RELATED SERVICES
Responsibilities
We work with faculty and staff to provide an equitable and inclusive environment for students with disabilities.
The links below are provided to address the most common questions of faculty and staff. However, with any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact the Director of LEADS.
FACULTY RESPONSIBILITIES
Beloit College faculty members, in order to facilitate access and inclusion of students with disabilities will:
- Establish the essential functions, abilities, skills, knowledge, and standards on which students will be evaluated for each course, program/major and student employment positions.
- Use Universal Design methods for courses, materials, and activities to enable all students to equitably access their education and demonstrate their knowledge.
- Plan activities (e.g. field trips, excursions, workshops, symposiums) in which the location/facilities and transportation to and from the activity is accessible to all students in the course and other access (e.g. captioning) is provided.
- Keep confidential the disability status of students.
- Confirm disability status before providing disability-related accommodations. (The student is to provide an Accommodation Verification Letter produced by the Learning Enrichment and Disability Services Director to receive classroom accommodations.)
- Implement accommodations as requested, when requested even if seeking an adjustment to the accommodation.
- Not retroactively grant accommodations or leniency requests.
- Assist in the implementation of accommodations when appropriate (e.g. recruiting a note-taker in a class).
- Confer with the Director if an accommodation seems unreasonable and/or imposes a fundamental alteration of a program or activity of the College.
- When seeking an adjustment to the accommodation, immediately consult with the student seeking accommodations and the Director to select among equally effective academic accommodations, adjustments and/or auxiliary aids to provide equal access.
- Be mindful that delays in the negotiations or the implementation of accommodations can be construed as a form of discrimination against the student.
- Refer students to Learning Enrichment and Disability Services when appropriate. Most faculty include a statement (provided by the Office) on their syllabi to aid in this process.
- Maintain appropriate standards of behavior for students (particularly in the classroom). If a student (with or without a disability) is disruptive or violates code of conduct expectations, communicate with the Dean of Students office, Learning Enrichment Disability Services or Residential Life – Judicial for assistance or to report the behavior.
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
The Grievance Procedure for disability accommodations is for students, faculty and/or staff who think that they have been denied their rights. With two components, an informal and formal procedure, the hope is to come to an agreement through the informal process. However, there could be occasions where the formal process needs to be used.
For faculty and teaching staff, the most likely reason to use the Grievance Procedure is when they believe that they are being asked to provide an accommodation to a student that compromises the learning goals of their course, or something similar.
Note that the Grievance Procedure is for accommodation-related issues only. The college has other policies and procedures for harassment, discrimination, and bias. In addition, we have guidance for inaccessibility reports.
See the Grievance Procedure.
If interested, also see Harassment, Bias and Inaccessibility.
If a faculty or staff members wonders which area applies to a particular situation, we suggest that you consult with the LEADS Director or other relevant staff.