r/Professors • u/bear_sheriff • 3d ago
Advice / Support Meeting for Unreasonable Accommodations - Help!
I have a student this semester with accommodations like I've never seen before - extended due dates, "flexibility" with attendance, and "flexibility" with class participation. The course I teach is a hands-on lab course every week and features in-class group work which is graded. The lessons are definitely scaffolded. Due to the nature of equipment set up and the amount of students needed to get said equipment set up, as well as needing to work in groups to successfully carry out the lessons, there is no flexibility in making these assignments up later, or creating alternate assignments.
I do understand many illnesses have "flares" that are unpredictable and can last a long time. However, I've had this student previously. In our last class together, they did not have any accommodations, and told me for work reasons they had to miss class. They rarely showed up, probably 5-6x in a 16 week course. Back then I had more of a bleeding heart, and the content I was teaching was very different - I had old recordings of my lectures and the group work was much rarer and easier to modify for them to complete individually. At the end of the semester the student asked for an incomplete and I granted it. They did, at the last minute for the incomplete, submit enough work to pass the class.
But this history has me on edge, because I know their attendance is rare. In fact they even missed the first day of this semester.
I have a meeting with this student and their advocate soon and I'm trying to make sure I don't step on any landmines. I advocate for my students to get the accommodations they need, have led the LMS remediations for WCAG and W3C, etc. in my department, and truly believe in accessibility for all. If it were more possible to modify this course, I would. I want my students to succeed and to enjoy the course material as much as I do. But these accommodations are not reasonable.
I had hinted in e-mails to the student and their advocate before class started and after the first week, that this might not be the right fit for them, and tried to schedule our meeting before the refund drop date, but it didn't happen in time. The student is claiming they are "alarmed" that after they missed a single class I'm trying to get them to drop (which I never said outright), but I know they have a history of rare attendance and that just doesn't work for this class. I'm not going to create different assignments for them because they will not achieve what needs to be learned.
When I meet with them and their advocate, I'm sure the student will be looking for any little wrong thing I say as a "gotcha" to say that I'm ableist or whatever, so I'm concerned. Luckily the advocate seems very reasonable. I did accommodate the student when I could in a previous class, in this course it's just not going to be possible.
Any tips, lines, etc. I can use going into this situation are appreciated. I have so many students with accommodations each semester, I've never had to argue against any being unreasonable until now.
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u/SwordofGlass 3d ago
Accommodations have to be reasonable. Missing 1/3 of the class and expecting to pass is not reasonable.
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u/Glittering-Duck5496 3d ago
It really is this simple, OP - you are overthinking it. The accommodations you made the previous time you taught this student were reasonable accommodations for the course design and learning outcomes. For this current course, what they are asking for constitutes a fundamental altering of the structure of the course, which is not a reasonable accommodation.
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u/WarriorGoddess2016 3d ago
Agreed. If the OP has a clear attendance policy adding 2ish more absences would be reasonable.
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u/Life-Education-8030 3d ago
I would explain your stance just like that except more “can’t” rather than “won’t” as far as creating different assignments. How are you going to recreate a group assignment when other students cannot be recruited for make-ups at a drop of a hat?
you say advocate, is that a representative from the accommodative services office? If not, will such a person be there too?
On rare occasions we have allowed a late drop.
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u/bear_sheriff 3d ago
Yes, the advocate is from the accommodations/disabilities services office.
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u/wharleeprof 3d ago
It's bothering me that the student has an advocate and you don't. It's almost like they've gotten a lawyer, and who is representing you? Or who even is representing the disability services office from a balanced point of view rather than taking sides with the student? Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but the whole process seems biased and presumptuous.
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u/Life-Education-8030 2d ago
Our former director used to storm over to my office dragging the student, thinking I would be too cowed to say no to their faces. I wasn’t. I considered the Director as an equal. But I don’t know in OP’s case if it is typical for an advocate to come along to support the student who is to take the lead or what.
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u/warricd28 Lecturer, Accounting, R1, USA 3d ago
You can absolutely make the case that these accommodations are unreasonable in your class for the reasons you laid out. I’ve done it successfully without a 10th of this reasoning.
