TRANSCEN INC.  
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES WEBINAR 
AUGUST 23, 2017 


This text is being provided in a realtime Format.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

Please note:* Slides 1-11 provide instructions on accessing the webinar and are not included in the archived recording or transcript.


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>> MAYNOR GUILLEN: It's now 2:00.  We will begin today's session.  Claire Stanley.

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  Good morning or good afternoon to everybody.  Welcome to our webinar on reasonable accommodations in universities and universities.  My name is Claire Stanley and I'm here the training specialist at the MidAtlantic ADA center.  We are pleased to be joined by two great speakers.  First, we have Tessa DiPerri with the University of Maryland and Crystal Tenan from Towson State University.
They will do their own introductions so we will move on to the next slide. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Thank you, Claire.  As Claire said, my name is Tessa DiPerri and Crystal and I both wanted to briefly introduce ourselves before we jumped in.  My background is in a combination of student affairs in higher education and communication disorders and I basically mesh together my own educational experience specifically to help students in the college environment to obtain accommodations.  And I'm looking forward to talking with everyone today.
And I will turn it over to slide 14 for Crystal to introduce herself. 

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Hello, everyone, my name is Crystal Tenan and I'm the deputy ADA coordinator for Towson university.  My background is in education.  My bachelor's and master's are in education and I also have a master's in applied information technology.  And my background is doing the accommodation part of disability services, as well as the ADA part, the larger barrier removal and then assistive technology.
I think now that you know a little bit more about us, we will jump in and I will proceed to slide 15 for Tessa to get us started. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Thank you, Crystal.
So both Crystal and I felt it was very important in order to really understand the purpose of what an accommodation is for and what could be reasonable.  You really had to have a foundational knowledge of why we even accommodate students in the first place.
And all accommodations that are established are really designed to help students have equal access and equal opportunity throughout all educational programs within a college or university setting.  Sadly, over the history of the passage of the ADA and the amendments act that have followed, there has really been an urban legend or an urban myth created that the fact that students use accommodations in some way, shape or form, give them an unfair advantage compared to their other peers in their classes.  And I want to dispel that myth right now, because accommodations in no way, shape or form give anyone an unfair advantage.  They actually do the exact opposite.
Accommodations really enable students to level that playing field so they have the same opportunity to ultimately either get straight As or fail as any other student.  When professionals like Crystal and myself are looking at the types of accommodations that would be reasonable, we are also ensuring that those exact accommodations will not fundamentally alter any of the programs that student is participating in.  And to help kind of showcase this, Crystal and I found a picture on the Internet that is also displayed on this slide and for those of you joining us in various mediums that cannot view the photo, it depicts a family watching a baseball game.  But what is interesting about this family is that they are watching the baseball game from behind a fence.  So on one lens, each family member is standing on a box to assist them in viewing this game, but unfortunately, if you factor in the various heights of each family members, not everyone is really able to enjoy the game, because the fence is blocking their view.
On the other side, we have the same family members watching a baseball game from behind a fence, but in this instance, we have redistributed the boxes that take into account how tall each family member is.  So that the tallest family member is able to see the game without using a box and the two shorter family members are standing on a combination of either one or two boxes to be able to see that baseball game and enjoy the experience.
So when we are thinking about the difference between equality and equity in granting accommodations, we also view that same thing of let's see how we can redistribute things so everyone has that same opportunity in the case of this picture, is to enjoy the baseball game.  But an academic example of this would be for the volume of tests that students on a college campus complete throughout their tenure, many professors have them use a Scantron or a bubble answer sheet.  Just by having students for a variety of disability reasons write their responses directly on the exam versus filling out that Scantron bubble sheet, can often offset the impact of their disability, but is in no way, shape or form altering that exam.
So as Crystal and I continue to talk today, we wanted this to really be the foundation of our conversation, that using accommodations are never fundamentally altering a course or program and that the intention behind them is to provide equal access and equal opportunity.
On slide 16, I'm going to be talking about the association on higher education and disability.  The acronym is known as AHEAD, for those of you who have never heard of it.  But basically AHEAD is a wonderful organization that provides a lot of resources for folks within this profession.  They have spent their entire  I will call it their history or their evolution providing really solid and sound advice, related to a whole wide variety of issues.  They have a legal database where folks can look and kind of compare how are other institutions addressing certain issues to see if it's in line with what they are currently doing or if they would need to potentially adjust any of their policies or procedures.
They also have a wonderful resource that includes site visits.  So instead of comparing your institution to another, they can actually give you feedback specifically about the effectiveness and efficiency of your office.
Both Crystal and I live in the greater Washington, Baltimore, Annapolis, DC area, and because of that, we are really  really blessed to have the opportunity to participate not only with national AHEAD but multiple local AHEAD chapters, and I would encourage anyone who is participating in this call, if you are not currently connected with your local AHEAD chapter, to research when your next meeting would be, because necessity provide a wonderful  for Crystal and I, it's three times a year we connect and we are really able to talk with folks within your local area about current trends and issues and to be able to host speakers and have other educational opportunities similar to this call.
Now, on slide 17, I'm also going to start diving into figuring out how AHEAD provides guidance related to documentation.  Now, when it comes to the evolution of looking at what is reasonable, when the ADA was amended back in 2008, they really helped to expand the way we viewed what a disability was, and the requirements to be able to meet that definition.  So when the amendments changed, it really expanded and broadened the way we view disability and ultimately increased the number of people that were covered under this law.
Now AHEAD took that same line of thinking, of let's expand the way that we are working with our students to be able to remove those barriers, to help them obtain their accommodations and they updated what they refer to as their guidance.
On slide 17, I have what I hope to be a comical representation for everyone, which is a handwritten note with childlike handwriting with typos and grammatical.  It says "dear Mrs. Miller, ray is so sick he can not go to school.  It's signed by Rays mom and has a postscript with no homework please.  Even though this is a comical representation of documentation, I also wanted to use this as a way to show that sadly not all documentation is created equally.  Every institution has their own way of interpreting documentation, and as always, everything should really be looked at as a casebycase basis.
So as I continue to talk about the AHEAD guidance, I just want to stress that even though we have expanded the way that we are looking at documentation and determining what is or is not reasonable, we are never saying that, you know, anything goes.  So keep that in mind as we move forward here.
When we typically think of documentation, the majority of folks are probably envisioning a tangible piece of paper or a physical file that is maybe sent to you electronically, but, however, when AHEAD changed their guidance, they really are pushing that first level of information you should be looking at is the selfreport.  This is the information that you as a disability professional are able to glean when you are meeting with a student.  Now, whether that meeting occurs on the phone or in person or even as technology expands, maybe you are videoconferencing with a person.  I cannot stress enough the importance of never discounting the information that you obtain within an interview.
One of the most important things that as a professional you can do is to really improve your skills related to interviewing or you can also think of this as counseling.  The techniques related to the types of questions you are asking and the followup and the redirection will really help expand the way that you are looking at the student's perception of themselves.  Because through the evolution of using accommodations, it's very possible that you are working with folks who have either, A, never used accommodations in the past.  So it's very brand new for them.  B, you could be working with a student who has never been an active participant.  So maybe their parents or guardian have been a more active participant in that process.  Or maybe you are working with another person at the last level who is just really not selfaware.  And so when you are working with folks, getting students to take a step back and think about how does my disability impact me, it's so important because that can help you determine what types of accommodations may or may not be ultimately reasonable.
When you are determining how to run your meeting, some institutions may allow parents or other third party individuals to sit in and join those meetings.  And historically, the evolution of a student moving from the K through 12 environment, to a college environment, you can often witness a lot of interesting dynamics between parents and students.  Parents historically also have had to help their students advocate for their need because when a child is still under the age of 17, they are really not the person who is leading the way in terms of establishing their accommodation.  So oftentimes parents kind of feel lost in that process, just like they can feel lost in their  in their child is leaving and moving into a college for the very first time.  That  that evolution of what a parent's role is, is not lost within the process of establishing accommodation.
So if you do allow third parties specifically parents to participate in these meetings, it's really important to hone in on those interviewing and counseling techniques, where you are acknowledging the parent's role and you are acknowledging, for example  thank you for sharing that.  And then redirecting it back to the student so they can reflect on that.
Because, again, the parents can view their child's functioning very differently than maybe they view themselves.  Now Crystal and I really want everyone who is participating in this webinar today have discussions amongst yourselves.  If you are in a group setting or have the opportunity to talk with us, within the chat platform on the webbased module.
So to kind of start our interactive process here, I'm going to pose a question to see if any  anyone who is listening is able to recommend the best ways to work with folks who are overtaking that meeting.  If you could share one or two sentences what is the key sentence or phrase to help redirect when a parent or third party is trying to take over.  And I will ask Claire to read one to three of those before we move on.

