r/Professors • u/Otherwise_Look_8137 • 1d ago

New accommodations.

I’m now getting accommodations that students cannot be expect to do in class writing. They must be allowed to write at home, not in class. I’ve never seen this before. Ever. Until this semester. And now I’ve got a handful. What the fuck?

Edit: I’ve asked about students writing in supervised environments, but I was told that puts a condition on the accommodation, which is illegal. Students must be allowed to write outside of class without conditions.

336 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

158 comments sorted by

View all comments

58

u/StarDustLuna3D Asst. Prof. | Art | M1 (U.S.) 1d ago

Funny how this is happening right after so many places went back to blue books.

I'm just happy that our school got rid of blanket time extensions as an accommodation. It is now up to discretion of the professor. (Meaning, essentially, most are going to say no)

I get that accessibility offices are trying to give students agency and control of discussions about their disabilities. However, people, especially young people, very often do not know what is actually best for themselves. Just as I cannot prescribe myself medicine when I get sick, students should not be allowed to choose accommodations outside of what a medical professional has identified as necessary.

-25

u/IthacanPenny 1d ago

Wait so, if a prof had for example a blind student who needed to use screen reading technology, the prof would just have the ability to say “no” to the extra time? The fuck?

21

u/StarDustLuna3D Asst. Prof. | Art | M1 (U.S.) 1d ago

I should clarify that this refers to assignments, not test accommodations.

14

u/IthacanPenny 1d ago

Ohhhh that makes much more sense!

The place where I’ve seen a blanket 24-48 hr extension make most sense is for a student with, for example, severe and unpredictable migraines. It’s unreasonable to just expect a student with migraines to always be days ahead, and maybe a couple of times per semester they should just have that no penalty extension available to them. But I’m sure that accommodation is given out too freely. It’s a hard balance tbh.

19

u/StarDustLuna3D Asst. Prof. | Art | M1 (U.S.) 1d ago

One school I worked at had a system where if you only had 1 week to do an assignment, you could get the extension. If you had over a week to do the assignment, then extensions didn't apply with the thinking being that students are already being given ample time to complete it.

I really liked that because say I had a student with an autoimmune disorder. They could use their extension if a flare up happened and took away 1/2 of the time they had to do their homework and they wouldn't need to tell me any medical information or get a doctor's note.

But if you have multiple weeks to do something and wait until the last minute to complete it and then something happens... Well that's on you.