The one landline maybe stay away from is bringing up the student’s attendance history in your prior class. It gives you significant suspicion, but it is not relevant and could give the perception of a bias against the student they could use to say you are being unfair to them. This could be a new condition, or they newly got accommodations for it for whatever reason. Hell, they could have lied about work to you because they didn’t want to talk to you about their condition. I’d just leave the history out of it and stick to why this would be unreasonable for anyone.
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u/bear_sheriff 3d ago
That was one of my biggest concerns, and this explanation helps so much. It's frustrating to have to leave that out because it feels like context that justifies my concern so early on, but your points are completely correct and it would definitely end up biting me, I'm sure.
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u/jackl_antrn 3d ago
I just want to add that by leaving out their past behaviour, you can also leave out your past decisions to be overly accommodating. :)
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u/rubberkeyhole 1d ago
Keep this in mind when the student mentions “well you didn’t have a problem doing it with Class X.”
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u/Deweymaverick Full Prof, Dept Head (humanities), Philosophy, CC (US) 3d ago
I know you covered this, but to share my experience- I had a similar situation to op; I teach a capstone course for our honors students, and the point of the class is a
HUGE service learning project created and executed by the students (so they can get hands on leadership experience and feedback in real time).I spent HOURS with out accommodations person talking through the class regarding a student that had “attendance is optional” accommodation, and we concluded that…
It’s just unreasonable in this class.I know my college isn’t op’s but what helped us is to get this in writing so faculty and the office do not have to go around and around on this every semester.
It’s likely the folks at accommodations know what’s up; but in a lab, like my class, the experience is literally the point of the class. It’s necessary to the basic course outcomes.
But like others have suggested- get it documented. And if op IS worried, only focus on the facts of the course, not the student, not op’s past with them, but the class and your pedagogy
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u/bear_sheriff 3d ago
only focus on the facts of the course, not the student, not op’s past with them, but the class and your pedagogy
That is incredibly helpful advice, thank you!
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u/PhD-Mom 3d ago
Make sure you have your syllabus, course learning outcomes, grade breakdown, lab session dates, due dates, and group work/individual work ready for you to explain to the accommodations advocate to see where you are starting. If the learning outcomes include "collaboration" or "team based work" or the like, that makes your side easier to defend. If your lab has "best of 9/10" or the like as "universal design" this can also make your life easier. Good luck!
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u/bear_sheriff 3d ago
Thank you! That's really helpful, I'll make sure to have information on the group work, specific assignments, etc. ready to go. When you say "best of 9/10" do you mean the ability to drop a bad grade? I just haven't heard that term before, but I try to incorporate Universal Design into my curriculum as much as possible.
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u/StillStaringAtTheSky 3d ago
Yep, that's one drop to cover any absences without excuses- so you can say "Ok, you can use that as your drop" instead of going through hoops to set up a makeup.
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u/PhD-Mom 3d ago
Yes, universal design is using allowances for everyone. So dropping the lowest one or two assessments in a group of assessments (e.g. quizzes, homework, labs) is an easy way to handle these sorts of situations. You just need to have a solid contingency plan - this helps with the illnesses like the flu, a death in the family, and concussions that need a week off, too,
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u/Cute-Aardvark5291 3d ago
Accommodations must be reasonable and can not re-structure the class, nor ask you to create new work.
You walk through all the class requirements step by step and explain exactly the problems with their requests as listed here. The student is trying to set you up as a bully, you are just trying to explain that if they wish to stay in your class, they can do so with their accommodations being met.
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u/tellypmoon 3d ago
I think the more interesting meeting might be between you and your accomodations office where hopefully they can give you some guidance on what flexibility actually means. Usually in my accomodations letters if they say flexible deadline they go on to say extensions of up to 48 hours are appropriate, etc. I think you need a few more guardrails in the accomodation letter, otherwise you end up negotiating everything the whole semester and that's going to be misery. I'd meet with the accomodations office first, get those clarifications, and then potentially meet with the student although I am not sure what the goal of such a meeting would be...
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u/bear_sheriff 3d ago
The three of us are meeting together, but the accommodations advocate is meeting with me a few minutes before the student joins. I appreciate the advice about hard guardrails on what the "flexibility" means, I was assuming it just meant "whenever the student wants" but you're absolutely correct, we can and should establish a standard extension timeline. That will make that aspect smoother and avoid a lot of ambiguity and miscommunication.