>> MAYNOR GUILLEN: for those of you in the webinar platform, you can enter your comments in the chat feature. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI:  So some strategies that some people are able to use here are saying things like, for example, if a parent expresses concern that the student is not able to let's say, manage their time very efficiently, you can ask the student, you know, when they are working on their homework, when do they actually start an assignment?  Have they ever used any type of academic coaching before?  Have they ever participated with resource room if they are coming from the high school environment.
Those types of things can help redirect the conversation back to the student where they are able to reflect and maybe even disclose, oh, well, I never actually start my homework until the night before.  Maybe they have never been challenged where they have to actually learn how to preplan.  So that could, again, help you determine is it reasonable to establish an accommodation in that area or maybe an additional support offered by your college's campuses.  Some things would be like the writing center and maybe your institution has oral communication center where they can practice their presentations or speeches.  Maybe your institution has some form of coaching within the counseling center where they can get that kind of executive functioning help if they never had that opportunity before.

>> MAYNOR GUILLEN: And we have a comment.  Tell the other party that you appreciate their input but would like to hear directly from the student. 
>> TESSA DiPERRI: And that's a great example of how you can redirect by just simply saying, you know, again, acknowledging the information that' being shared, but redirecting.
If you are working with someone who is really taking over, it may also be appropriate to have a followup meeting with that student to talk with them privately without that parent present. 
We are going to keep going here.  On slide 19, we actually provided you with the actual quote from the AHEAD guidance which, again, just stresses how the student is a vital source of information about how their disability impacts them, and your way to be able to discuss any barriers they have experienced, any effective or ineffective accommodations can ultimately help you determine the functional limitations of that disability and help to move forward in establishing a reasonable accommodation.
On slide 20, I'm going to be talking about the second level of documentation that you should be considering.  And this is, again, gleaned with either that phone base, Skype, digital videoconferencing or inperson meeting.  And this is known as the observation and the interaction phase.
So when you have a parent, as we just spent a lot of time talking about, somebody taking over that meeting, you are able to observe what is the body language.  Do you have a student who is being very dismissive and combative with their parent where the student does not believe that is a problem?  And then when it comes to that same scenario, maybe they are just agreeing with everything the parent says and they are not speaking up or talking about their own perception of themselves.
But not that all parents okay over.  I don't want to assume that that's always the case because we often work with parents who just want to be there as a support system for their student and actually let their student do all the talking.  So all of those types of dynamics that you observe are very important to take into account.  Our offices, we work with all variety of disabilities and it's also important to note, if you are working with someone who has a physical disability.  Maybe they have broken their arm and it's a temporary disability.  Are they wearing a cast?  Maybe they have a different type of disability and they are using a service animal or maybe they are using a cane or other form of mobility aids.  Certain things that you can see with your eye.  You may not need to have any additional documentation to help establish something that is reasonable. 
Now, as I mentioned before, everything is really done uniquely to each institution.  So some institutions grant access to things like academic transcripts which would enable you to see how the student's selfreport may or may not align with the grades that they are earning.  You could be working with a student who  I'm sure we have all worked with folks who are over achievers and they are the president of 12 different clubs and they are taking 18 credits and they come to you and talking to you, you are having a really hard time managing all of that.  So you would be able to have a conversation with that student.  Let's talk about your level of involvement.
If you have access to their transcript, you may notice a trend in the number of classes they are taking, compared to the number of classes they are withdrawing from.  So all of that knowledge can also add to help you have the counseling skills to ask the followup and the probing questions to help add another level of information that you are learning about the student.
I know Crystal's experience at Towson, they have a questionnaire that students fill out.  Other institutions may do this as well.  And this is where they are asking students to just reflect on their either previous accommodation use, any current concerns that they have and that is a wonderful tool for you to be able to look at how legible is their handwriting.  They have a learning disability related to either written output, you would be able to kind of see how is that impacting them?
You can also see if you have students complete paperwork before they come to their office, versus while they are in your office, does the handwriting match?  And that could also lead to a great conversation to determine, did you really fill this out?  And if not, why don't we talk about and get your perception on the same questions.  All of that, again, is just to add to your level of understanding of the student.
And we, again, have provided here on slide 21 the act verbiage from the head guidance, which also stresses, again, that your ability as a professional to come to conclusions based on your interactions with a student can help to validate their narrative and selfreport.
Now, as another question for everyone who is participating today, in this I'm just going to ask for a simple yes or no to make it a little bit more easier for interaction here.  But I'm curious, does any other institution have any type of paperwork that they have their students complete to help contribute to this observance and interaction documentation that I have just talked about?

