SDS Registration & Accommodation Letters

If a student in your class is registered with SDS and eligible for accommodations, you will receive an accommodation letter from SDS in your Butler email. Each letter will delineate the specific accommodations for which the student is eligible.

Instructors should not expect to see diagnostic information for a particular student. Due to confidentiality mandates, specific information about the disability cannot generally be shared, and students are not required to disclose the nature of their disability to instructors.

All information, documentation, or issues related to a student’s disability (including the student’s accommodation letter) must be kept confidential and should not be shared with a third party without the student’s written permission.

SDS students are not required to utilize their approved accommodations; specific demands of a class and how it is constructed often influences whether accommodations are needed. Students will make those choices individually and will typically discuss specific accommodation needs with you. Instructors are not expected to try to deliver accommodations if a student has not made a request or not made it clear they intended to utilize their accommodations.

If a student requests an accommodation but the professor has not received an accommodation letter, please refer the student to SDS in JH 136. Faculty are encouraged to document the conversation for record of their referral. Instructors are not required to deliver accommodations that have not been verified and authorized by SDS.

Professors should not deny accommodations that have been approved by SDS. Instead, please contact SDS for discussion if there is an accommodation concern or dispute, or if you believe an accommodation represents a fundamental alteration of your course. In cases of dispute, accommodations must be delivered until a resolution has been reached.