Virtually, yes. In-person, no. DRS is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.  All student appointments will be conducted via phone or virtually until further notice. Exam Services will not be proctoring exams while virtual instruction is in place at Temple. The Assistive Technology Coordinator, Kit Aronoff, can be reached via email at [click-for-email].  

If you have a question or concern, please either call the office at  215-204-1280 or email your assigned coordinator. 

DRS will not be proctoring exams while the University’s instruction remains online only. Please communicate with your instructors to discuss your exam accommodations in their courses. Some instructors may opt for alternative assessments (e.g. essays, untimed exams) which would not require exam accommodations. 

If your instructor is creating online timed exams, please notify your instructor if you will need extended time. Academic departments are responsible for setting up extended testing time in Canvas. DRS is available to instructors and students to consult about unique circumstances.

Yes, DRS is still available to assist students with needs relating to assistive technology. Please see our AT resources page, or email the assistive technology coordinator KIt Aronoff at kit.aronoff@temple.edu.

Once you have learned from your instructor on how they will adapt the course for virtual instruction, please let your note-taker know if you would like to continue receiving notes. If you don’t have a note-taker identified, please contact your DRS Coordinator for assistance.

You may find that you no longer need a note-taker due to the course design changes. For example, lectures that are pre-recorded videos can be watched at your own pace. On the other hand, some instructors may still opt for scheduled class meetings with real-time communication using Zoom.

Please contact your instructors to discuss any additional barriers presented by changes to the course format. Let your DRS Coordinator know if you need any assistance right away.

If you are not currently registered with DRS, please go to the MyDRS for students page and click on register.  If you do not have documentation in a digital format, please skip that step and complete the registration.

Scholarship applications can be submitted electronically to [click-for-email] and do not need to be signed.  If you have any scholarship-specific questions, please contact Associate Director David Thomas at [click-for-email].

We acknowledge the significant effort required to quickly adapt your courses to online instruction. We want to collaborate with you to ensure that access for students with disabilities is maintained through this transition. Some students may encounter disability-related barriers with online instruction or assessment (e.g. students who use assistive technology, students with medical limitations on screen usage). DRS staff are available for consultation regarding best practices and accessibility. Call 215-204-1280 or email [click-for-email].

If you have students in your course who are utilizing accessible media, please notify Trish McHugh at [click-for-email].  Trish is proactively working with instructors of Deaf/Hard of Hearing students to ensure captioning for prerecorded videos and/or arranging interpreting/transcribing services for real-time class meetings via Zoom.   Kit Aronoff is working proactively with instructors of blind students to discuss accessibility strategies for course lectures, documents, activities, etc. She can be contacted at [click-for-email].

Below are some tips to keep in mind as you are creating virtual course content (adapted from https://www.washington.edu/doit/):

• Use clear, consistent layouts and organization schemes for presenting content, and make instructions and expectations clear for activities, projects and assigned reading. 
• Offer outlines, scaffolding tools, and adequate opportunities for practice to help students learn.
• When selecting new materials, try to find videos that are already captioned, and articles that are available in a text-searchable format (meaning you can highlight and search the text within the document; click here for an example). 
• Images can be made accessible to blind and low-vision students by providing captions or inserting alt text into the image. Use large, bold fonts on uncluttered pages with plain backgrounds and color combinations that are high contrast. 
• Provide flexibility and understanding as this experience may cause disruption to the student’s home life and available resources – which may negatively impact a student’s disability symptoms. 

Extended time on exams as an accommodation generally only applies to traditional, time-limited exams. If you decide to offer alternative means of assessment (e.g. essays, non-timed exams, project work), then a student’s extended time may no longer be applicable. We encourage you to speak with registered students if that is the case.

DRS will not be proctoring exams while the University’s instruction remains online only.  All exams should be administered online or through other remote assessment methods by faculty. Academic departments are responsible for setting up extended testing time Canvas. 

Please communicate with your students to discuss their exam accommodations in your courses. DRS is available to instructors and students to consult.

Prior to making time allotment adjustments, please confirm how much extended time each of your students should get for their quizzes/exams. You can view the extended time multipliers (1.5x, 2x, etc.) for ALL of your students using the MyDRS Instructor Portal.

Reasonable modifications to these accommodations may be needed with the shift to online instruction. Students with these accommodations should be contacting you to discuss additional barriers, if any, presented by changes to the course format. DRS is available to instructors and students to consult.