POSTED MARCH 17, 2020 - INFORMATION MAY HAVE CHANGED

From the Office of Disability Services

As we move to all classes going online, please consider the following information regarding working with all students, but especially students with disabilities:

• As the instructional setting changes, so might some accommodations. This office will contact you individually should you have a student with new and/or changing accommodations.
• Review your list of students with accommodations to remember the needs of each.
• Many of our students live with conditions such as anxiety, depression, autism and ADD/ADHD.  Students with these diagnoses are affected greatly by sudden changes in a very short amount of time.
• Students living with visual impairments, medical conditions such as epilepsy or migraines, or either learning or intellectual disabilities may struggle with eye strain or fatigue and headaches due to the extra time now being spent on a computer.

• Offer students alternate ways to contact you. Can you forward office voicemails?

• If you lecture live online, this office may utilize note takers just as we do in face-to-face classes.  If you record a lecture, be sure to caption it. The Instructional Design staff can help show you how to caption.

• Flexible attendance is still a real accommodation needed for some students online.

• Some students use text-to-speech software for reading both online and in textbooks. If you use PDFs, a quick way to know if the PDF is readable with this software is to select a sentence. If you can select individual letters in that sentence, the PDF is likely readable.

• Fast-paced classes can be problematic for students with disabilities (especially if the students use assistive technology) and for students for whom English is not their first language. Students who live in areas with slow WiFi could also struggle with pace. Consider checking in with students about how your pace is working. 

• Reach out to students who were attending on-campus classes but are missing virtual classes.
• Consider offering options for demonstrating learning; e.g., different types of test items, portfolios, presentations, papers, discussion.
• In reference to testing:
  • The ODS staff will work remotely from March 17–April 3. Test proctoring will generally be unavailable during that time.

• For paper-format testing, you may:
  • Send the test directly to the student via email. The student can then scan or take a photo of the test and send it directly back to you.

• For online testing via D2L:
  • If a student gets extended time per an Accommodation Notification sent from this office, be sure to alter the testing time accordingly for each test given.
  • If a student is allowed breaks while testing, add in their total break time to the exam if there is no way for the student to stop and start the test.
  • If you use any type of online proctoring using a camera, be aware that students with severe anxiety, significant ADHD symptoms or those on the autism spectrum may have varying levels of eye contact, may fidget, may read out loud, pace the room, etc.

The Office of Disability Services is here to serve as a resource for both faculty and students. Our staff is available to consult with you and answer any questions you may have. Please email nsudisabilityservice@northern.edu with any questions or concerns, and we will get back to you. Please include in your email the phone number at which you can be reached.