An eligible student will be furnished with an accommodation letter, which they will request through CUNY Accommodate at the beginning of the semester, stating that they are entitled to receive accommodations. It is the student’s responsibility to initiate this process through CUNY Accommodate's Semester Request Form. It is the Faculty's responsibility to view this letter in the CUNY Accommodate platform. Accommodation letters will no longer be emailed directly to Faculty.

Please note, though, that students may request accommodations at any point in the semester as per the ADA guidelines.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to stop by the SDS office in room 238 Shuster Hall or call 718-960-8441.

Accommodation letters will indicate when a student has exam accommodations. These accommodations will include extra time on exams, taking exams in a separate location, and/or use of assistive technology on exams.

If the exam is to be proctored by SDS, faculty should follow these steps:

• Login to CUNY Accommodate when prompted by an email notifying you that a student in your class has submitted an Exam Form in the CUNY Accommodate platform.
• Follow the instructions to submit the exam instructions and upload a copy of the exam into CUNY Accommodate. Exams are no longer to be emailed to the SDS Office but can still be dropped off in person.
• Once the student has completed the exam, it will be delivered back to you as per your instructions in CUNY Accommodate. 

It is the student's responsibility to ask for accommodations. Tests generally can't be retaken once they are administered.

To help prevent this from reoccurring, please refer the student back to our office in room 238 Shuster Hall (718-960-8441) so that the student can make sure they understand the SDS testing accommodations policy.

In addition, please be sure to include our Disability Access Statement in your course syllabus. This way, students with disabilities who need accommodations—and might not otherwise know where to get them—can come to our office and find out about the processes in place to get the assistance they require.

A student's condition may fluctuate depending on the nature of their disability; many conditions and/or medications may interfere with students' academics, resulting in periodic or irregular curtailments of functioning.

The Office of Student Disability Services can verify the reason for extended absences with the student’s permission and their submission of appropriate documentation. Additionally, a student may have an accommodation indicated on their accommodation letter that they are entitled to "extended time for a specific assignment". This means the student has a documented medical condition that may occasionally impact their ability to hand in an assignment on time.

Be sure and handle the situation delicately. Rather than tell the student you suspect they have a disability, talk to them about the difficulty they're having in your class and what might be affecting progress. The student might come forward and admit that the issues are longstanding in nature or even related to a disability.

If so, refer the student to SDS in room 238 Shuster Hall (718-960-8441). If not, offer a list of applicable campus resources such as tutoring, counseling, and so on, and include the Office of Student Disability Services among them.

Students who cannot take notes or have difficulty taking notes adequately are generally helped by recording lectures and/or having a notetaker in class.

The Office of Student Disability Services makes arrangements for notetakers for eligible students, either by hiring a staff notetaker to attend class and take notes or by offering a stipend to a volunteer peer notetaker in the student's class.

No. Notetaking accommodations are provided to students when they are in class. The notetaker is not a proxy for the student, and the notes they take are not a substitute for attendance by the student with a disability.

Alternate format materials such as audio recordings, mathematical translations, large print, Braille, or e-text can take a significant amount of time to develop and/or obtain. This is the reason CUNY has communicated repeatedly to all faculty and staff that syllabi need to be posted at least two weeks prior to the start of the semester.

One of the best ways to help a student who is blind or visually impaired is to have copies of your syllabus and reading assignments ready early, anywhere from three to five weeks prior to the start of the semester.

During lectures, it is good to get in the habit of speaking aloud what you're writing on the board so that the student can follow along. If you are going to be providing handouts to the class, be sure and provide the student with alternate formats. (Please ask the student to let you know what they need.)

The Office of Student Disability Services can work with you to ensure your course documents are accessible to students who are blind or visually impaired. Call our Assistive Technology Specialist at 718-960-1167 or stop by our Access and Technology Center (ATC) in room 146 in the library, or come to our office in room 238 Shuster, and we will be happy to help you review the accessibility of your class materials.