Tag Archives: Professors

Difficulties with Staggered Deadlines

Posted on by
Reply

Staggered deadlines may be one of the most difficult accommodations to arrange.  Staggered deadlines involve planning alternate submission dates for papers, projects, or exams when a student has conflicting due dates for these.  The key part of staggered deadlines is the planning.  As it says on the AEO website, “Staggered deadlines are always established well in advance of the scheduled due date.”  It is the advanced planning of these deadlines that makes them “staggered deadlines” rather than extensions.  But what if you have a disability that makes it more difficult to plan? Professors aren’t required to give a student extensions.  In one student’s experience, though, professors have been very accommodating when she was unable to plan a staggered deadline in advance and allowed extensions anyway.  As you can see, this accommodation can get tricky.

Another difficult aspect of this accommodation is setting the deadlines for your assignments.  You want to make sure you provide yourself enough time to get the assignment completed to the best of your ability, but you don’t want to appear to your professor as if you are trying to buy unnecessary time.  This is why I would recommend talking to one of AEO’s academic coaches about your proposed deadlines before meeting with your professor.

In regards to staggered deadlines, one professor said, “Belinda [former AEO director] always used to say [staggered deadlines aren’t] extensions and should be worked out in advance.  But my experience in working with students who have that as an accommodation is that it isn’t always possible to work it out in advance, because a student’s schedule of academic work is like a Chinese puzzle box- there’s so many parts and if one moves- if a professor puts off an assignment or changes an assignment, then that affects everything else.”

Professors’ Familiarity with AEO

Posted on by
Reply

Students say:

Most professors are only familiar with AEO to a certain extent.  They know that AEO exists and that it helps students, but their understanding is limited.  Most professors try to understand; however, they don’t have to deal with AEO very much, so they don’t know a lot.  Some students wish professors would make an effort to understand the reasons behind accommodations, rather than treating it as a business transaction.  Many students wish that professors had some sort of disability training.

All professors seem to understand that students are not trying to gain an advantage over other students and that these accommodations are legitimate.  That being said, there are still professors that are not willing to bend when it comes to accommodations.  Those professors seem to be less familiar with AEO.

Professors say:

Although someone from AEO comes to speak at new faculty orientation, the information being delivered does not stick with them as well as it could, because faculty have not yet had the experience of interacting with students registered with AEO.  One professor reported that there is almost no contact between faculty and AEO.  “There is not very much support for faculty to know how to accommodate students, or even to know whether they should take the accommodations seriously or not,” said another professor.  Not very many professors are educated about the importance of accommodations.

There has been some discussion of whether faculty who are understanding of disability should find some way to identify themselves to students.  Unfortunately, no solution has been reached.

What Students Can Do to Improve Professors’ Familiarity with AEO:

– Keep notes on your interactions with professors on issues of accommodations- both good and bad.  Consider providing these to AEO at the end of the year.  Wouldn’t it be great if AEO referred back to these when planning their discussion at new faculty orientation?

– Encourage your professors to reach out to AEO when they have questions about your accommodations.

 

 

What Students Can Do to Help Professors Help Them

Posted on by
Reply

Students, there are a number of things that you can do to help your professors best accommodate you.  Here are a couple of examples:

1. Emailing your accommodation letter to your professors before you go to meet with them.

This is something that AEO already instructs students to do, but I think it’s important to highlight the benefits of this.  If your professors are able to see your accommodation letter before you go to meet with them, they have the opportunity to think about what they can do to best accommodate you.  There may be something specific about a particular assignment or the way professors conduct their class that might pose a problem for you due to your disability.  A professor who has your accommodation letter ahead of time may think to share this with you during your meeting, opening up the opportunity for you to talk about this and problem-solve.

2. Communicating with professors

There are a number of little things professors can do to make our lives as students with disabilities a little bit easier.  For example, if a there is an in class presentation, a professor might allow a student with an anxiety disorder to go first and get it over with.  He or she might also allow students with this kind of disability to pick up homework earlier so that they do not have to worry as long about getting it back.  And what about group projects? What if you wanted to use your staggered deadline accommodation? How would you go about doing that without revealing your accommodation to your classmates? It would be helpful if professors thought about a way to prevent this problem before assigning these kinds of projects.  But, our professors are not mind readers.  What we as students must do is not be afraid to let our professors know that these little things can really ease the stress of students with disabilities.  Although not all professors may be open to these kinds of suggestions, it is important to try and to communicate with those who are willing to listen.

 

 

What to Do When a Professor Denies You an Accommodation

Posted on by
Reply

Although most professors are accepting and understanding of accommodations, there are those few who may push students to do the work without accommodations.  One student with a chronic illness said, “There are professors that are more willing to work with you than others.  Most of mine have been really good, but I’ve had a couple who sort of said, ‘Well, I really want you to turn this paper in on time, so even though you’re really not feeling well, let’s see if you can make that happen anyway.’”  Hopefully, this does not happen to you.  But if it does, here’s what you can do:

1) You can consider reasoning with the professor, reminding him or her of your accommodation letter received at the beginning of the semester.  Sometimes this can be difficult because your professor is in a position of authority.  But you should always remember that your accommodations are your legal right.

2) If a professor is being pushy and you don’t want to push back, whether it be because you are worried about your grade in the class or what the professor will think of you, then it may be best to contact AEO.