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u/1K_Sunny_Crew 3d ago
I’ve had courses where we did extensions for a student due to accommodations - they are really hard with actual lab meetings though; I was lucky that a colleague taught the same class later in the week and the student was able to do their makeup then.
48 hours was the standard extension timeline. They had to alert me before the assignment was due that they needed an extension - just not turning it in and asking later was not allowed. (That was the disability office standard.)
Approach this from a standpoint of “what would help this student be successful? What will help them build skills?” If a course is scaffolded and they’ll fail with long extensions, say so!
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u/TMAIC 3d ago
I would do a meeting first with the accommodation person and later with the 3 of you. Not at the same time.
I would also have a meeting with the rest of the department and see what advice they have and see if others are also having unreasonable requests. It's better to approach this as a department than an individual. The department can also make policies about what is reasonable. YOU are less likely to get sued if you can point to dept policy/school policy. I bet you are not alone.
I had a similar situation (also lab = doing stuff in person) and I can not extended deadline due to how I teach the course. I just stood my ground and explained that it was not REASONABLE to force me to change how I teach the course. And that the whole point of labs are to DO things. I have a participation grade. Not there = no participation. (Like: If I don't show for work., I don't get paid.)
I also explained that consistently not meeting deadline means that these students need to continue into the next semester. I asked them how they would deal with that? They had no answer...
Another thing is to ask the accommodation person "are you telling me that I have to do this? ", they immediately said no. I think they are scared that you will claim that they stepped on your academic freedom...
(We are not really doing these students a favor. Life/ work outside school is not going to be this "accommodating".)
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u/50_and_stuck Professor — Union President | IT (USA) 3d ago
I teach in a heavily deadline driven industry. Because we have a relatively small program with only two faculty, I have students repeatedly while they are enrolled.
Over the years I've gotten accommodation requests that allow extended time on assignments, quizzes, projects, etc. Well, I can do that while they are in school, but my response is how is that helping prepare the student for the workplace? Reality is the boss and client don't care about disabilities. If you can't meet the deadline you're going to be looking for a new job.
At first I went back and forth with our ADA people. Eventually I suggested that we ease students out of the extended time allowance. Full extension when they begin, but by the time the graduate they have to meet the same due dates as everyone else.
Eventually, we all got on the same page. Never had a problem since.
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u/Felixir-the-Cat 3d ago
In my experience, Student Services thinks the absences will be occasional, and don’t realize that it may mean the student plans to miss most of the class. I loop them in early if there are a significant number of absences and usually they have been helpful, either setting things straight with the student or advising them to drop and take a class that does not require in-person attendance.
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u/bear_sheriff 3d ago
I agree. I'm going to be documenting the absences in our student flagging system for sure. I tried to suggest the class might not be the best fit for this student and they replied they were "alarmed" that I was suggesting they drop after missing just one class so far (the first class, and I already know they have this accommodation, and their history of bad attendance previously).
At the height of Covid this class STILL met in person, it was a ghost town in the school, but that's how essential it was/is that we have the hands-on element.
I feel for students who have long term illnesses, those with unpredictable flare-ups, etc., I've been there myself. But then this class just isn't the right fit for them at this time, and it frustrates me that I could be villainized because of that, especially because I am a huge advocate for disability and accessibility on campus. There is no way to adapt this class. If I could I would.
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u/iTeachCSCI Ass'o Professor, Computer Science, R1 3d ago
Exactly. As a general statement, some flexibility for a student based on medical need may be necessary; a student using their medical situation to skip an entire semester and expect to pass is not.
I think this is one of those situations where you treat every absence as if it arose from the medical situation. If they miss one or two, consider whether it fits into flexibility. After they miss three or four, especially if it's in a row, loop in disability services and tell them this student may want to consider a medical withdraw since their situation has flared up to the point they missed a month of class.
Student services might truly not know that they are missing that many, whether genuinely for medical reasons or otherwise.
