not required to fundamentally alter the nature of the course. However, flexibility is appreciated. It is the student's responsibility to keep you informed as to when flare-ups prevent the student from attending, and to negotiate arrangements for completing course requirements.

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To request this information in an alternate format (Braille, digital, audio, or large print), please contact Center for Accessible Resources: (541) 463-5150 (voice); 711 (relay); Building 19, 231; or AccessibleResources@lanecc.edu.