________________________________ From: Mirian Detreshickey Sent: Tuesday, September 1, 2015 10:18 AM To: Bette S Weidman; Miryam Segal; Ali J Ahmed; Meghan Healey; Glenn D Burger; David A Jones; Zoe Beloff; Jose Martinez-Torrejon; Clare L Carroll; Robert M Vago; Richard M Maxwell; Edward Smaldone; Lynn C Howell; Daisuke Akiba; Eleanor Armour-Thomas; Pokay M Ma; Wilma A Saffran; Jennifer Jarvis; George Hendrey; Michael M Toner; Ray E Johnson; Alexander Lisyansky; Jeffrey M Halperin; Israel Blumenfrucht; Evelyn Julmisse; Mandana E Limbert; Christos Ioannides; John Devereux; Elena Frangakissyrett; Thomas W Ort; Sarah A Covington; Gerald Solomon; Leonard S Rodberg; John Collins; Colleen Cool; Stephen Grover; Patricia Rachal; Elvira M Casper; Andrew Beveridge; Leonard S Rodberg; Joyce W Warren; Adam Rockman; Pedro Pineiro; Patrick Oconnell; China L Jude; Frank S Franklin Subject: Understanding Disabilities September 1, 2015, Dear Chairs; The new semester is upon us, with incoming students with certain expectations and services. This new semester is once again bringing us exciting changes as well as limitations in all our budgets. But as we all know, our love for the students and our fields of interest will not deter us from doing our best for our students here at Queens College. So, with that said, as the Director of the Office of Special Services, I want to once again, welcome you back and offer your faculty a few things. To begin with some advice on dealing with students with disabilities that you may have in your classes, a workshop on Understanding and Dealing with Disabilities as it reflects our responsibilities as instructors, and Professors and finally, a handbook that was put together by the Council On Students with Disabilities for CUNY, of which I am a part of and had the pleasure to helping write up this handbook. The advice is: 1. If a student approaches you stating they are disabled and want to arrange accommodations with you, please refer them to our office. All accommodations are provided by our office and not the responsibility of the professors. This is simply due to liability issues. Unless the professor comes to an agreement with the Director of OSS. If you are open to providing the accommodations yourself instead of allowing OSS to so, please be aware that you are then liable legally for those accommodations and the outcome. 2. If a student hands you an intro letter stating they are registered with us, do not ask what their disability is. There are disabilities that are invisible. If the letter is requesting a note taker, please announce the request of a note taker from the class, but DO NOT identify the student requesting this accommodation. Just simply state the “class needs a note taker, if anyone is interested in providing a copy of their notes they will receive a letter of recommendation at the end of the semester. Anyone interested please go to Frese Hall 111”. And leave it at that. 3. There are no accommodations for take home tests or extended time for assignments or papers. The only extended time is for tests, but only for some students not all the students with disabilities and that is time and a half for test. 4. You can request a handbook for your office on responsibilities, accommodations, and laws reflecting disability services and accessibility. Regarding the workshops I offer, a short presentation regarding the Responsibilities of Professors/ Instructors according to ADA Regulations which could be for 10 to 30 minutes; answering questions and providing CUNY and ADA policies and Regulations. Or if you like I can do an entire presentation that would take 1 hour with time to answer questions. If you decide you are interested in any type of presentation, please feel free to contact me and we can discuss what we can do for your department. I have Included in this email an attachment that discuss the basic ADA Regulations for students seeking accommodations, services my office provides, and Responsibilities of instructors/professors. Please let me know if and when you would like more information, on any of the above; the presentation /workshop or handbook. Have a wonderful semester. Mirian Detres-Hickey PhD Director of Office of Special Services ADA / 504 Compliance Officer Queens College 718-997-5870 The content of this message and attachments may contain information that is protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. If you have received this message in error, please immediately reply to the sender and delete the message. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized use, copying or dissemination is prohibited.