Disability Services COVID Resources

Thank you for making accessibility a priority as we work with students through our online systems. In the campus-wide response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is particularly important to remember the needs of diverse learners. It might feel overwhelming to consider accessibility during this time of rapid change, but any effort to improve access will benefit all students and particularly those with apparent or hidden disabilities. Disability Services can provide a great deal of support for you in this important work.

We recognize that it may not be feasible or effective to follow all accessibility guidelines, however, particularly if a student has made a request, the university is obligated to consider what options can be made available. We’re here to help you through this. Classes with students requiring accommodation remain a priority and we value your efforts to ensure that students with disabilities are not differentially affected by social distancing and remote learning. It is wise to consider not all disabilities are visible and, due to stigma, students may not always speak up when they experience barriers. Accessibility considerations especially help in these cases and my staff is very willing to assist.

Contact Information

Our staff remains committed to working with students and faculty to improve access to course materials and will remain open remotely to answer questions or schedule appointments.

Accommodation Questions & New Requests

Students often face additional limitations or barriers during times of crisis and rapid change. If students previously provided verification letters from our office, please continue to facilitate these approved accommodations. Students may request adjustments or new accommodations as the semester progresses. We have created disabilityadvisor@weber.edu to improve our responsiveness to faculty. Please use this email to communicate directly with a disability advisor if you have questions or concerns.

With the disruption of classes and the transition to remote learning, you may notice an increase in student requests for extensions or exceptions to course requirements. Not every request needs to be approved by Disability Services, particularly extensions for deadlines and test times. Students who have not previously experienced timed exams may experience significant anxiety in this new format. You can make these adjustments without requiring students to go through the formalities of the accommodation process. We encourage faculty to make it clear to students that any adjustment provided is not necessarily required by law and may not be continued in the future. Please do respond to students with understanding and flexibility, use campus resources that support mental and physical health, and refer students to our office to discuss reasonable accommodations for disability-related requests.

Testing Accommodation Questions

Following institutional guidelines, Disability Services testing is closed. We will not provide in-person or online test proctoring. However, our testing staff will continue to provide remote accommodations for testing for students and support for faculty. We strongly support the directive from university administration for faculty to consider alternative ways to assess student learning at this time.

Testing accommodations such as extended time and readers must continue for students with disabilities and our office can assist in facilitating these needs remotely. To be clear, please do not deny approved accommodations for time extensions for at-home exams. If you need assistance entering time or date exceptions for individual students in Chi Tester or Canvas, contact support staff for those areas or email dsctesting@weber.edu. 

*Please do not contract with or otherwise engage the services of third-party vendors for proctored testing as this significantly decreases our ability to provide critical accommodations and raises serious security risks.

Accessible Course Materials

For questions regarding the accessibility of your course and/or course materials, please refer to WSU Online Faculty Resources. If you need additional assistance or a rapid turnaround, please contact our office. At this time, we will be providing captioning and document conversion free of charge for classes with students requiring accommodation.

If you have ASL interpreters or transcribers in your class, you should have received an email from our Deaf Services staff. If you did not receive this email or you have questions, please contact them at deafservices@weber.edu.

Faculty ADA Advisory Training

Help us help you. Disability Services offers ADA Training to any other departments.  This training can be modified to fit the specific needs of the audience.  Here is a short list of some of the topics we can cover:

  • Basic ADA Law
  • Who is Disabled?
  • Office Procedures and Policies
  • Working with Disabled Students
  • Documentation Requirements
  • Accessible Technology
  • Transition Issues for Disabled Students
  • Q&A/Problem Solving

This training can be co-facilitated with WSU's ADA Coordinator and is available for almost any size audience.  Please contact Disability Services to make arrangements.

 

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  • Davis: 801-395-3442
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