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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]They can if they are proactive about the services/accommodations they are given.

Professors will not actively seek out the students to discuss their accommodations. Students must go to the professors and make sure they know their face/name and what accommodations they have. It is also the student's responsibility to make sure all arrangements are in place for tests. For example, if their accommodation says they get extra time for tests, they must work with the professor and testing center to schedule their time to take the test. Often the professor wants them to take the test at the exact same time as the rest of the class so that no funny business goes on.

Professors are also pains in the butt about giving out their full lecture notes. My DS has encountered this one more than once. His accommodation says that he gets all lecture slides/notes in PDF format. He's had several professors fight him on this - they claim the notes are copyrighted or proprietary and not for distribution - and he's had to escalate to Disability Services.  [/quote]

I require all of my accommodated students to meet with me to make sure that I understand what they really need (lots of times, for example, the boilerplate accommodations letter names notetaking technology that the student doesn't actually use).  I also ask them if any small tweaks in the way that I do things could be helpful for them and therefore for all students.  I've gotten some great little tips over the years about how to communicate homework and how to prioritize PowerPoints.

I give out slides, handouts, and study guides; I make myself endlessly available for meetings, and I sign agreements to record my class even when I feel uncomfortable about it, because students deserve to have what they need.  But what worries me is that pretty much all of my students, accommodated or not, don't seem to know what to do with all of these resources.

We are pouring information into them in multiple different formats and situations (add in a textbook and supplemental readings as well, depending on the topic and level), but in order to learn they have to a) participate in the whole reading and notetaking process and b) integrate the knowledge.  Neither the accommodated students nor the unaccommodated ones are arriving at college with those capacities, and we don't teach these things in our courses.  They're a step above "study skills" and a step below the actual learning, but they are essential.

BTW, on the lecture notes, our school has potential accommodations for transcription software, including some pretty exciting new tools that link multiple media at the same time.  Maybe DC could get something like that instead.  I can promise you on an anecdotal level that no one would want my lecture notes.  They contain way more information than I actually present in class (me wanting to be ready to answer questions, me not having cut my material down enough) and would really intimidate and confuse a student (not the difficulty level so much as the density and overabundance of detail).  I redact and summarize as I talk, rather than reading, so even following my notes in real time would be very hard for anyone but me.[/quote]

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