Did my professor properly accommodate my disability?

I'm sorry you were ill. "Extra time" usually means that one has additional time to complete an exam. For example a student with accommodation might have to take a final exam on the same day as her colleagues, but might have three hours instead of two to complete the exam.

At the two institutions where I've taught, there's a very formal process for notifying professors of accommodations, in which the professor actually signs for having received a copy of the accommodation letter. I can't tell whether that was at work in your case.

The disability coordinator at your school is the one person who should know exactly what accommodations you were offered. Your next step should be to see the disability coordinator, explain what happened, and ask whether you were treated according to the agreed accommodation. If you were not, then either the disability coordinator will work through this or you can use the disability coordinator's statement in your grade appeal.

If you were granted the accommodations the school prescribed, probably you should file that grade appeal anyway, but do not be too hopeful.

I wish you the best of luck in your academic career and in your health. I haven't read "How to pass organic chemistry" yet, but I will.


My experience is similar to Bob Brown's. Students with disabilities get a written statement from the university office for student disabilities, and this statement specifies what special accommodations are recommended for this student, usually extra time on exams. (The statement does not reveal the nature of the student's disability.) I have always given the recommended accommodations, but only after I have a copy of the statement in my file of course materials. It is the student's responsibility to bring me (physically) that statement, at least two weeks before any special scheduling is needed. If the student did that and I refused to give the accommodation, I might be able to get away with it, but I'd expect to have to do quite a bit of explaining, to the staff in the disability office, to my department chair, and possibly to the dean. If, on the other hand, the student didn't bring me the recommendation, then that's the student's problem (unless, of course, the disability is such that the student can't bring me this piece of paper).

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Disability