ODS Updates for Faculty & Remote Class Instruction

Disability Services Information for Faculty

We acknowledge the significant effort required to quickly adapt your courses to online instruction. We want to collaborate with you to ensure that access for students with disabilities is maintained through this transition. Some students may encounter disability-related barriers with online instruction or assessment (e.g. students who use assistive technology, students with medical limitations on screen usage). ODS staff are available for consultation regarding best practices and accessibility. (Phone: 337-482-5252; Email: disability@louisiana.edu).

Below are some tips to keep in mind as you are creating virtual course content (adapted from DO-IT):

• Use clear, consistent layouts and organization schemes for presenting content, and make instructions and expectations clear for activities, projects, and assigned reading. 
• Offer outlines, scaffolding tools, and adequate opportunities for practice to help students learn.
• When selecting new materials, try to find videos that are already captioned, and articles that are available in a text-searchable format (meaning you can highlight and search the text within the document).
• Images can be made accessible to blind and low-vision students by providing captions or inserting alt text into the image. Use large, bold fonts on uncluttered pages with plain backgrounds and color combinations that are high contrast. 
• Provide flexibility and understanding as this experience may cause disruption to the student’s home life and available resources – which may negatively impact a student’s disability symptoms.

View another resource for designing accessible online courses.

Exam Accommodations & Proctored Online Exames

Extended time on exams as an accommodation generally only applies to traditional, time-limited exams. If you decide to offer alternative means of assessment (e.g. essays, non-timed exams, project work), then a student’s extended time may no longer be applicable. We encourage you to speak with registered students if that is the case.

ODS will only administer exams due to disability barriers with no virtual accessible option.This will be decided on a case by case basis. Please communicate with your students to discuss your exam accommodations in your courses.

Extended Time on Moodle Exams

View Instructions for extending time on Moodle exams.

Prior to setting the time, please consult your accommodation letter for each student which states how much time the student is approved for. Most students have time and a half, however, some students are approved for double time.

Allowing Students to Register & Request Accommodations

As long as we are conducting classes (face to face or remotely) we are required to allow students to request accommodations. Our registration process will look a little different at this time but it’s possible you will continue to receive an accommodation notice from a student who has just signed up for services. 

We know and understand that there will be unique circumstances for some of your students depending on the disability, approved accommodations, and changes in instructional methods.  So much of what we do is determined on a case by case basis under ordinary circumstances and will especially be the case during this time. We will handle each situation as it arises and we ask you to be patient as we work through them.

The best way to communicate with ODS staff at this time is via email (disability@louisiana.edu) and/or phone (as long as we are required to report to work).