[nabs-l] Disability office policies

Thu Apr 28 18:19:19 UTC 2016

That sounds good Laurel.
What advocacy group is it?

Anna E Givens

> On Apr 28, 2016, at 10:23 AM, Laurel via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Anna,
> To echo what everyone has already said, the prof was wrong. The
> disability office should have very nicely told your professor that she
> needs to ask you that question and not them. If your disability office
> answered for you, then I also agree, they were in the wrong to discuss
> something about you that is not disability related with your prof.
> You also mentioned something about faculty in general not being aware
> of how to interact with students with disabilities, and you were
> wondering if someone had ever put together any training for
> faculty/staff at a university on general disability etiquette. We here
> at the university of Oklahoma have thought of the same thing, and I
> can tell you that the disability advocacy student group is working
> with the disability office at OU to put together such training. I work
> in the disability office here, and I am helping to build a mandatory
> faculty training so that professors and others will learn general
> disability etiquette. We are hoping that other universities can use
> what we put together to create their own faculty/staff training.
> Laurel
> 
> 
>> On 4/28/16, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Hello Anna,
>> 
>> It sounds to me like you are rather upset regarding this situation. However,
>> I would probably be just as upset if I had faced this same situation.
>> 
>> Since different colleges and universities have different policies regarding
>> accommodations, if you have any questions about the policies regarding your
>> specific college or university, I would suggest that you ask to receive a
>> copy of these policies from your disabilities office.
>> 
>> In general, it seems to me the best line of communication regarding
>> accommodations is through direct communication between a student and a
>> professor. If for some reason there is a problem with this direct
>> communication, then the disabilities office should be willing to act as a
>> mediator between the student and the professor. However, there should ever
>> be any communication from the professor to the disabilities office without
>> notifying the student.
>> 
>> If your professor was simply contacting the disabilities office to inquire
>> about you missing a class, then this was inappropriate for your professor to
>> do. The role of a disabilities office is simply to help coordinate
>> accommodations for students on campus. The role of the disabilities office
>> should not be to speak on behalf of a student, especially concerning the
>> personal matters of a student. If the email was simply about why you were
>> missing class, then I would believe what your professor did was wrong.
>> However, if the disabilities office responded to the email, and said
>> anything other than the professor needs to ask you this question,  then I
>> believe the disabilities office did something wrong here as well.
>> 
>> Others with more experience can chime in on this if I am somehow incorrect
>> about this, however, I believe the clause in the Americans with Disabilities
>> Act stating that a person has the right to refuse any accommodation they do
>> not want is probably the strongest argument as to why your professor should
>> be talking to you and not the disabilities office. There have been
>> discussions on the NABS email list in the past that have discussed putting
>> together a list of best practices disabilities offices and professors should
>> use when working with blind students. However, I am not quite sure if any
>> official document was created based on any of these discussions. Perhaps the
>> pamphlet of the "Courteous Rules of Blindness" might be something you might
>> find to be helpful. If this pamphlet is still around, you should be able to
>> find it on the NFB website.
>> 
>> I have never encountered a professor who would rather speak to the
>> disabilities office instead of talking directly to me. The only time I can
>> think of where a professor talked to someone from the disabilities office
>> instead of me is when a professor talked to a reader to see what would be
>> the best way to do pop quizzes without providing me with any additional
>> information as to whether or not we would be having a pop quiz on any
>> particular day. However, this conversation took place in class before the
>> class started, so I knew the conversation took place. So having a
>> conversation take place between your professor and the disabilities office
>> without your knowledge of it taking place just does not seem right to me.
>> 
>> Anyway, I hope you find this information to be helpful for your specific
>> situation. It definitely sounds like a rather frustrating experience.
>> 
>> 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 11:51 PM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: annajee82 at gmail.com
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Disability office policies
>> 
>> I agree that it is a good policy to notify professors when you must be
>> absence.  I do it just to show that I am dedicated to the class, and not
>> just skipping it.  I notified her once and the second time I did not.  It
>> would have been good if I did, but I think I forgot...
>> Having said that, it makes no difference whether I notified her or not.
>> Attendance is part of the grade but that was made aware to all of us in the
>> beginning.  My presence or absence, or grades, are nobody's business but
>> mine.  What I want to know is not so much why she did that, but is that ok?
>> I have had situations in the past where things are sent to my coordinator to
>> be sent to me, or told to her to be told to me.  And I didn't like it, and I
>> mentioned it.  It wasn't ever a huge deal before.  But going and telling her
>> I've missed class, is over the top ridiculous to me.  In my view, it's
>> disrespectful,inappropriate,unnecessary and I would assume against
>> University policy.
>> Why would a University even allow a professor to go to someone at DRS with
>> that information?  I realize it could, in some cases, have something to do
>> with accomodations, but in this case it has nothing at all to do with it. So
>> anyway, what I really want to know is whether or not this is even allowed?
>> I want to ask my DRS for a copy of their policies and such but I don't want
>> to cause issues, I just realize that I want/need to be more educated about
>> these things.
>> So I'm just kinda wondering if anyone knows about general policy.
>> 
>> Anna E Givens
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 27, 2016, at 7:38 PM, Valerie Gibson via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hello,
>>> 
>>> I cannot speak for your professor, but this is the only way it makes sense
>>> to me…keep in mind, i said makes sense, i did not say I agree.
>>> 
>>> She probably spoke with your coordinator because she’s uncomfortable with
>>> your blindness, and she probably feels more comfortable talking to someone
>>> who’s sighted but who understands your disability.  It’s like your
>>> coordinator is the middle man in this or she’s using the coordinator as a
>>> sort of buffer against her own discomfort about your disability.  If this
>>> is the case, it is here ignorance, but I don’t think your prof is meaning
>>> to be difficult or to go behind your back. She’s probably just dealing
>>> with having a blind student in her class the only way she knows how. She
>>> could have been concerned, but didn’t know how to approach you.  Common
>>> sense would say to talk to the student directly, but if she’s that
>>> uncomfortable with your disability, common sense could have gone out the
>>> window.
>>> 
>>> I’d advise talking to her, but not to take it too personal, unless, during
>>> the conversation, she does say something to give offense.
>>> 
>>> I’m pretty low key when it comes to this sort of thing though.  If I know
>>> someone means well and what they’re doing is not putting me in danger, I
>>> find it difficult just to get upset and angry at them, even if what they
>>> are doing is completely ridiculous IMO.
>>> 
>>> After you talk with her, if she does it again, then i think you have
>>> grounds to get a bit snippy.
>>> 
>>> Hope this helps.
>>>> On Apr 27, 2016, at 7:28 PM, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l
>>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 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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