>> Can you ask the question one more time, are we getting yeses or nos?

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Correct.  So the question just for yeses and nos, is just to determine approximately if other students or universities are having their students complete any type of questionnaire to aid in their understanding of the functional limitations of their disability. 

>> So it looks like we are getting a lot of yeses going on for different subjects that are going on.  So a lot of yeses.

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Wonderful.  If your institution is not currently using a questionnaire, just knowing that there are other places out there currently doing that, you would be able to talk with institutions in your local area, or you would even be able to  if you are part of a greater system like Maryland is a part of the Big Ten you would be able to pick their brains to see if it would be relevant for your institution to make one.
All right.  So on slide 22, I'm now going to talk about the third or tertiary level of documentation from AHEAD.  And this is, again, what most people would think about as their tangible paperbased documentation and ultimately, the goal is that if it were to meet the gold standard would be that it would really show the Nexus between the types of accommodations that are requested and the functional limitations of disability.
And now if I refer back to that comical representation that we used earlier in the presentation with that handwritten note, it shows that not all documentation is created equally.  And so it's really important for you as a service provider to be able to glean information to either be able to understand is it appropriate to ask for more information or not.  One example of something is that it's  if a student was diagnosed with dyslexia early on in their elementary school years.  They can provide an IEP and a college board has approved them for accommodations on the S AT.
It you can see the continued use of accommodations throughout that expanded period of time and in your observation and conversations with the student, they are also confirming, you know, using a computer is very helpful to me.  It would probably not be necessary for you to have them to go to  to go and obtain a new diagnostic evaluation.
However, not all documentation will be able to show either continued use of service or give you all of the information that you are ultimately looking for.  So it is equally important for you to look at who created this documentation.  What type of credentials do they have and are they ultimately a qualified person to be making that diagnosis or making those types of recommendations.  As our comical note before, it was signed by Ray's mom and they were asking to not complete any homework.  That's probably not a qualified provider, especially factoring in the fact it was a handwritten note and there was a lot of childlike handwriting to that.
So keep in mind that these three different levels of guidance from AHEAD are not saying paperbased documentation is never necessary, and it's not saying that you never should be asking for more information.  But the goal is to use a combination of these three levels to help you understand how the disability is impacting that student and then what types of accommodations could help offset that and still be reasonable.
Now that I have spent all of this time talking about how you should look at documentation to kind of set the foundation for establishing accommodation, I'm now going to turn it over to Crystal and have her talk about the manner in which you can put this actually into practice, but on slide 23, I also wanted to show that we additionally included the quote from the AHEAD guidance that, again, stresses that documentation can come from a variety of different places and that all forms of documentation are meaningful.
So I'm going to turn it over to Crystal to have her talk about how you put all of this knowledge into practice.

