[nabs-l] Accommodation Rights and Not Using Disability Services

[Vejas Vasiliauskas]

Hi,
My main concern with completely breaking away from disability services is that it seems like many professors rely on their word. For example one of my professors said to the whole class before final exams "You have an hour to take this exam, unless you have extra time given to you by the DSS office."
Regarding test-taking in the classroom, my school allows students the choice of whether to take tests with everyone else or within the DSS office. So my suggesttion in that regard would be to scan your school's DSS web site. There could be a possibility that your DSS is similar. If someone from the DSS office gives you a hard time about wanting to take exams with everyone else, you would then be able to just show them a link to their own web site.
I hope this helps and that you can get some more replies soon,
Vejas   

> On Dec 18, 2016, at 10:03, Ellana Crew via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> I am a community college student about to start another semester of classes, but more recently, I have been thinking of breaking away from using the disability services office at school because of all of the troubles I have had in the past with DSS offices and mixups and failures on their end. However, before I decide to go through with this, I'd like to have some more information on what exactly I'm entitled to still as far as accommodations and the law if I choose not to go through disability services and give my professors the official letter requiring their compliance.
> 
> Is there anybody who may be able to give me a little information on if professors are still required to accommodate me reasonably if I do not go through disability services and give them an official letter from them, especially in regards to test taking? I am concerned that perhaps they may not be obligated to provide me any sort of accommodation at all without an official letter from disability services requiring them to, or that perhaps there is a limit on how much they are allowed to grant me, and especially if that limit is when it comes to tests.
> 
> I am particularly interested in being able to take my tests in the classroom with the rest of the class instead of going through the hassle of coordinating a scheduled time in the testing center and dealing with more failures to properly prepare my test or not prepare my test in time for the scheduled appointment in the testing center, and being forced to automatically be at a disadvantage by having to take my test in a different setting while the rest of the class is able to take their test in the same environment in which they learn the information which has been proven many times to improve the persons ability to retrieve the information they learned in that environment, and I have known some people who have talk to the professors and been able to take their tests in their classrooms in this way, but I want to be sure that I would not be in violation of anything in that I know my rights when it comes to this if my professor does not know themselves if it is OK or is hesitant to work with me on this particular factor.
> 
> If there is anybody here who may be able to give me some useful information or connect me with somebody who may have that information, I would be incredibly grateful.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> Ellana Crew, Vice President
> Maryland Association of Blind Students
> 
> The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.
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