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Accessibility Information for Faculty

Faculty at SUNY Oswego are responsible for providing academic accommodations as approved by Accessibility Resources, or seeking assistance from the office to do so.

Syllabus Statement

The following statement needs to be included on each syllabus every semester. 

If you have a disabling condition which may interfere with your ability to successfully complete this course, please contact Accessibility Resources, located at 155 Marano Campus Center, phone 315-312-3358, [email protected].

Any questions regarding this statement should be directed to Accessibility Resources at 315-312-3358. 

 

Access Tips for Faculty and Instructors

Accommodation Letters: Students with approved accommodations receive a letter from the Office of Accessibility Resources (OAR). Students choose whether or not to share this with faculty. 

Faculty Responsibility: If a student provides their letter, you are required to honor the listed accommodations. Students may also choose not to use them. 

Questions About Implementation: If you are unsure how to make an accommodation work in your course, contact OAR (MCC 155 | [email protected] | 315-312-3358). 

Requests Outside the Letter: If a student asks for accommodations not listed in their letter, refer them back to OAR. Any changes require documentation and an updated letter. 

Confidentiality: Do not ask students about their accommodations in front of others. Direct your questions to OAR instead. 

myARO: MyARO is a new digital registration and student management system we are using for students to apply for accommodations. We will start to use myARO for testing starting Spring 2026- more information about utilizing the myARO Faculty Portal will be coming later this semester (Fall 2025)

We request that students give us 3 working days notice in scheduling an exam in our office. 

Please submit requested exams to [email protected] with adequate lead time to allow our staff to prepare and clarify administration procedures.

More information about testing with Accessibility Resources can be found below.

Service Animals: Defined by the ADA as dogs trained to perform tasks directly related to a person’s disability. Service Animals may accompany students anywhere on campus where the student is allowed access. 

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs): Provide comfort to alleviate one or more symptoms of a disability. Permitted only in university housing, typically limited to the student’s assigned room. Unlike Service Animals, ESAs are typically not allowed in classrooms, or other campus facilities.

As a faculty member and content creator, some of your content has an audience beyond yourself. There is a good chance that an audience member may be experiencing some kind of disability or barrier that you are unaware of. Making your content accessible respects people with disabilities, expands your audience, and helps everyone take advantage of features that make consuming content more convenient. Put very simply, it’s just the right thing to do. Making all of the content you have ever created accessible right now is not practical. Instead, we recommend focusing your attention on making all new content and content that you revise accessible.  Over time, more and more of your content will be accessible. More information on making content accessible is available on our Digital Accessibility site. 

Testing Accommodations

Accessibility Resources provides alternative testing accommodations to qualified students with disabilities under the requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. In order to ensure compliance with these civil rights laws and to guarantee the integrity of the testing process, the following guidelines have been developed.

  • The office will notify you of those students whose disabling condition entitles them to alternative testing accommodations, after the student has signed up to take the exam. Once you are notified please send exams to the office in advance of the test date.
  • It is your responsibility to ensure the exam arrives at Accessibility Resources in a timely manner. It is Accessibility Resources responsibility to ensure the exam is returned back to the department in a timely manner.
  • The professor determines all test times. Accessibility Resources has no authority as to the time of the test and reserves that right for the professor. We require the student to take the responsibility to inform our office of the correct time.

In order to ensure the integrity of the testing process, we request students take their exams prior to or during the scheduled class exam. We also request that faculty adhere to the limitations (time and one-half or double-time) specified in the attached accommodation letter. Verification of exams taken with the Accessibility Resources will be provided upon request. In the event a student is caught cheating, you and the dean will be contacted.

Digital Accessibility 

As a faculty member and content creator, some of your content has an audience beyond yourself. There is a good chance that an audience member may be experiencing some kind of disability or barrier that you are unaware of. Making your content accessible respects people with disabilities, expands your audience, and helps everyone take advantage of features that make consuming content more convenient. Put very simply, it’s just the right thing to do. Making all of the content you have ever created accessible right now is not practical. Instead, we recommend focusing your attention on making all new content and content that you revise accessible.  Over time, more and more of your content will be accessible. More information on making content accessible is available on our Digital Accessibility site.