DC/SDS Meeting Notes - 1/25/24 Attendees: Raven McCoy, Vedanti Bhargava, Cathie Axe, Nicole Wilson
Notes:
- What do the current accommodations regarding students with auditory impairments look like (how is closed captioning implemented)? Is it feasible to make it a standard within the majority if not all of classrooms in which professors use Powerpoint lecture slides to require live captioning (already built into Microsoft Powerpoint)? If this isn’t feasible on a large scale, can this be made an accommodation or is it already an available accommodation? (Not only does this address and accommodate students with hearing loss but also those with auditory processing concerns)
- Sounds good systemically
- Make professors aware of it
- Currently use AI captioning sometimes for students that need little support
- Give students access to OtterAI (non dependent on professor)
- And have in person captioning by person
- Like systemic changes
- Work with Kathy Cahill (make sure courses in general are accessible) → work to make sure it can be done uniformly
- What is being done to address the inconsistency in room reservation during finals season? Can we find more permanent spaces for overflow of multiple students taking the same class final with accommodations? Was also informed about a lack of clocks present in testing rooms just during this past semester in rooms like Remsen (Orgo lab: Remsen 347; Orgo midterm: Remsen 140). Can this issue be addressed as well (providing proctors with a digital clock for SDS proctored finals/exams not in Shaffer)?
- Faculty accommodate students and direct spaces, SDS not involved in that (overflow)
- Push out more information to faculty on how to properly accommodate students (types of classrooms that they were reserving)
- Be clearer about best practices
- Make sure that they can get larger space or two spaces
- They can get proctors from SDS (or they can use their own since they can get
- They should write time on board if there isn’t a clock
- More carols going into sds room in place for finals
- Moving people that proctor live out of space to keep as quiet as possible
- Change timer system that don’t have noise (working on this) - might update at end of the year
- Testing upstairs provides clocks - confirm spot and location
- Are there any resources that SDS provides soon-to-be graduates about how they can access disability services/accommodations in their post-grad plans? If not, is this something that can be worked on?
- Transition to different graduate school’s process
- SDS transfers documentation (some students may have seamless process however for those with more complex accommodations, they will reach out to next school’s department to make sure they can properly accommodate)
- Can put something on website regarding this to talk with SDS advisor
- What steps does SDS take to accommodate students with conditions that cause situationally dependent flare ups that make it hard for them to do things like take an exam or complete major assignments? Is there a procedure for emergency accommodations in the event students are not fully set up within the accommodation process/system so that if they do face a medical emergency and/or flare up that they don’t have full accommodations for, they aren’t penalized for their situation? (Is there a way to go about this without creating an SOS case which may take longer than the deadline the student has to complete the major assignment/exam?)
- Follow-up: Improve the process of getting accommodations so students can receive them potentially more quickly
- Additional follow-up: what does the process of getting accommodations look like for students with undiagnosed disabilities (maybe due to the complexities of unsolved chronic illness, etc.)?
- Encourage students to get affiliated with SDS earlier as opposed to later
- Can decide when to put accommodations in place
- Have provisional accommodations for students (process)
- Connect back with advisor if things get worse (to reach out with professor to inform if they will be out for __ days to let them know)
- Students have been connecting with SOS instead of SDS
- Augmenting team with additional SDS advisor in next few months to improve advisor availability
- Adding accommodations happens a lot
- Encourage students to get affiliated with SDS earlier as opposed to later
- Agreed to schedule monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of each month