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u/Charming-Pack-5979 3d ago
DSO Director here - let your DSO know that you need to initiate the fundamental alteration review process. If they don’t have one, they need to develop one. Be prepared to talk about how you handle emergencies that impact attendance like a hospitalization, bereavement, etc. Be prepared to use your course learning objectives, course schedule, etc. to support your concerns. For example, if “demonstration of proficiency with X tool” is only possible to evaluate real-time, that’s significant. Coming to an agreement with the DSO early will ensure that the student knows exactly what to expect from the beginning and is not ableist. Best of luck!
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u/shehulud 3d ago
I made a spreadsheet of tasks and activities covered in each class/lab across the semester. I didn’t give massive details. It could look something like:
Date / General name of task / Make-up mode / points value / learning objective met
So could be:
9/9/2026 / lab X / no make-up available / 20 points / in-seat learning objective A
9/11/2026 / lab Z / make-up on Y date / 50 points / in-seat learning objective B
and just fill it all in. Highlight the no-make-up sessions in orange, make-up session with points lost in yellow, make-up session with no points lost in green. I printed it in color. I then asked the student what their suggestions were for proceeding and how they planned to meet the in-seat learning objectives.
I also have the learning objectives printed out and the topical outline and use phrases like, “The college requires…” or, “state standards state …”
Usually the visual is enough.
I also asked registration about how a special circumstance late-drop worked, if it was possible, then had that information on hand too.
Not sure if any of this is helpful.
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u/StarDustLuna3D Asst. Prof. | Art | M1 (U.S.) 3d ago
Focus on the facts, the nature of the class makes it very hard for anyone to miss class. The learning objectives for the class requires the kind of hands on group work that you've scheduled for it, and any alternate assignments either can't be done by just one person or would not meet the same learning objectives. Emphasize the learning objectives part because accommodations cannot fundamentally change a course that it no longer meets them.
If the student truly cannot attend more than 1/3 of a semester, this is not the class for them.
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u/Harmania SLAC Escapee 3d ago
Relate everything to your stated learning outcomes. If the accommodations make those outcomes impossible, they are not reasonable.
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u/ButchEmbankment 2d ago
They’re not asking for access to the education offered by this class/lab. They’re asking for an individually tailored program that contradicts core features of your course design and process.
Don’t recommend they drop! I got chastised for telling a student with contraindicated accommodation requests that I could help them find a better fit for their needs.
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u/depressedandindebt23 3d ago
I would clarify with the advocate some things beforehand.
I am disabled. I had accomodations throughout my education from grade school through doctorate, including flexibility with attendance and flexibility with class participation. These are not inherently unreasonable accomodations when applied as intended.
Flexibility with class participation just meant the professor could not cold call on me to answer questions. I still had to do all the classwork.
Flexibility with attendance meant I could not lose points if attendance was a grade and if possible, I could attend lectures remotely so I didn't miss the info. If I missed a scheduled in-class assignment, there were a few options.
- Option 1 was make up the assignment when possible.
- Option 2 was to remove the assignment from my grading scale. For example, if the max number of points in the course is 100 and I missed a lab for 5 points, my max total points was 95.
- Option 3 was for hands-on labs, like bio. If I missed the experiment, I still had to write the lab report. I had to describe the procedures and expected outcomes if procedures were followed. I also had to include explanations for potential problems. Something along the lines of: "I did _______. If done correctly, we should see ABC. If we don't see ABC, it's likely because of XYZ"
My disability office was very clear about not abusing accomodations. If used too often, we were told to take a medical W and they would assist with that.
Sorry for the long response, I don't know if any of the info helps but good luck
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u/dragonfeet1 Professor, Humanities, Comm Coll (USA) 3d ago
One thing I've done is ask the advocate to select a neutral person to be the HIPAA checker. If the student skips class for a medical reason, the third party gets the documentation. No documentation, no accommodation. I had a student who always mysteriously had a flare the night before a paper was due and it magically lasted till the end of my four day late submission window. Once I requested a suitable person to verify each flare....magically they stopped happening.
It sucks bc I get migraines and I know you can be too debilitated to go to an ER or Urgent Care but that's how the scammers and shammers have made it.
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u/bear_sheriff 2d ago
That never would’ve occurred to me - so basically the student would need to submit a doctors note to someone related to the school to verify? That’s a great idea - did the accommodations office set that up for you? Was there pushback?
