Accessibility & Academic Accommodations

You may have students who require a new accommodation if content is suddenly being delivered online.  It is important that the course site have clear navigation and direct students to resources.

This article contains information on:

• Disability Resources Syllabus Statement
• Additional time for timed quizzes
• Differentiated assignments
• Video Caption requests

Disability Resources on Campus

Assistive technologies can help make resources more available to individuals on campus. 

• Individuals requesting accessibility accommodations are encouraged to contact the Disability Resources Office to discuss their needs.

• The accessibility features of various technologies used across campus are dependent on the tool in question. Consider the list of Assistive Technology at the bottom of this Disability Resources page.
   
• Faculty interested in developing accessible course content are encouraged to contact Faculty Development to discuss their individual needs.

Disability Resources Syllabus Statement

Be sure to add the language below to your Canvas site, either in the syllabus or on your home page:

Academic accommodations will be provided for qualified students with documented disabilities including but not limited to mental health diagnoses, learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder, chronic medical conditions, visual, mobility, and hearing disabilities. Students are invited to contact the Disability Resources office about accommodations early in the semester. To make an appointment or speak with a Disability Resources staff member, please call 651-962-6315 and leave a message or send an email message to disabilityresources@stthomas.edu. For further information, you can locate the Disability Resources office on the web. 

Extending time for Quizzes and Tests

Canvas has the ability to adjust time limits for specific students who need additional time on quizzes or tests. You may also need to extend the due date and/or availability dates.

Extra Time on a Timed Quiz

Please note: If you do not intend to set a time limit on your quiz, you won't need to change any settings. The time limit is found in the quiz settings:

To add additional time for specific students based on their accommodations:

1. Publish the quiz. This is important as the "Moderate This Quiz" button is not available on unpublished quizzes.
   • To avoid students taking the quiz too early, set availability dates before publishing.
2. Once published, click on the Moderate This Quiz button on the quiz itself. Find all the details in the How do I add extra time on a quiz? tutorial.

Extended Due Date and Availability Dates

Depending on how much time you would like the quiz available to students, you may also need to change the due date and/or availability dates.

In the example below, students have a 24-hour period in which to take a 60-minute timed quiz. In this case, you would not need to change the due date to accommodate a longer quiz (such as a 120-minute quiz for a student with accommodations).

In the following example, students have 75 minutes in which to take a 60-minute timed quiz. For students with accommodations allowing double time on quizzes, these settings will override the additional time you have granted. Therefore, you will need to add differentiated due and availability times.

Simply click the +Add below the availability dates to differentiate the quiz (Links to an external site.) for students who require more time. After clicking +Add, add the students who need more available time or a different due date to the Assign to: field and adjust their due date and availability dates.

Differentiated Assignments

You can assign different due dates, availability dates, or even completely different assessments in Canvas to meet the accommodation needs of your students.

You have control over who the assessment is assigned to. Canvas defaults to assign your quizzes and assignments to every student in the class. But, you can change that. Differentiating assignments allows you to have separate due dates to accommodate extra time. It also allows you to assign different assignments to specific students.

Differentiated assignments don't show up on other students' gradebooks, modules, or to-do lists. You, as the professor, will see everything. But students only see what is assigned to them.

In the example below, there is a different due date for one particular student. Canvas automatically changed the default of "Everyone" to "Everyone Else" when I added the separate due date for a specific student.

To add a different due date or extend availability dates, click +Add at the bottom of the Assign section of your assessment's settings.

Accommodations and Grading

The Canvas gradebook automatically marks assignments late when they come in after the due date.

For some students, their accommodation may mean a late assignment should not have points docked. Changing the status of the assignment in Grades signals to both you and the student that their submission was not late (even though it may have come in after the due date you set in Canvas).

If you have set a late submission policy, changing the status is especially important so students don't miss points.

Captions for Videos

If you have a student with an accommodation need, you can request captions for your course videos on the Request Services and select the first option Captioning and provide the needed information.  Closed Captioning Standards: What, Why and How To.   

Only videos residing in Panopto, YouTube or Vimeo can be captioned.  If you have videos in your course, including those from library databases, other video sources or within your PowerPoints, that require captioning, please contact Disability Services.