>> Susan Willemin: 

Hi. My name is Susan Willemin, and I'm the Director of Disability Support Services. And I'm here to give the faculty an overview of what Disability Support Services does. Our purpose is to determine the student's eligibility for services and approve their reasonable accommodations. We're also responsible for ensuring that Towson University's policies and procedures and practices don't discriminate and allow for accessibility. And we also collaborate with members of campus to implement accommodations and foster a welcoming, inclusive campus environment for students with disabilities. 

Some of the services that we provide include priority registration. We provide for accommodations in the classroom, on tests, and well as print accommodations. We provide learning and study skills assistance to students with disabilities. We consult with students regarding their disability to help them understand their disability better and how to deal with the impact in their academic endeavors. We help them with self-advocacy skills. And by that, I mean help them advocate for themselves. It can be hard for them to talk with professors and administrators about their disability-related needs. And  we help them do that in a good and positive way. We work with assistive technology for those students who need that as an accommodation. We assist with peer transit for students with disabilities who have mobility needs and who need assistance getting to and from their classes. We provide for information and referral for students with disabilities. And we also consult and provide technical assistance to faculty and staff. 

Some of the things we don't provide is we don't provide diagnostic evaluations to diagnose a disability, although we do refer for that service. We don't provide any type of reduced standing for academic performance. Students with disabilities have to meet the same requirements as every other student if they're essential. We don't have any special classes for students with disabilities. We don't exempt students from graduation requirements, although in limited instances we do provide for course substitutions. We don't provide tutoring. We don't provide one-on-one personal care services, and we don't provide personalized assistance to and from class. So what is the purpose of reasonable accommodations? And really, the purpose is to level the playing field. It's not to give undue advantage. And by leveling the playing field, we make it possible for students to learn material and for the professor to evaluate the student's understanding of the material without interference because of a disability. It allows a student to complete the same assignment or the same tests, but with just with a change of timing, formatting, scheduling or so forth, but the essential tests or assignment should remain the same. In other words, it doesn't alter in any significant way what the test or assignment is designed to measure. 

In terms of classroom accommodations, some examples would involve note takers, copies of PowerPoint, sign language interpreters, occasional exceptions to class absentee, the lateness policies, and making sure that classrooms, labs and field trips are in accessible locations. Test accommodations would include things like extended testing time or reduced-distraction testing space, use of a word processor, perhaps readers or scribes, and occasional modifications to test formats or the frequency of tests. And print accommodations would be providing for text and alternate formats, for example, tape text [inaudible] texts and so forth. 

How does the process work? Well, the accommodation process works as follows: The student requests and is approved for accommodations through Disability Support Services. Disability Support Services creates a memo for the student to give to the professor to start a conversation. The student consults with Disability Support Services for help if they need it. The student is to give the memo to their instructor and discuss with the instructor how to implement the accommodations in that particular course. The professor and student implement the accommodations, and then DSS is available to consult. And the important thing to remember is the accommodations process is designed to be interactive, it's not to be dictated unilaterally by any one party, not DSS or the professor or the student. It is designed to be interactive. 

The student's responsibilities are these: They have to meet the essential qualifications and institutional standards, they have to disclose their disability in a timely manner, they have to provide appropriate documentation supporting their accommodation request to Disability Support Services, they have to provide professors with the DSS memo and talk with them about needed accommodations and how they'll be implemented, they need to inform DSS of any barriers to providing for a successful education, and they need to request accommodations each semester. Accommodations are not retroactive. 

Faculty responsibilities are to make sure that each course, when viewed in its entirety is accessible and that would include content, the materials used, the assessment methods, online instruction and time requirements. Faculty are responsible for supporting and implementing the accommodation specified in the DSS memo that is presented by the student. Faculty should consult with DSS if accommodation requests aren't clear or if they conflict with course objectives or requirements. Faculty is responsible for maintaining student confidentiality. We ask that you submit your book requests as early as possible so if we have to put those in alternate formats we have time to do that, and that you include a syllabus announcement directing students to the Disability Support Services office if they need an accommodation in your class. 

Disability Support Services is a resource for faculty, so I hope you won't hesitate to call or visit our office if you have any questions about a student with a disability or you feel who may have a disability. We have a website that has quite a bit of information and we also have copies of Working With Students With Disabilities, a Faculty Staff Guide. So, I look forward to working with you and students with disabilities. Thank you very much.