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Thank you so much, Tessa.
We are going to jump right on that.  And I really want to start as we are talking about reasonable accommodations.  I want to start on slide 25, talking about a reasonable process.  We want to make sure that what we are asking of our students is reasonable, that we are not creating roadblocks or hurdles for them.
And so by that, we want to make sure that it's a simple process, easy to follow and that they are able to understand what is expected of them and how the whole interactive process just fits them and how it goes about.
We continue with slide 26.  The process should be straightforward and easy for the student to understand.  You want to  as you are in the actual meeting room, you want to make sure is the documentation actually necessary.
Like Tessa was talking about.  So does the student have an obvious disability?  If so, you know, a student comes in, and they are  they are in a wheelchair and they need paratransit service on your campus.  Do you need more information?  Every situation is unique and so as Tessa and I always say, there's never any nevers, but it's always it's own inactive process.
If they don't need that, why do you want to create that extra barrier for them.
If they have that and they can provide it, that's wonderful, but if they don't, and it's an obvious disability, is it necessary to put that student through requiring more of them?
Also, your intake meetings, you have to think about when you can have the meetings.  You know, as we are talking to students, they can be any time during the semester, but the accommodations are not retroactive.  So make sure they know that.
It may not be reasonable for me to see you when you come in without an appointment because I have other students that I'm working with, but we will set one up as soon as possible or, you know, a lot of times there are students who want to come in before they are even accepted into the school.  And so letting them know, hey, that's a little bit of a conflict.  You can come in and we can tell you about our services, but we can't have that intake meeting until you are excited, just so that we all know that your disability has nothing to do with your acceptance into our school.
You need a reasonable amount of time to implement the accommodation.  So maybe it's not reasonable if they are coming to you a day before classes and they need their books in alternative format.
It may not be reasonable for you to turn them around in one day.  You will work on them and get them turned around as soon as possible.  Now that I know you need this, I may not be able to turn it around quite as quickly as you are asking.
And coming from the assistive technology background as well, it also becomes unreasonable when students want to come in too early.  A lot of times I would have students would wanted to come in and meet with me.  They had been accepted.  They will be starting in August and they want to come meet with me in May to learn about the different assistive technologies that they have been approved to use and their accommodation.  And I try to politely let them know, you can come in now, but you are going to have a wonderful summer and you are probably going to forget what I'm telling you.  So maybe it would be a little bit more beneficial if you come in a little closer to the school year, given that makes my time a little closer to the school year crazy hectic, but the timing of the intake meeting or of the process can really be instrumental and important for them.  And the same goes with students giving their professors their memos or how that's done at your university, how they are talking with their professors about their accommodations.
If you are doing a lot of training with them on how to do that, if that's done a little too early, they are going to forget it and need a refresher.  So it's important for us as the disability professionals to be aware of that and really understand what their needs are going to be.  As Tessa was saying, we are typically going to understand at least  at least what the educational environment is going to be like a lot more than they are and we can help best meet those needs.
We always have those, who can be involved in the intake meeting.  And each school is different.  If you have kind of a general guidelines in your office, you know, go by that.  A lot of times, it's open to whoever the student would like to be in there with them.  But understand that you might need to help coach the student and let them know that they are the ones in the driver's seat and that we are really wanting to hear from them.  As Tessa was talking about first level of  we really want the student selfreport.  We really want it from the student.  We want to hear about their experience from their perspective.
A lot of times in it's coming from a parent or a boyfriend, a girlfriend, just an acquaintance.  Their perceptions are not always exactly correct.
So I will go to our next slide, slide 27.  So as we have that documentation review in that intake meeting, you want to refer to the AHEAD guidance that Tessa was talking about.  You want to listen to the student's selfreport.  Sometimes depending on your student, they might be a little quieter than others or they may not understand what information would most be beneficial in the process to help you understand what their academic needs are and really how to create that equal playing field.  So you might need to ask them guided questions.  How long does it take you to take exams?  Or I noticed on your  on the forms that you filled out that your spelling was a little bit off and your syntax and grammar were off.  Can you tell me a little bit more about that.  Tell me about your experiences in math classes or depending on what the student's bringing in or what they are requesting, you can guide those  those questions from there.
You are going to use your observations like Tessa was talking about.  If they need to write for you, is this a difficult task for them?  Is their spelling correct?  What are you observing?  You know, are they coming in and maybe the student has reported that they are having some physical  that they have a physical disability?  Are you noticing that it takes them a little bit longer to get to your office or a little more difficulty?  So then as you are working with them, you are realizing, hey, this is really consideration that you want to think about when you are planning your academic schedule.  I noticed that, you know, it takes you a little bit longer to get from here to there.  So maybe  at least at Towson, we have a very large campus.  Maybe you don't want a class on one side of campus and ten minutes later, a class on the whole other side of campus.  These are things we need to talk about it.  If priority registration is a priority that you are provided, with let's utilize that to meet your needs.
Then you want to look at the thirdparty documentation like Tessa was saying.  Students  sometimes the documentation is going to be great and you are going to find all the information that you really are looking for, that kind of helps describe what the student is talking about and their educational experiences and history, and how their disability impacts them educationally.  And sometimes there will be holes in it and you are not quite sure  there's no clear Nexus between the documentation that they are providing and what they are requesting.  And those times you might need to request for more.
But when you are looking at it, with the new guidance and everything, unless  like the documentation doesn't necessarily have to be from, you know, a month before school started but it should be current and relevant.  So maybe it's documentation that they had earlier in high school, but their disabilities haven't really changed and how it has impacted them hasn't really changed.  So it might still be relevant to what you are needing to review for their higher education classes.  But we want to use that common sense standard.  So what would a reasonable person conclude from looking at this documentation from, you know interacting with a student from your observation.
We really want to make it an easy process for them and just be as reasonable as possible.
I will move forward to slide 28.  So different school these different things but typically provisional accommodations are accommodations without documentation.  And so it's important for us in our offices to think, is this reasonable to provide provisional accommodations?  And then if we do, what is that  how is that benefiting a student?  So  so I think  I believe that many times it is reasonable to provide provisional accommodations.  This will be different in different offices.  So make sure you refer to kind of what your office concludes on this subject.  But, you know, it gives the student time to gain documentation.  They can use the student's selfreport and their own observations to conclude, okay, so they are saying that they are having a lot of difficulty with their exams and with being distracted in classes.  They don't have any documentation but they are noticing X, Y and Z.  So, you know, they are requesting to use your testing center and a little extra time.  So there's a connection between what they are reporting, what you are observing and then what they are requesting.
And so then you can give the student some time to obtain the documentation.  You want to give them a time frame.  So, you know, hey, we are going to give you these accommodations for the semester, but we are going to  let's plan to meet again at the next semester and hopefully you will have your documentation by then, and we can really see how these accommodations impacted you and then if there's anything else that you might need or what we need to revisit.  This is really helpful too, because a lot of students, if they need to have free or lowcost testing done, the lines or the wait list for those services tend to be very long.  So giving them provisional accommodations helps them kind of still be part of the educational experience and have that same opportunity that everyone else has while they are working on that documentation, if that is something that you need.  You could be able to say, okay, they had the provisional accommodations this semester and I noticed, X, Y and Z, and from the student's report and from my observations, I may not need any more documentation after this point.
So along with that, what would a reasonable person conclude mantra?
So I have a scenario.  And if you would like to answer, including you, Tessa, on this I would like to hear what you think.  So student began experiencing increasing anxiety while in college.  Their anxiety symptoms are impacting all major life activities, including their classes.  They have requested to take their exams in your testing center.  Would it be reasonable to grant this provisional accommodation.  We will say for a semester, would that be reasonable? 
So Maynor, as you are getting those answers, in Tessa, would you like to chime in on that one?

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Sure!  So with this, I would say on a casebycase basis, if I was meeting with the student and the information I obtained from the selfreport and my observations of them, if I felt that that was enough, I would say that granting that provisional accommodation would be appropriate, but, again, it would be a casebycase basis.

