Critical Decision Making in Disability Resources

1. Critical Decision Making in Disability Resources Process, Principles and Practice Tom L. Thompson, Retired DRS Professional TMLS Consulting

2. Decision Making: Process, Principles, Practices • Process: interactive interview and knowledge of environments • Determining accommodations and facilitating access • Implementing accommodations and access – scope, roles • Principles: judicial decisions, legislative concepts and best practices • OCR settlement agreements, 504 and ADA principles, AHEAD & peer examples • Practices: established guidelines for students, DS and campus colleagues • Who does what, how it is done, informing and ensuring understanding

3. Critical Thinking Process: Knowledge - Discernment • Blooms’ Taxonomy - Cognitive • “From Knowledge to Decision Making” • Recall, Defining, What/When/Who • Comprehend, Summarize, Interpret • Apply, Construct, Utilize • Analyze, Distinguish, Conclude • Construct, Formulate, Design • Evaluate, Conclude, Justify, Determine

4. Principles from Law & Best Practice • Interactive and deliberative process • “Otherwise qualified” • “Substantially limits a major life activity” • “Academic adjustments & auxiliary aids • “Not a burdensome process” • Facilitating the scope & limits of accommodations • “A fundamental alteration or undue burden” • “Threat to health or safety risk” • “A personal service” • “Barriers to access”

5. Examples: Two Scenarios - Decisions • Service dog in training on campus • A student with a psychological disability claims her ESA is “now a trained service dog” . The student always says her puppy is young and may get distracted at times. • How would you interact? Would you allow the dog on campus? What are the handling responsibilities? • Student wants to participate in study abroad – overseas in Europe • He is visually impaired and has an anxiety disorder • Classes taught by the college’s profs occurs in an overseas setting • How would you determine his access needs?

6. Examples: Discussions on a DS List • Students (with dietary conditions) wants to live off campus but decides to live on campus and wants to use the dorm kitchen to prepare food, then re-heat it in her room • A student in a required physical education class wants alternative assignments • On what basis could campus housing deny certain exotic animals as an ESA? • A student with dyslexia in a dance class wants an accommodation for having to perform a dance and cite teaching cues – the dance chosen is random • A student with ASD wants an accommodation in a writing course – he struggles with discerning subtext, deeper meanings, symbolism

7. To do or Not To do? Do we give the person a fish? OR Do we teach the person how to fish? Accommodations are not commodities!

8. Case Study 1: discussion, decisions, rationale • Maria is a student with Crohn’s disease and she has an anxiety disorder. She has requested flexibility with attendance and assignment deadlines, due to a history of flare-ups from her two conditions, which have led to absences and tardiness. Two semesters ago, she had a major flare-up where she missed a week and a half of classes. • What questions would you ask her? Are you missing information? How will you decide if this accommodation will be acceptable in her various courses? What would you advise her to do? How do you determine accommodations?

9. Case Study 2: discussion, decisions, rationale • George is a student with ASD and an anxiety disorder. He is a double major in History and Art. He is requesting permission to leave class when he is ‘overstimulated’, particularly for his studio art course. Students provide peer critiques on each other’s work and he finds this difficult. Once he had a ‘melt-down’ and became emotional and loud. He was asked to leave class. In his history course, he wants to not do group work with his peer team. • How would you approach his requests? How could he be accommodated? What determines if an accommodation is reasonable?

10. Practices or Guidelines • Do you know key legal/judicial principles? Can you recall them, illustrate them, apply them, analyze where and how they fit situations, use to decide and recommend? • Are you aware of best practices in our field? Can you cite examples you’ve seen in practice regarding: flexibility with attendance, ESA’s, housing/dining, the interactive interview, off-campus access and accommodations? • Have you created procedures that specify roles and responsibilities: both detailed narrative descriptions and ‘shorthand guidelines’?

11. Review: Consider the following! • Why do we not grant a student unlimited time in taking an exam? • Why could you say no or yes to a student’s request to have two ESA’s? • What would you say to an older, adult student with dementia wanting to use a memory card in testing? • On what basis might you not allow a student to have a service animal? • Is self-regulating or interpersonal communication a major life activity? • What constitutes a threat to the health and safety of others?