Faculty Guidelines

Faculty play a key role in ensuring that students are aware of the college's commitment to equal access to our programs, activities, and services. You can support the college's efforts to create an inclusive educational community by inviting students with disabilities to request accommodations for your courses. We encourage you to include one of the following statements on your syllabi-or a statement of your own:

Roanoke College is committed to creating a learning environment that meets the needs of its diverse student body. If you anticipate or experience any disability-related barriers to learning in this course, please discuss your concerns and/or approved accommodation with me. I would like us to discuss ways to ensure your full participation in the course. Additionally, if you have not already done so, please connect with Accessible Education Services, the office responsible for coordinating accommodations and services for students with disabilities: aes@roanoke.edu, 540-375-2247, Fintel Library - Center for Learning and Teaching.

If you experience a disability and anticipate barriers related to the format or requirements of this course, please meet with me. I would like us to discuss ways to ensure your full participation in the course, as well as talk about how best to coordinate your accommodations. Additionally, if you have not already done so, please connect with Accessible Education Services, the office responsible for coordinating accommodations and services for students with disabilities: aes@roanoke.edu, 540-375-2247, Fintel Library - Center for Learning and Teaching.

 If you experience a disability and are requesting accommodations for this course, please speak with me privately as soon as possible so we can discuss how best to put accommodations in place. If you have not already done so, please connect with Accessible Education Services, the office responsible for coordinating accommodations and services for students with disabilities: aes@roanoke.edu, 540-375-2248, Fintel Library - Center for Learning and Teaching.

When to provide accommodations: Faculty should provide accommodations to students who provide timely notification of their need for accommodation support via Faculty Notification Email. If students have requested their accommodations for the semester, faculty will receive a Faculty Notification Email with the students Accommodation Letter and Faculty Signature Form. It is the students responsibility to make contact with each of their professors individually to discuss their needed accommodations and learning styles for the semester.

Although faculty are not obligated to provide accommodations until receiving the Faculty Notification Email, please consider providing the accommodation while waiting for official notification from Accessibile Education Services if the disability is apparent and the accommodation appears to be reasonable. Best practice, though, is to refer to the accommodation as an "arrangement" rather than an "accommodation" as Accessible Education Services is the designated office for approving accommodations.

If a student offers to provide you with a copy of disability-related documentation, such as medical records or a psychoeducational evaluation, please refer the student to Accessible Education Services, the office designated by the College to manage such records.

Providing accommodations: Please provide classroom accommodations as indicated in the Faculty Notification Email. Accessibile Education Services is available to support faculty and students with the implementation of accommodations. Your support in providing these accommodations is very much appreciated.

Meeting with students regarding their accommodations: It is important for faculty to meet with students who choose to identify themselves as having a disability in order to discuss the accommodations they might need for a course, including how best to implement the accommodations. During this meeting, students may or may not choose to disclose the nature of their disability. Due to the very personal and private nature of some disabilities, it is important that meetings take place in a location that protects the student's right to privacy.

If a student is having difficulty in class and you think it might be due to an unidentified disability, you may want to talk privately with the student about your concerns regarding the student's performance. If so, please keep the following tips in mind:

-Emphasize positive aspects of the student's performance while noting specific areas in which the student may be struggling (e.g., unable to complete exams within time limits, significant spelling errors, poor reading comprehension).
-Please don't suggest that the student may have a disability. Instead, ask if the student has had difficulty with academic concern(s) in the past.
-If the student describes a history of difficulty and/or expresses current concern, you can suggest that the student make an appointment to talk with the office of Accessible Education Services so we can help to assess the next steps that may be helpful.

Roanoke College respects the privacy of its students. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs all student record information. All information concerning student disabilities and accommodation is kept separately from student academic files. This information is confidential and will not be released to third parties without the written permission of the student, except in circumstances involving matters of health, safety, and law.

Generally, a faculty member has a right to know that a student requesting accommodations in a course has a documented disability and which accommodations have been approved by Accessible Education Services. However, specific information regarding a student's disability is provided to faculty and staff on a need-to-know basis only. (Note: Please keep all information related to students' disabilities in a secure location).