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Thank you, Tessa.  And I agree with Tessa.  She brings up a great point, it's all a casebycase basis.
I will move us on to slide 29.  So temporary accommodations.  These are different from provisional accommodations.  These are usually six months or less, and they are very common, especially around midterms, finals or after school breaks.  Sometimes the students come in with the temporary accommodation and all they are requesting is a courtesy notification to their professors and that's just a note to their professors letting them know, hey, I was out of the class for these days because I was in the hospital or this or that.
Each school is different.  A lot of schools that's not out of disability support office.  At our school and I believe Tessa's school, it's done with the student affairs office.  Just be aware of that.  That's a good question to ask your colleagues who provides that information for our school.
But a lot of times with the students who are requesting that are things like paratransit van, or note taker.  They tend to be physical disabilities but not always:  Someone might have a temporary medical disability.  So it could be a wide variety of things.  But things to consider is their documentation a lot of times for temporary disabilities is going to be very limited or none.  You know, your documentation, you really have to go back to those AHEAD guidance that Tessa was talking about.  You may not have any paper documentation, or what you think of as documentation, but a student may come in with their arm in the cast and, you know, using one crutch because a leg is broken as well, because they had a little too much fun over their spring break and went rock climbing and maybe had an accident or slipped or something.
So you are going to help out students all the time with temporary disabilities with your disability expertise.  A lot of times they don't know what to request.  They are brand new to the accommodations process and they don't really understand how they can  how their accommodations are going to interact with their academics and how really any of the whole process works.
So you are really going to need to help guide them through that and help them think about their academics in a larger picture because as you see them come in and realize, their student, they broke their right hand.  They are righthanded.  So they cannot write.  You know, they are using crutches.  You will be the one who will really help guide them with, hey, do you think you may need this?  Or, hey, tell me, can you write?  Would you maybe be able to use, you know, a laptop to type or would you need a scribe or a smart pen or what might work for that student for that allotted amount of time?  How long is this going to  how long is your temporary accommodation hypothetically going to impact you.  And the student may not know.  A lot of times you get, well, I'm going back to the doctor later this week and then I'm going back the next week and so it's a process with temporary accommodations and a little bit of a quicker process.  And so it's really on us to help students help walk them through that.
Sometime you will get temporary accommodation requests just like other ones but in an unreasonable time frame so maybe the student needs a scribe and they are requesting it one hour before their final exam because they  because they didn't know who to ask and finally someone told them about your office.  So that may not be reasonable.  You may not be able to provide a scribe in that time frame.  You can see if you can accommodate them.  Maybe you have some extra student staff on hand who could provide that.  And so it's so great.  If not, maybe it's an opportunity to for you and the student to work with the professor to see if they can take the exam a little bit later or if they are  you know, we have extra tape recorders, can the student record their answers for their exam?  Sometimes you have to be a little creative with that.
And so as I was saying about students maybe new to the accommodations and may not know what they may need, and they may not even know what accommodations are kind of common.  I have think most of us have accommodations that are a little bit more typical at our schools, things like extended time or smart pens or note takers and they don't know that those things exist.  So it's important us to help those students.
I'm just going to take a sip of water real quick.
Okay.  I'm going to move us on to slide 30.  So this has been  this is when it comes to reasonable accommodation, there are unreasonable ones as well.  One that happens  you know, we may need to deny an accommodation request.  And there are lots of different reasons for a denial but maybe the request is not reasonable.  Maybe they are asking for  to take their pet alligator with them to their class.  And that's just not a reasonable request.
Or maybe it's a fundamental alteration of a class.  Maybe it's a hands on chemistry lab and they are asking to do it online at home.  So that will fundamentally alter their class and what is being taught in the class and the whole format of that.  Who knows.  Maybe there is a way to do that, but typically probably not.  Maybe you just need more documentation.  Hey, after listening to you, after observing you, after reading over  reviewing your documentation, I still can't seem to pinpoint what your needs are academically or how these things may impact you or help you.  I just need a little more documentation from their provider.
You know, maybe the student has a learning disability and you are requesting a paratransit van services and so there's no Nexus.  The two  the paratransit van services would not create an equal playing field for the student because their disability would not be impacted by that.
Or maybe they are requesting something that goes against your university policies or procedures.  Maybe they are saying, hey, I need an accommodation where it doesn't matter if I say bad things in class or yell at the teacher, I don't get in trouble, because  because, you know, sometimes I can't control that.  You know, the student still has to abide by the university's policies and procedures, and so a lot of times that type of behavior is spelled out in the student code of conduct.
So that would still apply.  Given  depending on what the student's needs are and requests like that.  It might be appropriate to talk with the student about, hey, I understand that this may be a problem for you.  We actually have a lot of online classes and maybe that would be a better fit for you, if  you know, if that is something you may need.
So  or alternatively, you could just provide an equally effective accommodation because you may not have what they are requesting or may not be reasonable but you can give them something else.  Our director of disability support services here always says  it's a great thing.  It's not that they are not saying no.  We can't do that.  We are saying, yes, we can do this.  So sometimes you may not have something available, but you have something that would be equally effective and available that you can implement that would provide the student that equally effective accommodation.
And so the best practice  and I understand the schools do this differently too.  Best practice is to provide the student with written notice of the denial and the reason for the denial.  They can't fix something if they don't know what they need to fix.  If they need more documentation, or don't understand it or it's not spelled out and written for them, they may not never come back to your office with more documentation and follow up because they don't understand that.  So that's a best practice.
I'm going to move us on to slide 31.  Ineffective accommodations.  So I think it's important that you let your students know that you can always revisit accommodations.  I think students kind of get in the mindset, well, I met with them earlier in the semester.  Or I met with their specialist, you know, in August of my freshman year.  So those are my accommodations for the next four years.
That doesn't necessarily need to be the case.  Different students, their disability may change.  If they have bipolar disorder or cancer or other things, their disability may impact them differently and so they may need different accommodations to have that equal playing field.  Their disability may impact their academics differently over time.  So depending on what that was in undergrad, they may have been just fine, but now that they are in graduate school, and academic environment and rigor are much different, they really see their disability flaring up or impacting their academics.  So they may need different accommodations.
Things like that.  And then the way that costs are structured they may need different accommodations for classes.  In a lab class, they may need nothing or minimal but in a lecture, they have may need a scribe or a few more things because of how their disability interacts with that.
The same with the types of assignments in classes.  Every student is so different and so it's important that we don't necessarily do blanket statements for everything, but we are really looking at how things impact them.  So, you know, maybe they have time and a half for their math test but any English test where they have to do lots of writing, their disability really impacts their ability to right and it slows down the process and so maybe they need to have a little time.  So maybe just for those classes they would have several times for those exams.
So it's just important to talk with the student and really find out what their needs are.
I'm going to turn us to the next slide.  And so Tessa an I prepared a couple of different scenarios.  We are really hoping that everyone  you know, if you would want to chime in, we would love that, but if not, you are at least kind of thinking through these on your end and thinking, about okay, if I was in this situation, what would I do?  And, you know, the same preface as always, everything is a casebycase basis, and, you know, there's always more information.  These are just quick little snippet scenarios.  But given the information that we are providing.  But there's always more background.
I will hand it over to Tessa for the first example, but participate at your own office if you don't want to participate via the chat. 

