Faculty and Staff
Role and Responsibilities
We are committed to partnering with faculty and staff to provide students with disabilities the opportunity for success and equal access at the University of Utah.
Providing reasonable accommodations to qualified students with disabilities is a shared responsibility and obligation by University Policy and under section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended.
The following information outlines some of the specific roles that faculty and staff play in the accommodation process.
Acknowledge and Implement Accommodations
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Accommodation notifications are sent to instructors through Umail. Faculty and staff are required by University Policy (Policy 4-010) to use only official email systems to conduct school business.
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Faculty must review, acknowledge, and implement accommodations once received. Instructors should login to the CDA Online Portal to review accommodation letters for students in their courses. Instructors, CDA, and students must work together to implement the approved accommodations.
Faculty are not permitted to deny an approved accommodation issued by the Center for Disability & Access without engaging with CDA to discuss their concerns.
CDA may or may not authorize alternative accommodations based on the outcome of this discussion and any additional analysis.
Maintain Confidentiality
- Faculty are not entitled to know a student's diagnosis and should not ask students to disclose the specifics of their disability.
- Documentation related to accommodations (i.e. accommodation emails, forms, and memos) must be kept confidential and separate from a student's departmental file or general academic record.
- Faculty should not disclose information about a student's accommodations to other students in the course. Discussions about accommodations should occur privately with the individual student approved for the accommodation.
Additional Rights and Responsibilities
- The right to ask for verification from the Center for Disability & Access when the student requests an accommodation in their course or program.
- The right to consult the Center for Disability & Access to discuss approved accommodations.
- The right and responsibility to identify and determine the abilities, skills and knowledge that are essential and fundamental to academic courses and programs and may not be subject to modification based upon disability.
- The right to expect the student with a disability to meet the same academic standards as peers in the course.
- The responsibility to inform the student of the procedure to request accommodations.
- The responsibility to provide accommodations in a timely manner once they have been received from the Center for Disability & Access.
- The responsibility to inform students that all course material can be made available in alternative format with reasonable prior notice.