What is the purpose of this accommodation and how is it determined?
If a student has a chronic documented disability with unpredictable or cyclical acute episodes, adjustments to deadlines may be appropriate as an accommodation and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The accommodation is meant to adjust when or if there is an unexpected, uncontrolled and/or exacerbation of disability-related symptom(s) that prohibit a student’s ability to submit an assignment by an established due date. For the purposes of this accommodation, adjusted deadlines refer to in-class assignments, papers/essays, lab reports, and other take-home course assignments. This accommodation is determined by an individual assessment of, but not limited to:
- the student’s functional limitations listed in the medical documentation,
- the student’s narrative in relation to their functional limitation,
- the course requirements.
What is the procedure for implementing the accommodation?
CAE has established a general set of rules that apply in most cases for an adjusted deadlines accommodation. While students with this accommodation eligibility may request deadline extensions beyond these general parameters, each request is subject to review by CAE staff. Students MUST exhaust all of their options under these general parameters for accommodations prior to requesting individual reviews with their CAE Specialist. The general parameters are as outlined below:
- For most assignments and course components (e.g., discussion board activities, reflection papers less than 10 pages in length, homework, lab reports, problem sets), a 48 hour extension should generally be allowed by the instructor.
- For larger, cumulative assignments and major course assessments (e.g., term papers more than 10 pages in length, capstone projects), a 72 hour extension should generally be allowed by the instructor.
- For individual presentations, students should be reassigned to a later date not to exceed a week from the original presentation date.
- This accommodation generally does not apply to group presentations or group-based work (e.g., group briefs, team-based activities).
- This accommodation also generally does not apply to exams, quizzes, or finals. It may apply to those exams, quizzes, and finals that are not administered within a finite amount of time (e.g., 2 hours once the student starts the exams), including take-home exams to be taken within a certain window (e.g., 1 week). Students needing to postpone exams, quizzes, or finals that are administered within a finite amount of time should speak with their Disability Specialist about an adjusted attendance accommodation.
- All requests for this type of accommodation cannot extend a deadline beyond the end of the term and are subject to individual review by a CAE Specialist in consultation with your instructor.
Instructors are responsible for following these general parameters of the adjusted attendance accommodation unless they believe one or more may fundamentally alter the couse objectives.
What if I believe one or more of the General Parameters would fundamentally alter my course?
CAE has already defined, through the accommodation general parameters, what the reasonableness standard for this accommodation is. However, instructors are welcome to objective to these general parameters by completing an Alternative Accommodation Agreement. This agreement will outline the altered parameters for requests for adjusted deadlines for a disability-related reason for any student with this accommodation eligibility. The instructor (in consultation with CAE) must assess whether a deadline extension is a reasonable accommodation for each type of assignment/assessment, taking into consideration the learning objectives of the course and the purpose of the assignment/assessment. We encourage faculty, when consulted with CAE about this accommodation, to consider the following questions:
- If an assignment is not completed by the deadline, will the student be unprepared to fully participate in a class meeting?
- If the assignment is not completed by the deadline, will there be a direct impact on the learning experience for the student and/or classmates (e.g., team projects, participation)?
- Does meeting assignment deadlines constitute a learning objective of the course (e.g., writing a business memo, preparing a brief, scaffolded lesson)?
- Would an additional day or two extension alter the purpose and ability to grade the assignment using the same criteria applied to the class?
This agreement, when completed, will outline the altered parameters for requests for adjusted deadlines for a disability-related reason for any student in the course with this accommodation eligibility. The requested definitions in the agreement include
- a general number of days that students with the accommodation can expect to get when a adjusted deadline is approved
- the specific assignments or course components that the accommodation may apply to
- the responsibilities of the student and/or instructor to facilitate the accommodation throughout the academic term
- any exceptions to parameters where the accommodation may not apply due to fundamentally altering the basic course expectations
This agreement should be completed within 7 days of receiving the student's accommodation letter and ONLY if you object to the general parameters of the accommodation listed above.