Colleges and the Continuing Pandemic

Universities and colleges across the country have reopened in various ways, and are welcoming students back for the 2022-23 school year!

It continues to be a fluid situation but COVID-19 has taught us a lot of creative lessons for teaching and serving students. Some students are grieving the loss of family members, others want things to go back to normal. Many are dealing with post-COVID health issues, while others are facing mental health concerns. We offer this page to address the continuing impact of COVID-19 on our campuses.

Continuing Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control for Colleges and Universities American College Health Association COVID-19 Resources

Students

Check out information and resources at our Online Students page.

Tips from the National Deaf Center that are useful for ALL students!

TIP: Some campus Disability Resource offices may want you to submit additional disability documentation related to the barriers that you might encounter in online classes. You don't have to get tested all over again. Contact your doctor or clinic and ask them to add an addendum to your disability documentation that addresses possible barriers in online classes.

Faculty

Find resources at our Faculty page. Learn about accessibility in online classes.

TIP: Allow campus Disability Resource office staff to join your online classes as a Guest (or Reviewer or TA) so that they can get a sense for the structure of your class and advise you on any unexpected accessibility issues, and help students to fully participate online.

Disability Resources Managers & Staff

TIPS: While Speech-to-Text software and artificial intelligence (AI) are promising technologies for captioning online content, you probably shouldn't rely on that alone for accommodations requests from students. CART providers and remote sign language interpreting are still the standard to ensure accessibility. DS or departmental offices are still obligated to fund and provide these services. Find vendors via the CART Services Directory at JAN. Local ASL Interpreter agencies can help you find remote service providers.

The disability documentation and registration for service process will be different in 2020. Many students might not have a chance to see their doctors or clinicians during the Summer due to restrictions. You may have to base accommodations decisions more on the history of a student's use of accommodations. See AHEAD's discussion of Disability Documentation to learn more about this.

Visit our page for Disability Resources and Services and our COVID-19 information page for more information and resources to help you prepare.