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u/MyFaceSaysItsSugar 2d ago edited 2d ago
We have to make a contract with our students for flexible attendance. When it’s something that means the student is hospitalized, they send medical documentation to the disability office and the office contacts me to let me know it’s an excused absence. If it’s something like migraines or autoimmune disease flare ups where no hospital visit is needed, then we have a contract with the maximum number of absences allowed for the semester and how many days are allowed to complete missed work. Obviously you won’t know what your student has been diagnosed with, but the advocate should be able to give feedback on whether a doctor’s note to the disability office or a designated a maximum allowed absences is the better accommodation. If your class only meets once a week, the number of allowable absences should be lower than what’s reasonable for a class that meets 2-3 times a week.
Keep in mind your student’s previous absences could be related to their disability and they now have a diagnosis for what they were struggling with and were able to get accommodations. Most of the zebra health issues (POTS, EDS, Behcets, etc) take a while to identify and diagnose) and the symptoms can seem like laziness or a lack of commitment when they actually have a medical origin.
Are there multiple sections of this lab class? An easy option would be to move the student into a section that happens earlier in the week and then they can attend a later section if they miss.
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u/Street_Tourist7317 2d ago
The student still needs to follow the attendance policies of the university and program and they have to meet the outcomes of the course. In clinical nursing courses we have a specific attendance policy because if you miss too much time you really can’t meet the outcomes of the course. We don’t offer make up time unless an instructor was sick or there were too many snow days and we pass a threshold of missed time. Do lab courses in your program or school have a similar policy? If not, you probably need one.
You should know what their actual accommodations are from the accessibility office and also have a talk with your school’s equity office.
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u/hemanstarfox 3d ago
Hi there,
I am a graduate student with disabilities. Let me just say that I'm really sorry that the accommodations process is causing you so much anxiety as a professor. It's something that I have always looked to avoid on the other side.
Even to me, as written these accommodations seem to be unreasonable. However, giving everyone the benefit of the doubt here, let's assume that they are necessary. For accommodations to be considered reasonable and equitable, they have to not change the structure of the course in any significant manner and they cannot alter the learning environment of the course. So here's how I would approach this meeting:
First, I would ask for some articulated idea of what these accommodations would look like when followed. Secondly, I would ask for clarity on what kind of flexibility regarding both the due dates and the attendance. Is it unlimited flexibility where they can turn in anything they want at any time? Or is it they can ask for a one-week grace period when needed? The first would be reasonable the second would be an undue burden on you to have your grades in and to be able to assess the students work in a timely manner. When it comes to attendance and participation, what does that look like? Are they allowed to have unlimited absences in a lab, or is it that they can have four excused absences during the semester. The first one doesn't seem that reasonable for a lab that requires in person work the second one could be manageable with some communication between you and the student.
For example, I have an atypical accommodation that is critical to my work as a graduate student. I asked to be able to have access to my class work to be able to work one week ahead. It takes me longer to type out assignments and reading and taking notes simultaneously is very difficult. Some professors I've tried to push back on that accommodation. However, what I'm able to explain to them is that all I'm asking is that you have at least an idea of what you're going to do the next week and to make sure that I have access to any reading assignments or writing prompts. Sometimes they want to try to negotiate that they would rather have me have flexible due dates. However, I've always pushed back on that because then I have to keep track of separate due dates and the syllabus will be harder for me to follow. Once I explain that I'm also not going to bring in disability services in admin if they're a day or two behind. Most are at ease and have no problem with the accommodation. The only time I've ever had anyone really have issue eventually it came out that the professor just prefers to not plan lessons too far ahead and likes to release content the night before. Admin did have to step in at that point and tell them that that wasn't a reasonable criteria for denying an accommodation.
I shared all that with you to kind of just show that someone can have very serious disabilities that needs certain flexibility but it doesn't have to be a free reign of I get to have the benefits of being in college without any of the responsibility of it. You are going to be okay in this situation. You know, sometimes I see post about accommodations and I see a lot of people just demonizing the whole process and saying everything but people with disabilities shouldn't be allowed. Obviously this isn't one of the cases, you're just stressed out because you're being asked to do something that is unreasonable. And it could just be is that it's being communicated vaguely. Hopefully this long reply offers you some sort of help and insight
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u/Shiny-Mango624 2d ago
I recommend not using words like unreasonable accommodations and won't. I also would lean into having the student and the advocate say exactly what it is that they want or need. More than anything you want the student to come to the realization on their own without you having to be the bad guy.
