In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), reasonable accommodations are afforded to students at ODU with disabilities based upon documentation received from a qualified professional and the discussion that the student has with the Office of Educational Accessibility professionals. Accommodations are provided which support the student with a disability in the university setting both in-person and online.
Students wishing to use accommodations must follow the established process. No accommodations will be afforded until the student has completed the prescribed steps and indicated that they understand and agree with the professional evaluator's recommendations and the student's responsibility in using their accommodations. The student is allowed to present documentation and register with the OEA anytime throughout the semester, however, accommodations are not retroactive, and an instructor is not obligated to provide accommodations until they receive the accommodation letter.
The Student Should:
- Provide to the Office of Educational Accessibility documentation of the disability and recommendations for accommodations from a qualified professional.
- Set up a meeting to discuss reasonable accommodations with an Educational Accessibility staff member to develop an OEA accommodation letter.
- Once the student has received their accommodation letter, it is their responsibility to ensure the letter is shared with each instructor and that they initiate a meeting with each instructor to discuss the provision of the accommodations.
The Faculty Should:
- Set aside a meeting time with the student upon their request to discuss the accommodations.
- Provide the accommodations as enumerated in a reasonable and timely manner.
- Contact the Office of Educational Accessibility if you have questions or concerns regarding an accommodation that has been afforded to a student.
- Respect the confidentiality of the student and not discuss their disability or accommodations in front of other students or staff.
- The instructor does not have the right to ask the nature of a student's disability, however, a student can choose to disclose information about their disability.
The following is a list of some of the accommodations to which eligible students with appropriate documentation may have access at Old Dominion University:
- Allowing extended time for testing
- Disregarding spelling errors for in-class work
- Permitting recording of classes
- Allowing use of a calculator in mathematics classes
- Allowing a distraction-reduced setting for testing
- Permitting an alternative to scantron forms for objective tests
- Permitting attendance at duplicate lecture sections
- Allowing essay exams to be completed using word processing
- Using assistive technology during testing (screen-reading technology, speech to text, screen enlargement, etc.)
- Utilizing multiple-choice tests as much as possible
- Allowing unanticipated class absences for a documented disability
- Allowing extended time to complete course requirements