Faculty
Welcome to the faculty page! Whether you landed on this page intentionally or by accident, we are glad you’re here. We encourage you to continue exploring the valuable tools and resources under the faculty tab including “Instructor Guide: Providing Test Accommodations for Students with Disabilities (PDF)“, “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ’s) and Universal Design for Learning, a concept for designing curricula for the broadest range of learners.
Creating access for students with disabilities is a shared responsibility for the entire university community. Student Disability Services (SDS) collaborates with instructors to ensure that the educational environment affords full participation for students with disabilities. The SDS website serves as an important resource to support you in the appropriate implementation of accommodations for students with various types of disabilities in your course(s).
All instructors are encouraged to promote an inclusive class environment by including an accessibility statement in the course syllabus that explains the disability accommodation procedures in the course, and to invite students with disabilities to meet with you in a confidential environment to discuss arrangements for accommodations.
An accessibility syllabus statement not only promotes a welcoming class environment for students with disabilities, but it also informs your students that you anticipate their presence in your course and acknowledges that you are cognizant of their right to reasonable accommodations to ensure equitable access in your course. Additionally, it serves as an important reminder to students that accommodation requests must be made in a timely manner. Feel free to use the sample statement below.
Example accessibility syllabus statement:
The University of Chicago is committed to ensuring equitable access to our academic programs and services. Students with disabilities who have been approved for the use of academic accommodations by Student Disability Services (SDS) and need a reasonable accommodation(s) to participate fully in this course should follow the procedures established by SDS for using accommodations. Timely notifications are required in order to ensure that your accommodations can be implemented. Please meet with me to discuss your access needs in this class after you have completed the SDS procedures for requesting accommodations.
To contact SDS: website: disabilities.uchicago.edu phone: (773) 702-6000 email: disabilities@uchicago.edu
We hope that you find this site helpful as you increase access for students with disabilities in your course(s). If there are additional resources and content that you would like SDS to provide, please feel free to contact us at disabilities@uchicago.edu.
SDS Staff