Faculty Support

The Office of Accessibility Services (OAS) determines reasonable accommodations for students in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as amended (ADAAA).

OAS has been designated by the University to facilitate access by reviewing requests to determine whether a student has shown a qualifying disability and approving reasonable accommodations so the student may equitably access courses, programs, and activities at Georgetown Law. The student discloses one or more disabilities, submits appropriate documentation to OAS, and participates in an intake meeting. If accommodations are approved, the student shares a letter with the professor if/when they would like to use their accommodation(s) in a particular course.

The Faculty Member’s Role: Accommodating Students with Disabilities

If a student requests a disability related accommodation for a particular course, the faculty member should ask for the student’s accommodation letter (provided by OAS) to ensure consistency of practice, equity and fairness across similar classes and similar disabilities. The student initiates communication with the faculty member by presenting the accommodation letter. No action is needed from the faculty member until the student shares an accommodation letter.

After reviewing the letter, faculty should implement the accommodation(s) listed in the letter unless an accommodation would: a) fundamentally alter the nature of the course, program, or activity (e.g. by lowering academic standards or requiring substantial modification to the program); or b) significantly compromise the essential requirements (e.g. by lowering academic standards or requiring substantial modification to the program). Faculty may email accessibilityservices@georgetown.edu with questions, particularly if they believe that an accommodation listed in a student’s letter may fundamentally alter the pedagogy of a particular course.

Faculty should clearly document the core learning objectives and essential requirements for the course by addressing the following questions:

What outcomes (skills, knowledge, concepts) are required of students in the course?
What teaching strategies most effectively address the essential outcomes?
What methods of instruction or assessment are negotiable vs. non-negotiable?
Is a course requirement (e.g., prohibiting laptops during class) consistent with requirements determined by professors in similar classes? If not, is the requirement uniquely justified?
Is a requirement based on tradition or routine practice without a direct connection to the essential requirements of the course?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

UDL is a teaching framework that removes learning barriers by providing multiple ways for students to engage, to learn, and to demonstrate what they have learned. When a faculty member applies UDL principles to course design, the course is more accessible for all students. UDL also reduces the need for individual student accommodations by designing a course that is accessible to diverse learners.

We encourage professors to implement one or more of the following adjustments to make their course more accessible:

Clearly describe course content and essential requirements in the syllabus;
Provide all presentation slides and handouts in an accessible format (refer to Accessible Course Materials for assistance);
Incorporate technologies that facilitate student communication and participation (e.g., permit laptops for note taking and for accessing materials related to the course);
Use multimodal teaching techniques (e.g., lectures, presentations, large/small group discussion, think pair share, panels, guest speakers, captioned videos/audio);
Represent information in multiple media and formats (e.g., audio, video, text), including both written and audio descriptions of assignments;
Design assessments that demonstrate progress towards course learning objectives (e.g., opt for a self-scheduled take home exam so students with disabilities and various other needs may take the exam on the day/time that works best for them in a distraction-reduced environment); and
Allow flexible opportunities for students to demonstrate a skill (e.g., If cold calls are essential in this course, what sort of modification would be reasonable for this course? [no cold calls until later in the semester, cold calls but with a heads up about the day and likely case/topic, the student raises their hand first and then a cold call, office hours discussion with the professor/small group instead of cold calls])

Reasonable Accommodations

Any student approved by OAS to access course recordings as a reasonable accommodation is instructed to alert OAS when a professor does not record classes or release recordings. OAS will then notify the professor that a student in the course has been approved for this reasonable accommodation.

We encourage professors to request that IST record class via Panopto, enable the auto-captioning feature, and opt for any student with a disability approved by OAS to be able to access the recordings. Access to course recordings provides a student with an opportunity to:

take their own notes and draw their own conclusions about key information and takeaways;
access actual statements made in class rather than a peer’s interpretation; and
access course content that they may have missed due to disabilities that impact attention and focus, while on a break to manage a health condition, etc.

Any student who is approved to access recordings as a reasonable accommodation must sign an agreement acknowledging the following:

Unauthorized recordings and/or transcription — including personal recordings made in class — do not fall within the scope of consent established by the Law Center’s Recording Policy;
Students are not authorized to download, copy, or share recordings and/or transcripts with anyone; and
Dishonestly sharing information may be deemed a violation of the Student Disciplinary Code and can violate federal, state, or other laws that restrict the involuntary recording of conversations.

In the rare circumstance where, after OAS consults with the faculty member and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, it is determined that creation of or access to recording would constitute a fundamental alteration of the course pedagogy, access to recording would not be deemed reasonable and OAS would propose an alternative solution.

Administered by the Office of the Registrar: The Office of the Registrar administers exams for the following exam periods: Minicourse Exams, Legal Practice Exams, Final Exams, Week One Exams, and Summer Exams. Additional information is emailed to accommodated students before each exam period. Faculty are not made aware if students are approved for accommodations for timed assessments administered through the Office of the Registrar. Students should not email their professors to request an exam deferral. All requests for exam deferrals must be directed to the Office of the Registrar at lawreg@georgetown.edu. A student may request an exam deferral as stated in the Exam Relief Policies in the General Administrative Policies chapter of the Georgetown Law Student Handbook. More information is available on the Office of the Registrar’s website: Exam Conflicts and Exam Deferrals.

Administered by a Professor via Canvas or In Class: If a professor administers a timed assessment separate from the Office of the Registrar, then OAS needs to email the professor to request information (i.e., open and close date/time, original length of the assessment, how it is being administered, etc). A student must submit a request ten business days in advance of an assessment. OAS will then email the professor to request information about the timed assessment. If the assessment is on Canvas, OAS then communicates with IST to request that the student’s accommodated time be added. Once the professor publishes the assessment in Canvas and IST implements the accommodated time, OAS emails the student to confirm that the accommodated time has been implemented.