Accommodations: Utilize a digital system for accommodation letters in accessible PDF format in addition to physical letters. Shift SAS accommodations to demedicalize disability, access, and support. Prioritize disabled students' needs and accommodations over non-disabled students, discrepancies between student need and staff capabilities, and ableist ideas of normality. Ensure students are supported in the best way possible through a truly interactive process that empowers self-determination and self-agency.
Point Person(s): Jim Hoppe, Diane Paxton
Updates:
Fall 2021: Accommodation letters are fully digital. SAS continues to prioritize disabled students in its caseload and initiatives. Two full time staff have been hired and are being trained to support disabled student caseload and accommodations. SAS uses an individualized interactive process with each student and values their self report along with their documentation, considering the nexus of their request with the context of reasonableness as determined by faculty, staff, administration, and College resources.
Commitment 2:
Overview:
Communication: Ensure all students and professors are aware of the accommodation system and what accommodations are available/possible. Transparently communicate deadlines for accommodations. Increase usage of social media to communicate about SAS services and include SAS in mass communications, particularly emails.
Point Person(s): Jim Hoppe, Jan Roberts-Breslin, Diane Paxton, Brooke Knight
Updates:
Fall 2021: All Syllabi and every Canvas course contains the SAS statement about requesting accommodations. Information about housing requests is sent out by Housing & Residential Education and reinforced on social media. SAS regularly posts to its social media: reminders, availability/type of accommodations related to individual concerns students may have, deadlines, process for making requests, events on and off campus, and updates from Access: SDU. Faculty have been notified of the SAS statement for syllabi. Student Care and support continues to notify faculty if students need to be absent or adjust assignments.
Commitment 3:
Overview:
Resources: Allocate funding to SAS to properly implement these items, including the approval of SAS’s recent request for an additional staff member.
Point Person(s): Paul Dworkis, Jim Hoppe, Diane Paxton, Sharon Duffy
Updates:
Fall 2021: Two new staff members hired to support SAS's direct work with students. New Assistant Director started 9/15, new dept coordinator starts 10/1. SAS recommends the College consider institutional-level funding for commonly needed accessibility initiatives: accessible facilities, captioning, ASL and CART providers, adaptive technologies for common needs (pdf conversion, audio-text libraries).
Commitment 4:
Overview:
Accessibility Advisory Board: Assess the efforts of the current board, adjusting or correcting as necessary to provide a group focused on guiding and informing the college.
Point Person(s): Jim Hoppe, Diane Paxton
Updates:
Fall 2021: AAB leadership meets with student members prior to meetings to jointly set the agenda. During meetings, subcommittees will be formed and charged with next steps for initiatives to be prioritized. AAB leadership will report out to the President.
