[nabs-l] Disability office policies

[Elizabeth Mohnke]

Hello Anna,

I believe in some cases allowing a student with a disability to miss more
than the allotted hours of class can be included as part of the
accommodations a student can receive from a college as a reasonable
accommodation. Perhaps your college has such a policy, and this is why your
professor contacted the disabilities office. However, this does not seem to
be an accommodation that a blind student would typically need, so I am not
quite sure why your professor chose to contact the disabilities office and
not you.

I attend a community college where class sizes are small, and where
attending class is generally counted as part of our final grade. Therefore,
if I have missed two class periods in a row, I will generally contact my
professors to let them know what is going on. Sometimes sending a quick note
to let your professor know that you have been sick with a bad cold and will
be back in class the next class period can go a long way with professors who
really care about their students. However, I am not quite sure how
appropriate or necessary this would be for a larger university with larger
class sizes. This is just something I find works well with smaller classes
where you have more of a relationship with the professor.

Whether or not you choose to say something to your professor about how you
feel as though her communication with the disabilities office was
inappropriate is up to you. However, I would probably feel the same way if a
professor contacted the disabilities office without notifying me about it as
well.

Warm regards,
Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Anna via nabs-l
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:59 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: annajee82 at gmail.com
Subject: [nabs-l] Disability office policies

Hey I have a question about something that happened at school.  
I missed a couple classes and my professor apparently emailed the
coordinator lady at the disability office.  I don't know what her email said
other than that i had missed some classes.  So my coordinator emailed me and
asked me if everything was ok cuz my professor said i had missed some
classes.  
My question is, is it any business of my DRS coordinator that i missed
classes?  
What is the policy on bypassing the student and going to the DRS coordinator
to say I've missed classes?  Why would my professor do that?  She never
spoke to me about it.  If she is concerned, why is she not talking to me
about it, and what right does she have to talk to the DRS coordinator about
it.  It has nothing to do with my disability or accomodations or anything?
Does someone have a better understanding of the role of DRS?  My
understanding was that the role of DRS is to accomodate me as related to my
blindness and to help me (if i ask for help) in working things out with
professors in relation to accommodations. Nothing else.
Someone please clarify.

Anna E Givens


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