Faculty and Staff Resources for Accessibility and Accommodations

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Providing Access and Equal Opportunity

Our office continues to be grateful for the impactful UDL practices that instructors put into their courses in order to eliminate the need for student’s accommodations.

What is an accommodation?

The term "accommodation" may be used to describe an alteration of environment, curriculum format, or equipment that allows an individual with a disability to gain access to content and/or complete assigned tasks. Accommodations may not fundamentally alter core course components and must be within reasonability of the course context. Student Accessibility and Accommodations view this as a way to retrofit the environment that was not built with a diverse population of individuals in mind.

What to do if an accommodation does not feel reasonable?

A accommodation is meant to provide equity, if you as a faculty member feel that any of the accommodations listed within a student's accommodation letter is not reasonable please contact SA&A at accessibility@stkate.edu. Our office assesses reasonability by cross examining multiple factors, including learning objectives, barriers at play, and fundamentals of the course.

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We embrace a culture of learning that drives our students, faculty, and staff to discover, acquire, and apply knowledge, and we welcome all without distinction in the spirit of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

Therefore, it has always been our goal to address barriers to full participation in the academic and co-curricular experience — both on campus and online — as we learn of them.

Any student who needs an accommodation may meet or participate in a call with St. Kate’s Student Accessibility and Accommodations staff to plan appropriate accommodations and identify campus and community resources that may be beneficial. The services and accommodations through Student Accessibility and Accommodations are individualized and guided by each student's history, experiences and disability documentation. Each individual student and each class may require different accommodations. The accommodations must be reasonable and cannot fundamentally alter the nature of the course, program, or activity.

Each student’s barriers are addressed on a case by case basis. Some typical accommodations we provide include, but are not limited to:

Alternate Format Reading Materials — Students whose disability impacts their reading may request course reading materials (textbooks, handouts, syllabus, lab manuals) in an accessible format. Examples of alternative formats are Braille, enlarged text, and text in audible format. We can also scan texts into electronic formats to be used with the Texthelp reading software, which is available to all St. Kate's students. You can download the software using your St. Kate's login credentials.
Classroom Note-taking — If students' disabilities interfere with their ability to take effective notes for class, a notetaker may be requested. Another student in the class is selected and paid to provide a copy of lecture or lab notes for the student with a disability. The notes are intended to supplement the notes of the student, who must be in attendance and participating in the class for which the notes were taken.
Alternative testing — Students may need a distraction-reduced testing environment or extended time for exams. We also offer taped or Brailled exams, use of adaptive equipment such as a computer, screen reader or text enlarger and alternative test dates.
Interpreters, CART services and Assistive Listening Systems for Deaf/Hard of Hearing students
Preferential seating
Housing Accommodation, such as Emotional Support Animals, Accessible room placements, or access to single bathrooms
Clinical or fieldwork Accommodations
Assistive Technology

Policies and Procedures

Remote attendance policy: Please note that long-term remote attendance is not an accommodation that the SA&A office can provide. We are happy to support communication and coordination needs, however, cannot guarantee or implement long-term remote access.
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When to Request an Interpreter

Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing students, faculty, and staff who use American Sign Language (ASL) are welcome to request ASL interpreters for their classes, meetings, University events, etc. Any University event organizers and any student, faculty, or staff scheduling meetings with students, faculty, or staff who use ASL are also welcome to request ASL services. Interpreters may be requested using the following link.

We ask that interpreter requests be made 2 weeks in advance.

The Student Accessibility and Accommodations office will make a good faith effort to fill all interpreter requests. In the case of a last minute or same-day request, interpreters are not guaranteed.

Please direct questions about the interpreter scheduling, or any updates or additional information about interpreter requests to our office via email: interpretingservices@stkate.edu.