DSP does not have a deadline by which students can apply for services. Students can be diagnosed with or acquire disabilities at any time, and the process of obtaining disability documentation can also take time. Sometimes students who already have a disability identity will wait to seek services until they have first tried participating at Berkeley without formal accommodations. Students may also find that the impact of their disability has changed during the semester and that they need additional support in accessing their program of study due to this change...
Students may struggle with coursework for many reasons, including needing but not receiving appropriate disability accommodations, but also including balancing employment and school, balancing parenthood and school, having concerns about access to basic needs like housing and food, and navigating personal emergencies.
If you have concerns about a student’s personal or academic well-being, it can be helpful to submit a Care Report to the Center for Support and Intervention, so that a Case...
Yes, you can, but you must protect each student’s privacy. Be sure to address the message to yourself and to place students’ emails on the “BCC” line, and do not name students in the content of the email message.
Sometimes a student with disabilities may need to have a classroom location changed in order to have full access to your course. Most frequently, this is because an assigned classroom was not fully accessible for a student who is using a wheelchair for mobility, because the building is in a campus location that the student has significant difficulty physically travelling to and from because of the impact of their disability, or because the classroom lacks the technology needed for real-time captioning. If you have any concerns about the change, please contact ...
Yes. Students may request accommodations through other processes and offices, including the Title IX office (OPHD), Path to Care, and the Center for Support and Intervention. For questions about formal accommodation requests you receive for reasons other than disability, please reach out to the referring office with questions. More information is available at the ...
Students who work with DSP are strongly urged to request and send Letters of Accommodation as soon as they register for a course or become eligible for accommodations. However, the University must make an effort to accommodate students, regardless of the timing of the notice of a student's need for accommodations. DSP may be able to assist with late requests. Please contact the Disability Specialist who sent the student’s Letter of Accommodation if you need assistance.
Accommodations are not retroactive, so you are not responsible for provision of accommodations prior to the date that the Letter of Accommodation is issued. You do have the discretion to retroactively accommodate a student if you would like to. For instance, if a student becomes active in DSP in the middle of the semester and their Letter of Accommodation requires flexibility with assignment deadlines, you have the discretion to accept their late work from earlier in the semester. However, you are not required to do so. If you have any concerns about the...
We do encourage students to have a conversation with their instructors about their accommodations. These conversations can be helpful for both parties. DSP Disability Specialists can also help facilitate these conversations and assist faculty with setting up an agreement with students about accommodations (for example, Disability Specialists can help instructors and students confirm the parameters for acceptable numbers of absences or timelines for assignment extensions). However, we cannot require students to have a conversation about their accommodations with their...
Students with disabilities have a right to privacy regarding their medical diagnoses and medical documentation. For this reason, we ask faculty not to request medical documentation from students with disabilities. If you feel that it is necessary to verify that a student’s request is disability-related, you can contact the student’s assigned Disability Specialist, whose name and contact information is provided at the end of the student’s Letter of Accommodation. The Disability Specialist can review the student’s documentation on file and confirm whether there...
Contact the Disability Specialist listed at the end of the Letter of Accommodation to address any logistical or other concerns you may have. Many concerns can be addressed and resolved directly and informally through timely communication between faculty and DSP.
While students have the right to receive disability accommodations that remove or mitigate barriers to their equal access to participate in their academic programs, instructors are not required to fundamentally alter their course goals or standards in order to accommodate disabled...
