Accommodating Students with Disabilities

To receive accommodations, students with disabilities are required to contact the LSC to meet with the Director of Disability Services. The Director will assess each situation on a case-by-case basis based on information and documentation provided by the student. Together they will arrive at a plan for reasonable accommodations as deemed appropriate.

Faculty Notification of Classroom Accommodations

Students are required each semester to request the LSC to send letters to their faculty outlining approved accommodations. Faculty will receive this information by email. The student is then responsible for initiating a conversation with the faculty member on how accommodations will be carried out in a particular course.

Please download the LSC Exam Proctoring Information and Policy for Instructors, which provides the most extensive and recent details for our proctoring procedures.

Exam accommodations

Extended time is generally 1.5 times the regular exam period. Reduced distraction location refers to a separate location outside the classroom. Unless it is specified in the accommodation letter, more than one student can be placed in the same room for the exam. A location close to the regular classroom is idea since students may ask for clarification during the exam.

Changes in Schedule of an Exam Time

When students with disabilities have 1.5X for exams, it is sometimes necessary to move the time of an exam.

• Regular semester exams: a student may not have enough time between classes for the allowed period to take an exam. Students are not required to miss other class periods in order to utilize exam accommodations. In such cases, the student and faculty member should discuss optional arrangements and times.
• Final exams: students may have two exams in succession. In order to allow the standard 1.5 hour rest period between the two exams, an alteration in the time period is permitted. In most cases, the student either starts the first exam an hour earlier or the second exam an hour later.
• When a change in exam time is given due to an accommodation, the student may not be given an alternative version of the test that differs in difficulty level or format from that provided the rest of the class.

LSC Proctored Exam

The LSC will proctor exams for students requiring the use of a computer or other technology for exams. Faculty should provide the accommodations for extra time and a distraction free location whenever possible. If a circumstance arises when this is not possible to do so, please contact Nick Mourning , to discuss possible alternative arrangements. Send exams to be proctored to .

A student is expected to submit a completed LSC Exam Proctoring Request Form, online or hardcopy, to the Coordinator, Nick Mourning, at least 5 days in advance of his or her first scheduled course exam. If you have not received an exam request reminder email from the coordinator, the student should not expect to take the test with the LSC.

It is important for Faculty and Students to know that if we receive less than the 5 day notice, we may not be able to arrange the exam in a timely manner to provide the requested accommodations.

Notetakers

When a student requests a note taker in a class, the LSC staff will contact the faculty member by email and request that they ask for a volunteer to share notes. The student volunteer receives $25 at the end of the semester for providing this service. In addition they are given a notebook with carbonless paper to take notes. The faculty should forward the name of the volunteer to Nick Mourning and they will be contacted with instructions.

Equal Access to Classroom Materials

The Learning Support Center assists students who may require printed material in an alternate format such as electronic text versions or larger print or braille. Providing materials in electronic format and on Course Web pages helps to facilitate access for students with print disabilities.

For students with accommodations for alternative format materials: When providing students with PDF files, if you are not certain whether the file is a PDF image or text document, please contact the LSC and we will determine if the file needs to be converted into a format that can be read by a screen reader. If you are providing students with paper copies of materials, please send a copy to the LSC and we will locate an electronic version or convert the pages into an electronic format.

More information

Faculty Notification: Special Situations

Occasionally a student's disability may require discussion and planning between the LSC staff and the faculty member before and during the semester. Special circumstances may include; planning for making text or other classroom materials accessible, or modifications to or use of special equipment in a laboratory. Faculty members will be contacted in these cases by LSC staff.

Modified attendance

The Learning Support Center is responsible for approving student accommodations. When a student requires a course adjustments resulting from legitimate disability related absence or inability to complete assignments, the LSC director is required to work with faculty to develop accommodations. However, there are limitations on the extent to which a student's absence or late assignments can be accommodated.

When determining the extent to which absence or late assignments can be accommodated the following factors need to be considered:

• The syllabus statements regarding attendance and late assignments
• To what extent does student attendance/participation form an essential part of the course including:
• The extent that class participation necessary to accomplish course objectives
• Student contributions in class constituting a significant part of the learning process
• Student absences impact on their learning experience or that of other students in the course
• To what extent does missing assignment dates impact the essential nature of the course:
• Late assignments prohibit the student from participating in essential class activities (peer discussions, peer review, etc.)

Accommodations request that are unreasonable and will not be provided include:

• The nature of the course program service or activity would be fundamentally altered
• The educational mission of Albion College would be substantially altered
• An undue financial or administrative hardship (college-wide) would be caused by the accommodations
• Accommodations of a personal nature such as a personal care attendant or equipment for personal use

Appeals Procedure based on Disability

Faculty or staff members who believe that an accommodation is unreasonable given the factors listed above, should contact the Director of the LSC as a first step in resolving the issue. We have outlined the informal and formal procedures for this process in our Appeals Policy.

Appeal Procedure based on Disability