>> CLAIRE STANELY:  The first scenario starts on slide 33, and I will read that to everybody now.  And it reads:  A student has recently transferred to your college from a different university.  They have brought documentation that confirms a diagnosis of ADHD and their accommodations memo from their previous institution.  The student is requesting unlimited time for assignments and tests an accommodation.  They report a history of using this accommodation at their other school, although it is not listed on their submitted memo.  They additionally express a believe unlimited time is desperately needed because they take longer to complete tasks compared to other students as a result of ADHD symptoms.  The student is concerned their grades will be negatively impacted without this accommodation.
And our scenario question to everyone who is listening today, is this a reasonable request to have that up limited time on assignments an tests?  And what steps would you take to accommodate this student?
I will give you time to get your brains moving.  We have compiled a list of what we would kind of think through in this scenario.  But before I go  advance to the next slide to review our response, I just want to give everybody a minute to reflect on their own thoughts.

>> So we are getting a few responses.  One says unlimited is not reasonable.  And a few other votes too.

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Thank you, Claire.  So I'm going to advance no slide 34, which kind of lifts some of the things that Crystal and I thought of.
The first thing is that accommodations are different at each institution.  They could be the same verbiage but the implementation could be different and as always, things are always looked at on a casebycase basis, with an appropriate  for example, an undergraduate level may not be appropriate at a graduate level as an example.  Some other things we have listed here to consider would be a fundamental alteration to the course.  Is the time frame essential?  I will give an example.  If we have any folks with journalism backgrounds, the news always has a definitive deadline because it has to go out.  It may not be reasonable to have unlimited time related to that subject or course or assignment.
From the responses we got, it aligns with this bullet point here that typically unlimited time is not an option.  It would not be reasonable for many different reasons.  And so I won't read through this whole list here, because I want to have the opportunity to go through some of our other scenarios, but at the end of the day, it's really important to remember to look at the cause.  Why does the student need additional time?  And in this example, specifically unlimited time S. it related to procrastination.  Is it related to overburdening or overloading themselves?  It's always important to hook at things on a casebycase basis and if we do find that one thing is not reasonable, what other alternatives can we help that student establish?  So whether that's coaching, to increase their executive functioning.  Is it reducing their course load and those are just a few examples.
So I'm going to turn it over to Crystal to go over our second scenario.

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Thanks, Tessa.
So our second scenario says an incoming student has reported that they have severe anxiety and they are nervous to start college.  They have brought in documentation of their anxiety and requested to bring their poodle, Pepper to class and housing with them.  The student reported that after losing her father her anxiety has worsened and she has a difficult time leaving her home without Pepper.  The student has a very difficult time communicating with others and says that Pepper helps her to feel more comfortable.  The student has a history of selfisolating and is nervous about sharing a dorm room with a stranger.
How do you respond to this request? 

>> The response are receiving it's not reasonable because it may impact the schedule of the professor itself.  You may have to talk about alternative accommodations? 

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Thank.  That's a really good point.  Feel free adding in more responses.  I will go ahead and share Tessa and my responses, but as Tessa, this is not an exhaustive list.  So feel free to keep adding in responses.  So we just want to start by saying that the emotional support animal is covered in the Fair Housing Act compared to the ADA.  It could possibly still be a reasonable accommodation request.  Typically, you know, that's a harder request and it's not as common, but, you know, that door is always open.  Like, the person who chimed in said, you know, depending on the class and the professor and how they  you know, the class format and there's a lot of different things to look at.  With that accommodation request.  It's not a service animal.  So it's not getting those same  for lack of a better term, protections.  There's more hoops to jump through with that accommodation request.  It may be a lot better for an alternative accommodation.
We want to point out that if they have residence halls that are quote/unquote pet friendly, you can't limit the student to only those residence halls.  So they would still be able to live in any of the residence halls with their ESA.  But that the dog would still have to abide by local and state laws, and then when the dog is in the person's dorm room, it has to be limited to their bedroom.  If the person is going and cooking in the shared kitchen down the hall, like Pepper could go with them there.  Bunt it would need to be with their person, and Pepper could be a variety of different animals.  It still must be reasonable.  It's more talking about the housing side of things.
So, you know, Pepper could be a guinea pig or I know a lot of schools have all sorts of different requests but they are looking to see if it's reasonable.  You know, maybe it's not reasonable if Pepper was an elephant.  But, you know, if Pepper was a pet fish, you know, maybe that's reasonable in your circumstances.
You know, maybe you would need more information for this student's request.  So even with added documentation, you may need to ask the student if you can speak with their provider, just so they can clarify a little bit more if the student can't articulate the need for the request and the observation or other documentation are not important.  It's important to have open lines of communication with your housing department.
Typically these requests are going to go to the disability support offices but I'm sure at some places it goes straight to the housing, but that there needs to be communication there because there's a lot of other things to talk about, you know, maybe you need to talk with a roommate.  They are okay with this?  If not, maybe this person should have a different roommate or maybe a single or what would be reasonable?
And then as the person who chimed in said, you know, in a classroom, you would want to talk with the professors to see it's reasonable.  Maybe the chemistry lab it wouldn't be reasonable.  And talk to the student to see if a different accommodation would be.  So equally effective accommodation.
Soil hand this back over to Tessa for the third scenario. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Thank you, Crystal.  So on slide 37, our scenario reads:  A student is requesting excused absences from class as an accommodation.  Midterms have just ended and the student has just learned they have to be on dialysis for the remainder of the year.
The student is unsure how many classes they will need to miss and does not want to fail their classes because of his unexcused absences.  The student is enrolled in a history lecture class, biology science class, a geometry class, and an introduction to swimming class.  The student has already missed onethird of their classes this semester because of medical reasons.  The school has a mandatory class attendance policy that requires students must attend 75% of their classes or they automatically fail.
Our question to you is, what other information do you need?  And how would you respond to the student's request? 