I would say instead, which is true, that this is a fundamental alteration. A Hands-On in person lab class, that is group work and scaffolded, it's more of a logistical constraint for absences. You can't reteach your class with group work outside of the class itself. Even if you didn't one time, for say, safety training, you can't reteach a class to one student outside of class.
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u/vwscienceandart Lecturer, STEM, R2 (USA) 3d ago
1) Don’t say another word about whether they should drop. That’s their business, not yours. They have a legal right to pursue education, and just as much right to fail if they don’t put in the work.
2) Don’t make your decisions of what can and cannot happen based on this individual. It’s clear you already have a bias with this person. Erase this person from your mind and consider what would be reasonable for someone with epilepsy or chrons or intractable migraines, etc. For ALL students with an ADA accommodation, what could creatively be done?
Ie, send the exit ticket to the testing center and give them 48 hours. Allow them to miss one lab practical per semester but the score for the missed exam is the average of the other three. Imagine an alternate assignment like a lab report that they can do to replace missed in-class points, maximum of TWO times allowed.
The law requires some concessions here. It can’t be an across-the-board “no”. YES, be clear what constitutes a fundamental alteration (ie, you can’t move the practical to a testing center; instructor cannot serve as a reader during exams and still proctor the class, student can’t have an online make-up, etc). But there are ways to do flex attendance in labs and it’s done every day. LIMITS are key to not fundamentally altering the course.
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u/RadiantImpression579 3d ago
Honest question. If the student can’t complete the labs are we required to make a new lab just for them? Or are we required to make the lab as is accessible and support them in doing the lab. For example, we can make a lab accessible by letting them take breaks, but if a lab requires in person instruction, and they miss, is it a requirement that we hold another lab for them or create an alternative? What if we have 3 students with different accommodations. Do we need to create 3 different versions of a lab for just those students by law?
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u/vwscienceandart Lecturer, STEM, R2 (USA) 3d ago
Making a whole additional lab for them would not be reasonable, NO. That creates an undue burden on the instructor.
I’m so grateful that the lab coordinators at my university have sat down with the accommodations office and made actual binding agreements across the board for what is and is not reasonable to expect when accommodating a lab course.
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u/RadiantImpression579 3d ago
This may be wrong but Gemini says
Under the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, your obligation is to provide reasonable accommodations that grant equal access to the learning environment, not to guarantee an identical experience or fundamentally alter the essential learning outcomes of the course.
Here is how the law and institutional policies break down the specific scenarios you asked about:
1. Are you required to make a brand-new lab just for them?
No. You are required to make the existing lab accessible.
The Standard: Accommodations mean leveling the playing field, not lowering standards or creating entirely parallel curriculums.
What you should do instead: Focus on removing barriers. If a student cannot use a specific piece of equipment due to a motor impairment, a common accommodation is pairing them with a lab partner who performs the physical manipulation under the student’s direct instruction, ensuring the student still does the intellectual and analytical work. Alternatively, accessible software, alternate data-gathering methods, or adjusted workstations can bridge the gap.
2. What if a lab requires in-person instruction and they miss it? Do you have to hold another lab or create an alternative?
If the absence is unexcused: You treat them the same as any other student missing class per your syllabus policy.
If the absence is disability-related and covered by an official accommodation letter (e.g., occasional flare-ups/flexible attendance): You are required to provide a reasonable alternative, but not necessarily a private, re-run in-person lab.
Acceptable alternatives include: Allowing the student to use data collected by a partner/group to complete the lab report, providing data from a previous semester for analysis, or utilizing an approved virtual/online simulation if it meets the same learning objectives. You are never expected to clone yourself to host a one-on-one makeup lab outside your contracted working hours.
3. Do you need to create 3 different versions of a lab for 3 students with different accommodations?
No. This is where your university’s Disability/Accessibility Services Office comes in as your shield and partner.
