Tips for Facilitating Accommodations

If you have any questions, at any time about working with a student with a disability, please contact the CEA office by emailing us at ada@uark.edu or by phone at 479-575-3104. We are happy to work with any faculty or instructor. Best practice:

  • Invite students with disabilities to meet with you privately to discuss their accommodation needs.
  • Review their accommodation letters with them. Discuss how accommodations are to be facilitated and follow up the discussion with an email.
  • Have all course materials available several weeks in advance of their use, particularly for students who utilize converted text (e.g., audio format). see point 4 Accessible Course Materials below for more details.
  • Provide outlines and/or copies of overheads or Microsoft PowerPoint presentations on a course website or Blackboard.
  • Identify a potential note-taker for your course (note: you will be contacted by the CEA office by email if one is needed). see point 3. Note-Taking Services below for more details.
  • Identify potential alternative testing locations in advance for students who need extended time and a distraction-reduced testing environment. See point 1. Test/Quiz accommodations for more details.
  • Consult with CEA on access concerns (including website and PDF accessibility).

1. Test/Quiz Accommodations

Upon recieving faculty notification letter detailing a student's accommodations (FNL), contact the student to discuss how their accommodations will be facilitated in your course.  

Per APS 1520.20, faculty should strive to provide standard test accommodations (ex: extended time, distraction-reduced testing environment, brief breaks, etc.) within their department  as to provide instructor access to students with disabilities during exams. 

  • 25Live Pro is the classroom and event scheduling tool used by the Office of the Registrar. CEA Staff welcome opportunities to collaborate with faculty and academic departments in identifying assessment strategies or department proctoring options. 

  • When such arrangements can't be made, Testing Services operates in accordance with APS 1520.20 to assist faculty in facilitating complex test accommodations for in-class proctored exams. 

Blackboard Exams: For information on how to program extended time into Blackboard, please review Blackboard Tips for instructions on how to program extra time into Blackboard. Contact tips@uark.edu for further instructions!

Additional guidance is available on our Accommodated Testing and Faculty Guidance pages,. Please do not hesitate to contact our office via e-mail (ada@uark.edu) or phone (479-575-3104) to discuss how accommodations can be facilitated in your course(s).

 

2. Lectures

If lecture content is being delivered via video presentations or web conferencing sessions, we encourage faculty to record and post those lectures for viewing outside of “class time.”  Many students have unexpected barriers arise that may limit their ability to log in, listen and take notes during the scheduled class time.  For example, students experience technical difficulties, visual and auditory processing limitations, an exacerbation of chronic health or psychiatric limitations, and they may be distracted as a result of caring for a child or family member during this time.

3. Note-Taking Services

Although online students might have access to recordings and text in their course, some students will still require note-taking services. In an online environment, examples of when note-taking might be needed include: 

  • Audio files that do not include a transcript. 
  • Videos (lectures, presentations, etc.) that do not include captions; however, even when they include captions, there may be times when note-taking is required. If a transcript can be made available, this will suffice. 
  • Live web conferencing sessions where there is no transcription available. 

CEA will contact you if a note-taker is needed. For courses with a note-taker already assigned, CEA has already requested that the note-taker continue uploading notes.

4. Accessible Course Materials & Educational Documents

When creating  new course materials (print, digital, or online) , be sure to follow best practices, which are  listed on the TIPS website , for creating documents that are fully accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Assistive Software for Reading (text-to-speech)

ReadSpeaker (RS)

Read&Write

  • Read&Write (R&W) is very useful outside of the Blackboard environment. It works with other programs like MS Applications, Websites (with the Chrome browser plugin), and Acrobat Reader to read out loud text-based information.

 

6. Communication Access

Contact the CEA to determine how the following communication access accommodations will be implemented in an online setting: 

  • Accessible audio/video – captions needed 
  • Assistive Listening Device (ALD) 
  • Real Time Transcribing 
  • Sign Language Interpreter 
  • Speech-reading statement 
  • Other Communication Aid