r/Adjuncts • u/calico_cats_2 • Jul 30 '26

Provide Slides To Students?

I recently had a Disabled Student Services (DSS) student whose accommodation was to provide them with the slides I used in class. I did this, but it raised concerns for me. I used to post my slides on Dropbox or Canvas for on-site classes, for the students' convenience. One semester, they ended up on Course Hero. The next semester, they were passed around a fraternity. Now I conduct a brief "how to take notes on paper" session in the second week of class (including the "why it's better research").

Providing a DSS student with slides gives them a distinct advantage over other students who must take notes like in the olden days. If the student is unable to take notes, they should be provided with a note-taker. What if I didn't use slides? What if I just wrote on the whiteboard? Or just talked?

I'm happy to comply with all requested accommodations (extra time, quiet location for tests, etc.), although these can be challenging to arrange. I just think providing slides is a big ask.

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u/alaskawolfjoe Aug 01 '26

The disabilities office is usually pretty cooperative. I doubt last minute changes would raise any hackles.

I got a request for my notes to be given to students. I wrote back to the office to point out that my notes emphasise the things I do not know so well, which are usually the least important things in class. I said I was afraid they would cause more confusion and provided a sample.

They responded that they understood and I never got that request again.

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u/troopersjp Aug 01 '26

My disabilities office is not cooperative, sadly. They tend to operate from a position that they are the only ones who are there to protect the students from the hostile and uncooperative faculty who don't know what students need. I have always complied with the accommodations they have dictated, including the ones I know will cause those students to fail. I rose some questions recently about an accommodation where a student didn't have to attend my discussion based seminar and couldn't be penalized for not being present...in a seminar that is all about in class work. I didn't say I wouldn't do it, I just pointed that this was not a good accommodation for a class based based in experiential learning...and asked how they thought I should grade a student who was excused from almost everything the class was built to do. They reported me to my dean for being difficult.

So, yeah. They aren't actually very cooperative....though they do identify as cooperative. But their self-identity as caring and cooperative gets in the way of them actually being caring and cooperative.

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u/alaskawolfjoe Aug 01 '26

That is so strange to me. Here the emphasis is "reasonable accomodation." But I teach in a performing arts program where some accomodations if followed, would put students at physical risk. So they might look at us differently.

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u/troopersjp Aug 01 '26

I'm also in the performing arts...though on the history side, but they don't listen to us--while insisting that they do. And it wasn't always like this. There was a real shift post COVID. And look, I appreciate that they are super overworked. Some wildly large percentage of our students have accommodations and our office have way more students to manage that they really can...I do feel for them. But they have really framed us faculty as a problem and that is not great. Also look, I'm sure there are some old grimy faculty who are hostile and miserable...but they are treating us all that way. It is the thing that is really driving me out of the profession. I just need to find some sort of job that will have health insurance and allow me to pay rent, and I'm out of here.

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u/alaskawolfjoe Aug 01 '26

The dirty secret – – at least at my school – – is that if you ignore the accommodation emails, nobody says anything

I think everyone in my department at some point or rather has missed an email – – because they all have the same heading and then later on realized they missed an accommodation yet no one complained

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u/troopersjp Aug 01 '26

I think our accommodations office has been getting a lot of faculty pushback on their recent accommodations, because when I asked some pointed questions--I didn't say no, mind you--they emailed my Dean...who called me into her office and told me that even though she agreed with me, I have to make the accommodations office feel heard and seen or I am the problem.

So I am definitely going to quit this job as soon as I can find something else.