Faculty Rights & Responsibilities

• You will need to request verification of a student's eligibility for any accommodations. Such verification will be in the form of a Faculty Notification Letter, written by a professional from ACCESS and delivered by the student. For on line classes, the notification will be emailed directly to you.

• ACCESS is the only office designated to review disability documentation and determine eligibility for appropriate accommodations. Faculty may not view this documentation.

• Expect the student to initiate accommodation requests.

• If the student is taking their tests in the ACCESS High Tech Center, expect the tests to be administered in a secure and monitored environment.

• Identify and establish essential functions, abilities, skills, and knowledge of their courses and evaluate students on this basis. Students with disabilities should meet the same course expectations as their peers.

• Use a syllabus statement and class announcements to invite students to disclose their needs. A syllabus statements is available the Office of Instruction.

• Act immediately upon getting a student's request for accommodations by contacting ACCESS (if unsure about request), by providing the service or by meeting with the student to complete test accommodation paperwork. These forms facilitate exam accommodations and should be completed by the student and faculty member collaboratively. If you have questions, contact ACCESS.

• If a student needs alternate media, please provide the Alternate Media Center with syllabi, textbooks, course packets etc, well before classes begin (5 weeks prior to the start of the semester is recommended) in order for students with disabilities to use alternate media when all other students have course materials. With such timely consideration, students with disabilities who have alternate media for accommodations and instructional access will be best served. Converting print materials is both labor and time intensive. Alternate media may be print material in Braille, on audiotapes, scanned onto discs, or enlarged. Contact Virginia Moore, Alternate Media Specialist: 760-366-5863

• Work to ensure that all audio-visual materials used in class are accessible (e.g., that videos and DVDs are captioned for students with hearing impairments and that the VCR equipment used has captioning capabilities.) All captioning requests are through Virginia Moore at the Alternate Media Center in the Library.

• Consider incorporating principles of Universal Design for Learning in your teaching. A fact sheet on Universal Design is available from disability services or at www.osu.edu

• Treat and protect all disability-related information as confidential medical information. For example, keep printed items, such as test accommodation forms or emails regarding student disability-related information in a protected location.

• The best way to find out about students' needs is to encourage them to talk to you during your office hours to ensure confidentiality. It is illegal to ask students to identify themselves to you in an open forum or to request a list of students with disabilities in your class. A more effective method is for you to:

• Include a statement first class encouraging students to contact you early in the term. For example, "If there is a student in this class who has a need for test-taking or note taking accommodation, please feel free to come and discuss this with me." Take early and gentle initiative in seeking an ongoing dialogue with the student about ways in which you can be supportive.

• Encourage students to develop the independence and self-advocacy skills that will help them outside the classroom while in college and beyond.

• Take care to make eye contact to encourage participation and questions.

• Assist the student in teaming up with a classmate to obtain copies of notes. Permit the use of a tape recorder in class.

• At the start of each class, provide a brief review of the previous session and an overview of what is to come.

• Provide a written outline of the lecture to guide the student and to make more apparent its structure when discussions diverge from it.

• Take care to include time for questions, discussions and requests for further examples.

• Verbally describe diagrams, charts, and graphs.

• Provide print copies of PowerPoint or other presentations.

• Clearly communicate your testing procedures with the student and with the High Tech Center by completing test accommodation forms upon request.

• Consult with students with disabilities and the ACCESS in providing appropriate accommodations

Faculty does NOT have the right to ask students if they have a disability. For those students with documented disabilities, faculty does NOT have the right to ask about the nature of the disability. However, if students choose to disclose their disability, this information must be treated confidentially.

Additional Information regarding Digital Recording of Lectures

• Students who have been authorized by ACCESS to tape record lectures have signed an agreement not to tape statements of a personal nature, release the recording, or otherwise infringe upon the publishing rights of the instructor. (Tape Recording Policy)

• If you have questions about the appropriateness of the accommodations requested, or how best to administer the accommodations, please contact theACCESS for further clarification. The faculty/staff member should continue to provide accommodations while the issue is being resolved.ACCESS (760) 366-3791, ext 5861.