Instructor Resources
Accommodations ensure students with disabilities have equal opportunities to pursue learning. Accommodations do not ensure success in your class – they are not shortcuts or lowering the standards of the course.
Implementing accommodations is a collaborative effort between students, instructors (including teaching assistants), and the McBurney Center staff. These resources support instructors in that work.
Instructor Portal
Review and manage student accommodation requests
Instructor Guide to Student Accommodations
Learn the role of instructors and teaching assistants in the accommodations process and explore guidance on implementing accommodations
How to Implement Specific Accommodations
Who to contact for assistance?
If you have questions or concerns about implementing a student’s requested accommodations, please contact the student’s designated McBurney Access Consultant, whose information is listed at the top and bottom of the Student Accommodation Letter.
For more information, please visit Consulting with the McBurney Center.
Training
The McBurney Center provides department and group trainings, both virtually and in-person, for those who are looking to learn more.
Digital Accessibility of Course Content
The university provides information and resources to comply with the new federal requirement for digital accessibility in course content.
Syllabus Content
It’s important to share information in your syllabus and during the beginning of your course about how students should work with you to implement disability accommodations. The UW–Madison Syllabus Template contains a standardized syllabus statement that instructors are encouraged to use.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Students complete an application.
- They participate in an initial meeting with an Access Consultant to review their diagnosis, impacts, barriers, and history.
- The McBurney Center makes an eligibility determination by synthesizing the self-report and documentation, then determining whether a student has a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities” (Americans with Disabilities Act).
- If the student is eligible, the Access Consultant develops an accommodation plan that is used as the basis for generating Student Accommodation Letters for the student’s instructors.
Students can begin the application process at any point during their educational career on campus. This can be dependent on the student’s comfort, confidence, awareness of our office, severity of impact, or potentially the recent onset of a disability. While students are encouraged to affiliate early, they are able to submit an application at any time, including in the middle of semesters. (If a student requests accommodations late in the semester, the McBurney Center may not approve them for implementation until the following semester.)
Students are trained on each individual accommodation for which they are approved. The training consists of McBurney Center staff meeting 1-on-1 with students to relay important information about implementation of the accommodation(s) and necessary communication with instructors about their unique classes. The McBurney Center also provides supplementary materials and online training, when applicable. After this initial preparation, students select accommodations to use in specific course sections and are prepared to engage with instructors. Students are instructed to connect with each instructor prior to or within the first two to three weeks of class or as soon as they are approved for accommodations.
A student’s affiliation with the McBurney Center is part of their educational record and protected from disclosure under federal student privacy law (FERPA). As such, any conversation should generally be limited to the student, McBurney Center staff, instructors, or others with an educational need to know (e.g., course coordinators or TAs).
Our Instructor Guide to Student Accommodations provides info on how to respond to students not approved for accommodations. If you have questions, contact us.
Accommodation plans may change. Students may receive new diagnoses or experience new impacts and barriers that result in a review of their accommodation plan. When that happens, students need to reconnect with their Access Consultant and talk about changes that they are experiencing. If applicable, a new Student Accommodation Letter for instructors will be generated. This may happen mid-semester. If accommodations are approved late in a given semester, they may not be able to be implemented until the following semester.
Typically, accommodations plans do not expire – they remain active throughout a student’s time on campus. In some cases where temporary disabilities are present or a student does not have access to documentation when initially meeting with an Access Consultant, plans may be temporary or provisional and require review in order to be extended to future semesters.