Dear UConn Faculty and Staff,
Through the integration of teaching, research, and service, it is the mission of the University of Connecticut to provide an outstanding educational experience for each student. The mission of the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) is to enhance this experience for students with disabilities. Our goal is to ensure a comprehensively accessible University experience where individuals with disabilities have the same access to programs, opportunities and activities as all others.
Comprehensive accessibility extends beyond the buildings that make up the physical environment of UConn to include universal access to course content and materials. It can be challenging to address the needs of UConn’s ever changing and growing student population; however, resources are available to assist with ensuring course content and materials are universally accessible. These resources include the Institute for Teaching and Learning (http://itl.uconn.edu/itl_web/resource_links.html ) the CSD (http://www.csd.uconn.edu/fs_resources.html) and the UConn Libraries Scan on Demand Services (http://www.lib.uconn.edu/services/ill/ScanonDemand.htm).
Even when universal access is taken into consideration during the planning stage of a course, many students within the UConn community will require print based materials in an alternate format (e.g., audio format, large print, screen readable). In partnership with faculty and staff, the CSD provides the academic accommodation of alternate media to ensure equal access to course materials to students with visual, physical, and print-based (e.g. Learning Disabilities) disabilities. According to legal mandates, course materials must be provided in an alternate format to students within seven of their request.
In order to assure students timely access to all course materials, please consider the following practices:
- Provide the Co-op with a list of all course textbooks and course readers a minimum of seven weeks in advance of the term start date;
- Provide clear digital reproductions of original texts;
- Provide electronic course materials in digital text readable formats rather than an image-based format;
- Provide supplemental course materials well in advance of assignment due dates;
- Provide verbal descriptions of visual aids or graphics during class and alternate text based descriptions of visuals and graphics within course materials.
If you have questions or need assistance, please feel free to contact me at jennifer.lucia@uconn.edu.
For more information, contact: Center for Students with Disabilities at 860-486-2020