TO:
Faculty Members
FROM:
Lois J. Geist, associate provost for faculty
Tiffini Stevenson Earl, associate director of compliance and ADA coordinator, Equal Opportunity and Diversity
DATE:
August 24, 2020
RE:
Academic accommodations for students with disabilities
The University of Iowa welcomes students from diverse backgrounds, including students with disabilities. In accordance with university policies and state and federal law, every faculty member has an obligation to support the success of students with disabilities. Per Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, faculty are specifically required to provide reasonable academic accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Policies and information concerning this obligation are listed below, and we ask you to access them each year to refresh your memory regarding faculty obligations to students with disabilities. Please consider saving this e-mail so that you can access these documents easily in the future.
The memo entitled Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities (https://provost.uiowa.edu/sites/provost.uiowa.edu/files/ADA_letter.pdf) summarizes the basic information that faculty need to know about accommodating students with disabilities.
The guide entitled Assisting Students with Disabilities: A Guide for Instructors (https://diversity.uiowa.edu/resources/policies/policies-i) provides additional background and helpful detailed information. Additionally, academic and instructional materials provided using electronic and information technology are subject to the University of Iowa IT Accessibility policy. Materials covered by this policy include webpages, electronic documents and presentations like PDFs and PowerPoint, video resources, and other online content. Contact your departmental IT support staff for assistance. You may review this policy at https://itsecurity.uiowa.edu/itaccessibility.
Should you need assistance working with students with disabilities, please contact Student Disability Services (SDS) at 335-1462. You may also refer to the SDS website (https://sds.studentlife.uiowa.edu). We thank the many faculty who follow both the letter and the spirit of the policy. Please contact either Lois J. Geist, associate provost for faculty (319-467-4627 or lois-geist@uiowa.edu) or Tiffini Stevenson Earl, associate director of compliance and ADA Coordinator, Equal Opportunity and Diversity (319-335-0705 or tiffini-stevenson-earl@uiowa.edu), with questions.
