Flexible Accommodations for Students

Dear Faculty,

We are grateful to the many faculty who adopted flexible accommodations on behalf of students who were unable to secure intake appointments with SSD this fall. As we prepare for the spring semester, we encourage faculty to consider continuing flexible practices that have proven helpful to all students, particularly as COVID continues to have an impact on students, families and classroom learning.

We recommend that faculty consider the following flexible practices:

  1. Make your lecture slides and notes available to students on-line.
  2. If your classroom supports lecture capture, and the nature of your class is conducive to recordings, please make captioned recordings of class sessions available to students.
  3. Clearly spell out your expectations for attendance. If in-person attendance is required, please make clear to students why attendance is important for learning goals.
  4. Use multiple outlets (e.g., class time, email, and Canvas, etc.) to disseminate class information.
  5. Consider flexible assessment opportunities and deadlines in exceptional circumstances. Please inform students what their responsibilities are if they must miss class for illness or other exceptional circumstances.

Because we do not expect the volume of students seeking accommodations to decrease over time, this is an opportune time to also consider a broader adoption of flexible practices. Equally important, we encourage you to openly and deliberately address specific elements of your course that may not lend themselves to adoption of flexible practices. You can find more information on how to reduce barriers to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards as part of the universal design for learning,

Thank you for your partnership and your commitment to excellence during this busy time.

Sharon L. Wood
Executive Vice President and Provost

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