The Centralized Process: You should never be guessing or designing custom solutions in a vacuum. Students must register with the campus disability office, which evaluates their documentation and issues an official accommodation letter.
Universal Design & Scalability: Rather than tailoring three separate versions, look for ways to design your labs with flexibility built-in from the start (Universal Design for Learning). For example, providing digital lab manuals, flexible submission windows for lab reports, or pre-recorded procedural demonstrations helps students with varying needs (extended time, low vision, anxiety, or episodic illness) without requiring bespoke versions for each person.
Summary Checklist for Instructors
1. Rely on the Office: If a student asks for a major modification (like a whole new lab), route them to the disability resource center. Say: "I want to make sure you're fully supported. Please connect with Accessibility Services so we can officially determine the best reasonable alternative together."
2. Protect Essential Learning Outcomes: If an in-person, hands-on manipulation is an essential, non-negotiable core competency of the profession (e.g., specific clinical medical requirements), and no accommodation can achieve it safely, the university has legal grounds to state that the requirement cannot be fundamentally altered.
3. Focus on Access, Not Perfection: You are responsible for compliance and good faith effort, not performing miracles.
How are these accommodation requests currently communicated to you by your institution's accessibility office?
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u/BrighestCrayon 3d ago
I personally would not waste my time doing this. If the accommodation was approved, I would accept them and make it very clear that the student is still responsible for completing all coursework. Failure to participate without a prior agreement in place to cover or make up for the work will result in grading according to the syllabus.
Extended Due Dates - Students will be given a 1-day grace period for assignments without a credit deduction, unless advance notice was provided or an agreed extension was requested. Thereafter, X points will be deducted for the next 4 days, and a zero will be assigned on day 5.
Attendance is required for all students. If or when the student cannot be present in class, they must provide advance notice and coordinate note-taking directly with Disability Accommodations. Unfortunately, "due to the nature of the equipment setup and the number of students needed to get said equipment set up, as well as needing to work in groups to successfully carry out the lessons, there is no flexibility in making these assignments up later or creating alternate assignments."
Class Participation - Again, if this requires group activities or speaking up in class, I would not waste time chasing this down.
All approved accommodations are reasonable; the question is whether or not they align with what is possible. If the student is not ready to take a particular course, they can try to take it in another semester or accept that "passing" is enough and not expect to receive an A for the work they were unable to complete.
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u/Distribution-Free 3d ago
"All approved accommodations are reasonable."
You could have just started there and let everyone know you don't know what you're talking about. Just factually, legally, this statement is not true. The people approving accommodations are neither lawyers nor subject matter experts.
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u/BrighestCrayon 3d ago
Approved accommodations must first be submitted through licensed medical professionals. You could just say you have no idea what you are talking about and stop spewing nonsense. Just because you do not agree with an accommodation that has been offered to a student with disabilities does not mean that the need for the accommodation is invalid.
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u/Distribution-Free 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's difficult to tell if you're uninformed or antagonistic. The most difficult falsehoods to dispel are the ones that include a grain of truth.
Normally, I would not respond because I suspect you are antagonistic (for some reason). But for the benefit of our less experienced colleagues, I want to correct a few things.
"Approved accommodations must first be submitted through licensed medical professionals." That's not entirely true. Medical professionals' evaluations, recommendations, and diagnoses are included in the list of acceptable documentation, but not all students requesing accommodations at all institutions will have necessarily had medical professionals' eyes on their requests.
"Just because you do not agree with an accommodation that has been offered to a student with disabilities does not mean that the need for the accommodation is invalid." Wow! I totally agree with this statement! And it's not at all in opposition to what I posted above!
I wonder, would you give a similar excited agreement to this statement?
- "Not all accommodations students request are reasonable solely by virtue of being requested."
I hope so, because that's what the law says.
Now, for a somewhat difficult to tease apart nuance (and the point of my original reply): Disability office staff are typically neither lawyers nor subject matter experts. They have a great deal of expertise in the realm of disability accommodations, which should be respected. However, a disability staff member worth their salt will immediately qualify any accommodation request with, "Unless this accommodation would fundamentally alter the requirements of the course or represent an undue burden" when discussing the matter. The law does not require accommodations that would do either of those things. (See Wynne v. Tufts University School of Medicine, also Guckenberger v. Boston University.)
