The WVU Office of Accessibility Services will now be known as the Office of Student Accommodations, a name change designed to better reflect its role on campus.
The office is housed in a new location on the fifth floor of Hodges Hall.
The office has regularly fielded calls and emails about a variety of topics that do not fall under its purview, and the name “student accommodations” aims to eliminate unnecessary confusion among campus and community stakeholders.
“Accessibility is a combined effort among various stakeholders across campus,” said Daniel Long, director of accessibility services. “Our office addresses one particular set of accessibility needs by authorizing accommodations for registered students with disabilities and our new name more accurately reflects this.”
The Office of Student Accommodations has also continued to refine its accommodation letter process to provide greater clarity and brevity. A new process was piloted successfully this fall, resulting in a 450% increase in faculty signatures, garnering positive feedback from students and faculty alike.
OSA used the information from this pilot to make the following improvements for spring:
Shorter accommodation letters: This spring, faculty will find that the accommodation letters are shorter and more straightforward, with detailed information about individual accommodations moved to an accompanying guidance document. This will serve as a resource delineating student and faculty responsibilities and provides accommodation-specific guidance on classroom implementation.
Better options for course coordinators: In the past, the case management system used by OSA automatically sent electronic letters to all faculty members attached to a course in BANNER, including 0% coordinators whose responsibilities differed markedly from those of the primary instructor. Those faculty were asked to provide attestation to the same responsibilities as primary instructors, despite having little to no interaction with the students in the class.
Starting this spring, course coordinators with a 0% designation will no longer receive the electronic letters. Those coordinators who do still wish to receive letters may do so by assigning themselves to 1% or higher in BANNER. Keep in mind that it is possible for courses to have a greater total responsibility than 100%. Instructors do not need to balance out responsibilities to make it add up to 100% exactly.