[Athen] Accessibility vs Accommodation - what is acceptable?

[Preast, Vanessa]

Hello,

I'm still new to the field of accessibility and accommodation. My area is to help faculty make their course content more accessible from a Universal Design standpoint, and I don't deal with student accommodations. I'm particularly unfamiliar with any legalities and confidentiality related to student accommodation. I'm a bit confused about what is allowed when accommodation intersects with accessibility.

A recent conversation related to the following topics left me confused. Perhaps this community can provide some insight. Please excuse me if these seem like stupid questions.


*         Would it be allowable for an institution to write in reports that they had X number of students with Y and Z types of disabilities and requests for accommodations of types A, B, C within Program F?



o   For example, perhaps a report might state that the underwater basket weaving program had 10 students with learning disabilities who are allowed extra time on tests.

o   If the individual students are not identified, is the institution allowed to report on the statistics related to the number and type of disabilities and the types of accommodations used?



*         Is it allowable to send an instructor a letter indicating that a student with X type of disability will be in his/her course next semester and that the instructor is strongly advised to work with the accessibility team to make the course content accessible so it meets the needs for the student with disabilities as well as benefits all students in the class?



o   For example, a student may need an accommodation related to captioning an instructor-generated video or ensuring the instructor-created Word/PDF documents are accessible via screen-reader. Can we help the instructor make captioned videos or digitally accessible documents available for the entire class, including the student who needs them as an accommodation?  Does this somehow violate any rules or student rights, especially if there are no copyright concerns?



*         Is the group that helps students identify accommodations allowed to tell the course accessibility people that a certain course has an un-named student with X type of disability so that this team can reach out to the instructor to make the course more accessible? (What information, if any, can the student disability team share with the course accessibility team?)


*         Is it acceptable for a report to indicate how the accessibility remediation efforts related to the types of disabilities common at the institution?

o   Could an institution say Program Z focused on X or Y accessibility remediations because they knew we had students with A or B disabilities? (The Underwater Basket-weaving program focused first on improving color contrast, font, and size in their documents because they knew they had students with color vision deficiency and low vision enrolled in the program.)

If there are resources that explain this sort of stuff in a brief and clear manner, please let me know where I should look.

Thanks,
Vanessa
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