Students enroll in DSP throughout the quarter, as their documentation sometimes takes time to arrive from their provider, or the student does not begin the process of becoming eligible for services until the quarter begins. And then there are the student with temporary conditions (broken wrist, shoulder, etc.) that enroll when the need arises.
Regardless of when a student enrolls in DSP, they are told in their orientation that their proctor requests need to be in at least 10 days before the exam to guarantee a proctor for their exam, as it takes some time to arrange this with the academic departments. We strongly encourage student to do so, but we cannot tell students they have to do this 10 days in advance.
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigated our program on a different issue and reviewed all DSP practices, which is their standard when a complaint is filed with their office. DSP was told that we had to take any language out of our policies and practices that gave a hard deadline for these requests. The rationale is that if non-disabled student can make last minute requests, so should students with disabilities. Students can make requests at the last minute, but there is no assurance the accommodation will be filled as there is when it is a timely request. An attempt to provide the accommodation must be made, but if there is not time to arrange it, the student is instructed to take the exam with the rest of the class as best as they can. All students receive a copy of our “Rights and Responsibilities” handout when they sign into our program, so they are aware of this limitation. We stress to students that they should not rely on other students submitting a proctor request so they can be added, as this can backfire sometimes and leave the student without an accommodation.
Before mid-term and finals season, DSP sends out an email reminder for students to get their proctor requests in ASAP, and that can motivate those that are not proactive.
Unfortunately, not all student get their requests in in a timely manner. For instructors receiving these late requests, DSP can certainly understand the added stress this presents on them. Our online system groups student with similar accommodations in a class without any further action on the instructor's part, so the student is added seamlessly. This means the instructor does not have to do anything further and the student is included in the accommodation.
If the student is the only DSP student enrolled in the class, they will sometimes contact their instructor and DSP to plead for an accommodation, and DSP will remind them of their responsibility in this process, and that this is a natural consequence of not following through on their part. DSP makes it clear that they have to submit their requests in a timely manner to receive their accommodation.
If you have further questions please contact Director, Gary White gary.white@sa.ucsb.edu.
