Supportive Learning
ACCESS wants to build collaborative relationships with all faculty to provide support in the institutional goal of providing equal access for all SIUE students.
We can:
- Talk about an individual student's accommodations
- Help refer a student you suspect has a disability/diagnosis
- Troubleshoot any difficulty you are having with implementing accommodations
- Support and document your efforts in providing access
- Discuss the boundaries between characteristics or a diagnosis and student conduct
- Visit your department meeting to answer accommodations questions unique to your discipline
- Offer teaching strategies, tools or equipment that increase the accessibility in your curriculum
- Teach you how and provide resources to improve accessibility of classroom materials
Part of our job is to assist you in finding ways to remove unintentional barriers and identify accommodations that ensure diverse learners are able to fully access the courses and programming available at SIUE.
Course Accessibility Checklist
Faculty are encouraged to use the ACCESS Course Accessibility Checklist to ensure their courses have been designed in ways that are inclusive and accessible.
Employee Accommodations with ACCESS
Faculty and Staff who wish to receive accommodations at SIUE need to identify themselves by registering with ACCESS through the Accommodate portal and submitting appropriate medical documentation validating the request. When choosing the "...role for which you are completing this request", select "Employee". Individuals who believe they have a diagnosis but do not yet have supporting documentation should still register using the link below, and ACCESS will discuss further assistance and/or appropriate referral at the time of your intake appointment.
Medical Inquiry and Authorization Form
In the event you are unable to obtain or upload medical documentation related to your accommodation request at the time of submission, please download and submit the Medical Inquiry and Authorization Form to your profile via Accommodate. Once filled out this form can either be sent to a physician to craft more tailored documentation specific to the request or it can be submitted separately as a document granting permission to communicate with your physician(s) regarding the request and recommendations for moving forward. Either way, this will allow us to move one step further in the overall interactive process.
Register Now
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) was recently signed into law and takes effect on June 27, 2023. The new federal law aims to protect the rights of pregnant employees by requiring employers to treat known limitations resulting from pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions as conditions essentially equivalent to a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Similar to the ADA, the PWFA requires the university to engage in the interactive process to identify reasonable accommodations. Under the PWFA, reasonable accommodations are intended to enable an employee to remain in active work status.
It is also important to note that unlike the ADA, no disability is required for reasonable accommodations under the PWFA. The PWFA requires only that there be a known limitation related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition.
What is the PWFA accommodation process?
Once you’ve communicated a need for an accommodation to your human resources representative or supervisor, your HR representative or supervisor will notify Dominic Dorsey, Director of Accessible Campus Community & Equitable Student Support (ACCESS) at dodorse@siue.edu.
An assigned case manager will work with you to obtain medical documentation to identify and verify the known limitation(s).
Once medical documentation is obtained, ACCESS will coordinate the interactive process.
The interactive process is intended to identify reasonable accommodations that will enable you to continue working with the known limitation.
Examples of PWFA accommodations include but are not limited to:
- Ability to sit
- Ability to drink water while working
- Flexible work hours
- Appropriately sized uniforms and safety apparel
- Additional break time to eat, rest, or use the restroom
More information about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act can be found on the
U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website.
Accommodate for Faculty
Accommodate is the online system that ACCESS uses to coordinate with faculty and students to ensure the provision of accommodations, such as approving exams or receiving accommodation notices.
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