The Deadline & Attendance Adjustment accommodation is intended for students who experience infrequent disability-related health events that temporarily limit or alter their academic engagement during the semester. It encourages additional flexibility with attendance and/or deadlines when possible without fundamentally altering course objectives. Faculty should apply their general absence policy in cases where a student has a temporary illness or injury, or if they miss class for non-health related reasons.
Communication & Implementation
- Students should schedule a meeting with you to discuss this accommodation’s implementation. They may request that their DAO advisor be present.
- Course staff should document the plan in writing and email it to the student. We encourage you to create your own plan that can be universally applied to all students with this accommodation using the guidance below. Alternatively, you can use the DAO template.
This accommodation only takes effect once a documented agreement is complete and is not retroactive.
General Guidelines
- This accommodation is intended to be used infrequently and only when there is a disability-related health event that prevents the student from attending class or completing work.
- Students should not be required to provide a doctor’s letter to faculty since the chronic condition is on record with DAO.
- The DAA is not designed to support a substantial number of missed classes (sporadic or consecutive) or lengthy assignment extensions. In these cases, reasonable adjustments may not be possible and the student’s final grade may be impacted if they remain in the course.
- This accommodation is not intended to be used to access classes remotely. If a student requests remote attendance to your class, please direct them to DAO.
- If a student requests more than 3 absences or extensions of work, please contact DAO to discuss.
- Remote attendance, asynchronous learning, individualized instruction, course recordings and course notes are not a necessary or required component of any missed classes associated with this accommodation.
- Grading, attendance, and extension policies are subject to the academic judgment of the faculty. In some situations, you may not believe that additional absences or extensions are appropriate due to the essential requirements of the course. In these cases, please contact DAO to discuss.
- DAA does not apply to thesis deadlines. Students who experience a disability-related health event should contact DAO and their thesis advisor.
- DAA does not apply to exams. Students who are unwell on the day of their exam should follow the process outlined in the Student Handbook (p. 40).
Deadline Adjustment
Deadline adjustments are reasonable extensions on assignments, papers, and projects in the event of an unpredictable disability-related health event that coincides with a communicated deadline. If a student requests more than 3 extensions of work, please contact DAO to discuss.
When determining essential requirements of the course related to attendance, please consider the following:
- What are the classroom practices and policies regarding assignment deadlines and/or late assignments? Have exceptions been made to the policy for non-disabled students or for reasons unrelated to disabilities (e.g. athletic competitions, close relative funerals, or religious holidays)?
- Is there classroom interaction among students regarding the assignment (i.e. peer review)? Are students required to actively participate in class discussions/activities based off of the assignment?
- Are students required to work together on the assignment?
- Are the assignments frequent in nature (for example, weekly), and/or do they build on each other (for example, smaller assignments leading up to a final paper or a series of assignments that build upon one another)?
- How much time do students have to complete an assignment? Is the assignment information published in the syllabus or given to students during the semester?
- Are the answers to problem sets or other types of assignments published immediately after the deadline, or is there a delay?
If the answers to a problem set are published immediately after the deadline, it may be appropriate to consider redistributing the points among remaining work instead of approving an extension.
If deadline extensions can be accommodated in your classroom, you should document what was communicated to the student either using the DAO template or creating your own plan making sure it specifies the following:
- Number and length of extensions permitted for all students in the class (as documented in the course syllabus)
- Number and length of additional extensions permitted if the student experiences a significant flare-up
- If extensions are possible for some types of work/assignments but not others, please be sure to document this
- What are the communication expectations for requesting an extension (i.e. student must be in touch 24 hours in advance of the deadline)?
If you believe that deadline extensions beyond those already allowed for in the course syllabus may fundamentally alter the essential requirements of the course, please contact DAO to discuss.
Attendance Adjustment
Attendance adjustments are excused absences in addition to what all students are permitted to miss as outlined in the course syllabus. If a student requests more than 3 absences, please contact DAO to discuss.
When determining essential requirements of the course related to attendance, please consider the following:
- What is the nature of classroom interactions between the instructor and the students and/or among the students?
- Do student contributions in class constitute a significant component of the learning process?
- Does the fundamental nature of the course rely on student participation as an essential method of learning?
- To what degree does a student’s absence in class constitute a significant loss to the educational experience of the other students in the course?
- Is there a lab component to the class, or another activity, that is critical to the student’s learning and cannot be recreated at another time?
- If your course is made up of different types of learning environments (large lecture, small interactive sections, wet lab, etc.), is it possible for a student to be absent from one component of the class but not others?
If additional absences can be accommodated in your classroom, you should document what was agreed either using the DAO template or by creating your own plan. The following should be specified:
- Number of absences all students are permitted in the class (as documented in the course syllabus)
- Number of additional absences a student is permitted if they experience a disability-related absence
- What the student should do if they need to miss class. What are the communication expectations? We recommend you be as specific, e.g. student must be in touch within 24 hours of the absence
- Will alternate, equitable activities be assigned to compensate for the loss of class time? If so, how long will the student have to complete them? How should alternate assignments be submitted?
If you believe that additional absences beyond the stated course policy would fundamentally alter the essential requirements of the course, please contact DAO to discuss.