Information for Faculty Members
At the beginning of the fall semester, the ODS staff will be involved in advisor and new staff training for Faculty! Faculty are welcome to contact ODS staff to consult about accommodations!
ODS will notify faculty of student accommodations in two ways once the student contacts ODS to either register for services through completing their intake appointment OR having their semester check-in meeting to set up accommodations for the current semester!
1) During the intake meeting or check-in, ODS staff will email a Faculty Notification Letter to the Faculty member to pre-notify the Faculty member of the accommodations the student is eligible to receive.
AND
2) Students are required to bring a hard copy of the Faculty Notification Letter in person to meet with the Faculty member within 1 week of their meeting with ODS when the pre-notification letter is sent to discuss their needs for accommodations directly with the professor.
***If you receive a Faculty Notification Letter, but the ODS student has not come to speak to you within 1 week of your receipt of this letter, please contact ODS staff and we can follow-up with the student.
Testing Accommodations at ODS
ODS has an online management system to help us manage the large volume of students taking their exams with accommodations with ODS! You will receive a link in the pre-notification Faculty Notification Letter sent via email with instructions to fill out test proctoring information via our Alternative Testing Contract! It's really important that you fill out this Alternative Testing Contract within 1 week of receiving the email so that ODS students can schedule their exams with ODS! An important update is that you will receive emails about each student registered with ODS for testing accommodations, however you only need to fill out the Alternative Testing Contract ONCE per semester per course section that you teach! If you teach multiple sections and want ODS to duplicate the contract across course sections if the test proctoring instructions are the same, please contact us at ods@barnard.edu or call us at 212-854-4634 and we'd be happy to assist you with this!
Important Items to Note!
- ODS understands that not all accommodations will be applicable to all course contents! If you have specific questions about how to accommodate a student in the context of your course, please contact ODS staff so we can work together to find the most applicable accommodation(s)!
- ODS staff are not able to disclose the type of disability that the student has registered for without written permission from the student due to privacy laws, however we can discuss the accommodations and work together to help you figure out how to implement accommodations in the classroom!
- Students are required to self-identify for accommodations and must first register with ODS in order to set up formal accommodations. Faculty are NOT required to provide any accommodations to a student until the student brings the faculty member a Faculty Notification Letter to formally notify them of the accommodations they is eligible for.
- If a student discloses a disability to you without providing a Faculty Notification Letter, it is imperative that you both inform the student that she or he needs to register with the Office of Disability Services first to seek formal accommodations AND contact ODS to inform them that you have made a referral about a particular student!
- Faculty should NOT ask a student what type of disability they have, but should have a conversation about how the accommodations on the student's Faculty Notification Letter can be applied within the course content.
- Faculty should NOT ever ask a student about their disability or accommodations in front of other students in the course. This can in essence "out" the student with a disability to their peers and is not appropriate.
Please check back periodically as we will update information on here!