>> MAYNOR GUILLEN: You may enter your questions or comments in the chat feature. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI: So this may need more time for folks to think through.  I will talk about our view and hopefully by then folks will have responded and we can have those responses shared as well.
So our first thought in terms of our response here is that the school's mandatory attendance policy may not be applicable.  So would it be reasonable to modify this policy?  Again, on a classbyclass basis, we listed a whole bunch of different classes there, some of them like swimming require that they are actually there, but maybe that history class is just a lecture format and maybe they have only two exams the whole semester.  That attendance policy, in terms of being able to obtain a grade with or without being physically present may be reasonable in some, but may not be in all of classes.
Gets us to the second point, the educational requirements for each class.  Again as we mentioned throughout our presentation, we are not going to be fundamentally altering classes.  So it's really important we talk with the instructor or maybe even the department to be able to determine would this type of accommodation fundamentally alter that?
So I was just notified that some folks have responded.  So I will pause here and let those comments be shared. 

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  What are the current grades of that student?  Can the student attend the class in question remotely?  Would it fundamentally alter the lab or the swimming class?  Some people are saying, yes it would.  Some students or some attendees talked about requesting medical leave.  Another idea is that you might provide an online accommodation to the class, if it's not a fundamental alteration. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI:  So those responses are wonderful.  They hit on almost all the bullet points that Crystal and I have here.  Ultimately it's up to the student whether they remain in the class or take an incomplete or withdraw.  It's tied to their academic performance but when it comes to our ability to accommodate them, you know, our main strive is, again, making sure it's reasonable and we are not fundamentally altering anything.  Everyone who shared comments I thank you for putting your thinking cap on.
I will keep moving forward and I will turn it over to Crystal to actually go over our next scenario.

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Thanks, Tessa.  Our scenario number four.  In the beginning of October, a junior, who registered with your office, because their parents made them their freshmen year, failed his first round of tests in his math class because he was absent and turned in his work late.  He has come to your office reporting that he has not been able to get out of bed because of his depression and that he has always had a hard time in math and dreads going to class.  You review his documentation and notice that he has a learning disability in addition to a mental health disability.  He has requested that the professor let him retake his exam with extra time and the use of a calculator and that the professor tutor him one on one outside of office hours.
Our question:  Is what the student requesting reasonable?  If not, what would be reasonable alternative accommodations?
So I'm going to go ahead and start going over what Tessa and said, but please, continue with your comments and I will pause when  when those come in.
So I think a lot of us would make sure to tell the student that the accommodations not retroactive.
It would not be reasonable to retake that test.  Since they can start anywhere in the semester and go forward at that point.  You can talk with the student and say I know we did an intake meeting.  Should I rego over how to talk to your professor about putting your accommodations in place?  Tessa and I agreed, it's not reasonable for a professor it tutor a student oneonone.  So most schools have different tutoring centers on campus.  So we refer the student to that.  Or depending what other things are on campus, if you don't have one, there's other tutor services or who might tutor, but it wouldn't be reasonable for the professor, for that to be an accommodation that the professor would need to provide.
But we would want to encourage a student to actually use the professor's office hours and like I was saying, university tutoring.  Remind the student that, you know, even being granted the accommodations that they still have to do their work and go to class.  So depending on what is needed, there might be accommodations where there may be a little bit of attendance flexibility but the student may not have that as an accommodation.  So alternative accommodations, we deem will be reasonable and depending on how the student is doing at this point, it might be possible to withdraw them for some of their classes until they have time to kind of get a little bit better hold on what's going on or for them to kind of more adapt to the higher ed climate.
So Tessa, I'm going to pass it off to you for our last scenario. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Thank you.  So our last scenario here, is on slide 41 and it reads, a student within a nursing program is completing her clinical rounds in a local hospital.  This is the last class the student needs to graduate.  The student's multiple sclerosis has worsened and the student is now experiencing tremors.  They have provided medical documentation stating they are not able to lift more than 20 pounds, and that they are easily fatigued.  The student has requested an accommodation of an aide.  The student request that their aide help them perform physical tasks within their clinical rounds.
The student expressed a desire to become a nurse within an elementary school setting.  The student explained their choice of elementary school settings because it would not require them to either draw blood, change bed pans or transfer patients, which is currently required in her clinical setting.
And our question to all of you is, what challenges are important to understand when accommodating students in a clinical setting?
So in this example, we are specifically referring to nursing programs but it would also apply to any other clinical settings if that applies with the majors or programs on your campuses.
So as everybody is thinking, I will begin to go over our responses, but, again, it's an open invitation for folks to respond.
So on slide 42 is our response, and the first one is hinting at what are the essential functions of the program?  So any type of clinical requirements are not only establishing expectations from that department, but they may refer to a professional organization that it's essential that they meet those requirements.
So, for example, not with nursing, but in speech pathology, they have a national organization of  it's called ASHA, the Association of Speech and Hearing Sciences, and so with ASHA, they dictate how many clinical hours you need and the types of settings you need.  So if nursing or any other variety of programs has an organization that's saying, you need to do this, that's very important to understand because, again we can't fundamentally change those expectations.
It's also important that you talk specifically with that department and understand what types of professional standards and essential functions have already been shared with that student.  Did they receive a handbook when they started?  Were they aware of any of these expectations or is this a new request and it's kind of brand new, they have never thought about it before? 
So it's very important that whenever you are establishing accommodations and any clinical setting, you are working not only closely with the department but potentially even the location that they are working in to determine what is reasonable.  And this specific example, having an aide perform some tasks, it may or may not be reasonable, depending on what those essential functions are.  And it's also really important to understand any physical requirements because, again, certain professions we have listed here, a firefighter.  They have requirements in terms of how much weight you need to be able to lift, the ability to maintain a certain physical, I will call it a caliber.  But, again, all of those are very casebycase specific, not only factoring the limitation of a person's disability, but also the essential functions and professional standards of that chosen profession.
Before I move on, I just wanted to make sure we received any questions or comments to share with anyone.

