Academic Accommodations and Adjustments
The purpose of accommodations is to provide equal access for otherwise qualified students with disabilities. The office of Disability Services makes determinations regarding appropriate accommodations and adjustments on a case-by-case basis. We require documentation from the treating health care professional and encourage a great deal of input from the student in order to understand the functional impact of the disability on the student’s ability to access courses, programs, services, and activities.
In some cases Disability Services will request input from faculty in order to consider unique characteristics of a particular course or program of study, such as performance based standards associated with internship or fieldwork experiences. All students must be able to meet essential academic, behavioral, and performance standards associated with a course or field of study. Generally, accommodations are related to accessing course print and audiovisual material, lecture content, and tests.
Course Accessibility
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Access to course print material:
Students with print (vision, reading) disorders may request accessible course material as an accommodation. The office of Disability Services will modify material submitted through the College Bookstore Faculty Adoptions Procedure (textbooks and course packs) prior to the beginning of the semester.
Faculty who use supplemental course print material not submitted through the Faculty Adoptions Procedure can convert documents into an accessible format for requesting students with Acrobat Pro. Acrobat Pro software is installed on the computer used by the administrative assistant in every academic department. Faculty can also request this software from ITS.
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Access to class lectures:
Recording Class Lectures:
It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they plan to record lectures as an accommodation. A recording may be an audio replication recorded on devices including, but not limited to, audio recorders, cellular phones, MP3 players, computers and other handheld devices that record sound. Qualifying students must sign a Recorded Lectures Agreement; this document will be kept on file in Disability Services.
Assistive Listening Devices:
Some students who are hard of hearing may use FM systems.FM systems utilize wireless technologies to amplify the speaker’s voice via a lapel or independent microphone, and may be effective for students who have residual hearing.
Learn more… http://www.pepnet.org/sites/default/files/Assistive%20Listening%20Systems-%20Intro-%20launch.pdf
Inclusive instruction:
Requesting faculty speak only when facing the class, and not while writing on a white board is considered a reasonable request; please provide this accommodation when asked. Students who are hard of hearing (HOH) often rely on speech reading or “reading lips”. As approximately 30% of the English language is formed within the oral cavity and not visible on the mouth, this method of accessing spoken information results in a great deal of missed or misinterpreted information. The ability to speech read is greatly affected by accents, facial hair, room acoustics, room size, lighting, classroom set-up, familiarity with the topic, and the student’s own speech reading ability.
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- If you are unsure how to respond to a request for access to a course, program or activity, please contact the Director of Disability Services at 717-361-1227 or by email at daviesl@etown.edu .
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Access to audiovisual media:
Only captioned media should be shown in class and assigned as course requirements if a student who is deaf or hard of hearing is enrolled in the course . The term media includes films, videotapes, CD’s DVD’s, streamed digital media, e.g. you tube, live webinars, or any other material containing audio. It is the student’s responsibility to inform faculty they need this accommodation if the syllabus indicates audiovisual media is required for the course. Faculty can either contact Disability Services or can make arrangements directly for this service http://www.ccmaker.com/. A few weeks’ notice is usually required. Please consider requesting films/videos that are available in captioned form as you update your video libraries or borrow films.
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Testing Accommodations:
Elizabethtown College is committed to providing equal access and reasonable academic adjustments, auxiliary aids and/ or services for qualifying students. Students who qualify for testing accommodations should contact the Office of Disability Services at the beginning of each semester to specify which faculty they would like to receive a copy of the accommodations letter. Students should arrange to meet with each of their faculty to discuss the accommodations.
Students have the right to take exams in the most appropriate environment, whether that be the classroom with their peers, or another suitable place with reduced distractions or assistive technology such as a screen reader. Their preference for testing locations should be strongly considered. Students who prefer to take test in the classroom need to make arrangements with faculty for the extended time based upon available space, their schedule, and their professor’s schedule.
The Learning Zone offers a space for students who choose to take tests in a separate room or with assistive technology. In this event, faculty can provide the following information to disabilityservices@etown.edu
- an electronic version of the exam
- the date and time the student plans to take the test
- how to contact you during the exam in case there are questions
- specific testing instructions, such as use of a calculator
- the length of time permitted for students taking the exam in class
Completed exams will be scanned and returned to faculty as an email attachment – the original will be sent through campus mail. According to the Faculty Handbook Final Exam Policy (4.10 H) students with three exams in one day may directly request of a professor that one exam be rescheduled during exam week. Three exams taken under standard conditions would necessitate nine hours of testing. For students qualifying for 50% additional time for testing, two exams scheduled in the same day involves nine hours of testing. While the faculty handbooks states there is no obligation on the part of the faculty member to reschedule the exam under standard testing condition, this request should be considered an accommodation. All requests for rescheduling an exam must be made at least five class days before the start of the final exam week.
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Accommodations Letter:
The office of Disability Services will give each student an accommodations letter at the beginning of each semester specifying the accommodations for which they qualify. Students should make an appointment with each of their faculty, give them a copy of the letter, and discuss the implementation of each of the accommodations listed. Faculty should contact Disability Services immediately if they think a particular accommodation is unreasonable or represents a fundamental alteration of a course or program of study. Students should contact Disability Services immediately if a particular accommodation request is denied. In either case, the office of Disability Services will arrange a meeting with all three parties to discuss alternative options to provide access.
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Syllabus Statement:
Elizabethtown College welcomes otherwise qualified students with disabilities to participate in all of its courses, programs, services, and activities. If you have a documented disability and would like to request accommodations in order to access course material, activities, or requirements, please contact the Director of Disabilities, Lynne Davies, by phone 717-361-1227 or e-mail daviesl@etown.edu. If your documentation meets the college’s documentation guidelines, you will be given a letter from Disability Services for each of your professors. Students experiencing certain documented temporary conditions, such as post-concussive symptoms, may also qualify for temporary academic accommodations and adjustments. As early as possible in the semester, set up an appointment to meet with me, the instructor, to discuss the academic adjustments specified in your accommodations letter as they pertain to my class.
NOTE:
To ensure that all students with disabilities have been informed of the procedure, faculty should read the above statement from the syllabus to each class at the beginning of each semester. Faculty and staff should maintain strict confidentiality about a student’s disability and should implement accommodations in such a way as not to compromise confidentiality.