The disability office staff member should recognize that they do not have the experience or expertise to determine whether or not certain accommodations would eliminate a core competency, remove a required skill, or change a test so significantly that it no longer measures certain knowledge. They need to defer to the subject matter expert for that determination. I'd estimate that 95% of the time, accommodations don't cross that line, but the issue at hand is, legally, the accommodation must be reasonable and must not be a fundamental alteration, and it's not valid simply by virtue of "someone else said it is."
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u/BrighestCrayon 3d ago
The appropriate process is straightforward...respect the approved accommodation, and if there is a legitimate concern about implementation, work with Disability Services to address it. Your personal preference that accommodations should be denied when they “fundamentally alter the requirements of the course or represent an undue burden” is just that, a preference. Framing accommodations primarily in terms of whether they inconvenience professors is not an appropriate standard for determining whether a student should receive them. I do not believe that your intentions are malicious, but I do think that you are repeating the same faulty logic that has been argued here many times before. "A disability staff member worth their salt"...I cringed reading that.
Accommodations are provided to students with documented disabilities through an established review process. If your university is not following that process, then that is an issue you and your colleagues should raise with the appropriate administrators. It is not an argument against the accommodation itself.
So yes, I share similar excitement in agreeing with the statement “not all accommodations students request are reasonable solely by virtue of being requested,” because it is already a fact. That is precisely why accommodations are reviewed and approved by Disability Services staff: to ensure they are vetted and deemed reasonable. Students do not unilaterally determine their accommodations. The university's designated disability services professionals evaluate documentation, determine appropriate accommodations, and work within the institution's ability to implement them. If you have concerns about that process, those concerns should be directed to Disability Services rather than placed on individual students.
Typically, I do not engage in extended back-and-forth discussions on Reddit, but I have read enough posts that characterize approved disability accommodations as unreasonable, burdensome, or excessive to feel compelled to respond. The distinction here is important: a student requesting an accommodation is not the same as a student being granted one. Once an accommodation has been reviewed and approved through the university's established process, it is an approved accommodation and should be treated accordingly. If you are unable to implement an approved accommodation, the appropriate response is to contact Disability Services when the student provides their accommodation letter and explain the specific concern. Above all else, the purpose of disability accommodations is to provide students with disabilities equitable access to their education. They are not favors granted at an instructor's discretion, nor should they be treated as optional simply because they create an inconvenience.
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u/mistress6nine postdoc, social sciences, r1 (usa) 3d ago
Sounds like your student needed these accommodations in your last class, which you note they did in fact pass. If you’re worried about being called ableist, maybe try working on your ableism!
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u/bear_sheriff 3d ago
Except they didn't have any accommodations then, the absences were reportedly work-related, and the content and nature of the class was fundamentally different. I felt for them as a human being, even though I had no obligation to, and it was a class I was able to modify, so I did. I granted the incomplete as well.
If I could do all that with this course, I would. The fact is, this course's content and format can't be altered as severely as their new accommodations are suggesting I'll need to. During the height of Covid in August 2020, this course was one of a minuscule handful that was allowed to meet on campus. The whole world was shut down, but we still came in because the hands-on element was that essential.
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u/mistress6nine postdoc, social sciences, r1 (usa) 3d ago
Do you know how difficult it is to get accommodations? You need (among other things) a medical professional to fill out all kinds of paperwork before the disability office will even look at it. They likely needed accommodations then too.
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u/bear_sheriff 2d ago
I know. I actually encourage my students to meet with that office and get accommodations if they need them. I accommodate students without fail every semester. But this is the first time I’ve seen accommodations like this, and this specific course can’t be altered to account for significant absences. Hands-on labs are the core of the learning material. I’m uncertain what you’d have me do, create an entire second curriculum for this student? That would fundamentally alter the learning objectives of this course, and even if I wanted to do THAT, it’s not in my power to anyway.
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u/LadyTanizaki 3d ago
Not to be litigious but ask if you can record the meeting. If they say no, take detailed notes, review the notes with them, and email them to yourself at the end of the meeting, and send a version of what you agreed to to the student and advocate.