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  We have a few questions that we can bring to the end, but a few comments that just came up.  A lot of thoughts about the fundamental alteration, if that was the case.  Another interesting idea was about confidentiality and safety issues that might arise. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI: Yes, and that's also two very, very important points, confidentiality and safety requirements, obviously we would not want to impact the safety either of the person who has the disability or of anyone that they would be working with.
And as Claire just indicated, we have a couple questions from everyone who has participated, that I will assume are holistically about our presentation.  So on slide 43 here, we are just opening up to hear those questions so we can have a further discussion.

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  Great thank you so much.  We have several questions that have come in.  I don't know if we'll get to all of them, but we'll try to go through as many as we can.  One of the first questions we received says that their university holds steadfast to the threeyear rule for documentation, and they want to know how they can change the outlook on that.

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: So this is Crystal.  I guess my question is:  Who is the one who makes that determination at your university?  Is that coming from your general counsel or is that coming from your director or who is determining that?

>> TESSA DiPERRI: As we are waiting for that person to respond, one thing to even consider as kind of releasing those strings on the threeyear deadline is you can even look to ETS, and the organization that  I will use the term "owns" but the GRE, the SAT, all of those tests, this he have expanded their requirements to five years.  Looking at other organizations or even other institutions depending on, again, who is establishing that rule may be helpful as well. 

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  So it sounds like  it sounds like that question may have a followup.  So perhaps we can deal with that one offline so we can get through many more questions.

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Yes.

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  Why is it not appropriate for students with developmental disabilities to ask for paratransit services? 

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Sorry, I don't mean it as black and white.  It might be.  It just depends on what the students need.  In my mind, it was a student who may have just needed, you know, extra time on their assignments, but, you know, has no mobility and can navigate campus very easily.  It would be a student, you know who, you know, wouldn't necessarily need it for their disability in any way. 

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  Got it.  Another question asks  and this is kind of going off of what we just talked about, but a great question to expand upon.  Do you have any examples of an unreasonable accommodation for a nursing student as they must be able to meet certain physical requirements?

>> TESSA DiPERRI: I think off the top of my head, things that would be unreasonable would really be things that would be, again, fundamentally altering any of those programs, but you really have to be creative.  I'm trying to think off the top of my head.  Maybe the student has anxiety and can occasionally experience anxiety attacks.  Maybe an accommodation for that person would be to identify a space they can go where if they are experiencing an anxiety attack or they can feel that influx of anxiety in their system, they can remove themselves.  And then return and still be able to function, you know, without fundamentally altering anything.  But something that is not responsible, I would just say is anything that would directly, fundamentally alter that list.  So sometimes you really have to put your thinking camp on, and include, you know, the nursing department.  And there are institutions that specialize specifically for those professional programs.  So they would  they have way more experience than, let's say someone would they just happen to have a nursing program on their campus, versus a school where all they have is professional programs.  I would recommend anyone dealing with any type of clinical setting, to definitely pick the brain of folks who have more of those more clinical programs on their campus, because they will have been thinking through those types of questions more frequently than, again, you may have only one student you work with on your campus, compared to all of your students. 

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: Yeah, and to expand on what Tessa is saying, each program should have a program description and program requirements.  So especially on a nursing program, I would think that most of them typically spell those requirements out a little bit more and so maybe, you know, if one of their requirements is that the student must be able, you know, after classes are done and they learn how to draw someone's blood.  And someone is asking, hey, is it okay for my aide to draw a blood.  You talk with the program's directors and everything, you know, that may not be reasonable if that's an expectation that someone has coming out of that program. 

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  Another individual wanted  less of a question, but more of a discussion on physical disabilityrelated accommodations.  You might be able to expand on what those accommodations could look like. 

>> TESSA DiPERRI: So when it comes to physical disabilities, one thing to note is that not all students who have a physical disability need to be connected with your office.  There's a number of students on my university who we do have a shuttle system here and so they  you know, don't need to officially connect with us because they are able to access the shuttle system that all students are able to use.
One example that probably would go typically through your office is reassigning classrooms.  A lot of colleges and universities have really historic buildings and they may or may not be 100% accessible.  So being able to assist that person in either relocating classes, or giving them early registration to help them space out their classes, if they are aware, you know, due to their mobility issues, they may take longer or maybe they have a disability like POTS where they can't regulate their body temperature and they need to space out their classes with not only enough time to get there, but to be able to restabilize their body temperature.  So I think some examples would be registering for classes early, assisting in relocating with any classes if necessary, and any assistance with paratransit if that's available at your institution. 

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  Great.  And one final question we have.  An individual wanted to know if you could provide some type of legislation to go along with ESA access to common areas. 

>> CRYSTAL TENAN: That would be in the Fair Housing Act.  I can follow up with that information, with that person.  Is that all right?

>> CLAIRE STANLEY:  Yeah, we can make sure that you guys are connected. 
Great.  Well, I think with that, we just have a couple of minutes left and those are the end of our questions.  So this is a great time for us to conclude.  This is the conclusion of today's webinar and we realize that many of you may still have a lot of questions.  This is a very big and complex and ongoing conversation.  So we apologize if you didn't get a chance to ask your question or get a full answer.  We know that there can be a lot of conversation that can continue to go on.  We would ask that you please contact us with followup questions.  You can reach us here at the MidAtlantic office at 3012170124.  You can also, of course, go to our website at ADAinfo.org.  We want to thank Tessa and Crystal so much for taking time out of your schedule to share with us, and share your experiences.  I think that everybody can agree we learned a lot today.
The digital record of today's session will be available online and there will be a written transcript for people to have access to.  So keep an eye out with an email that will connect with those and it will be on our online archive in a couple of weeks.
Also, at the conclusion of this session, you will receive an email link to an online session survey.  We would really appreciate if people can participate in that survey.  We would love to get your input so we can know what to continue to improve on in the future.
Also, if you need the code for participation points, the code today is the ADA and Higher Ed.
So, again, that concludes today's webinar.  We again want to thank everybody for coming and participating, and we hope that we'll have you guys attend another future webinar.  Thanks and have a great day. 

>> OPERATOR: Recording stopped.
(End of session)