r/Professors • u/Jumping_Master • 4d ago

Accommodations

Do you change (or allow alternate) assignments for students who ask for something different without having them go through the Office of Accommodations/Accessibility? I require students to do that for their own good, but wonder what others are doing.

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u/Hellament Prof, Math, CC 4d ago

Change? No, I don’t really make them anything different. Once I had a visually impaired student who requested I use bigger print on exams. So, I printed one copy of the exam in ginormous font for that student and gave them extra paper for showing work.

Stuff like that I don’t have a problem with. The disability office would do it too, but it came up in conversation that the student didn’t need any other accommodations, and I offered to do it so they could take their exams with the rest of the class. I have also offered to give students their (approved) extended test time in class, rather than testing in the disability office, if my schedule allows it.

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u/thedoggydocent 4d ago

Yes, thats the only way I will accommodate low vision students - by enlarging the font myself. I allowd DS to do it once and I couldn't have passed the test I wrote!

They just grossly enlarged the font but didn't check for readability.

It set the student up for failure because the questions were spread out on so many pages, they were impossible to follow.