UIUC Faculty: Information about Accessibility from the GEO Disability Caucus, March 2021
Dear Faculty and Instructors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
As the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) Disability Caucus, we are writing to you today about potential solutions for access issues that many Disabled graduate students and workers are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic and the current sociopolitical climate.
The stress that Disabled students and workers are under right now may exacerbate disability symptoms. Disabled students and workers may also have difficulties accessing diagnoses right now, and may not be able to provide documentation of disability. Please be generous in providing accommodations for students and workers who are currently unable to provide documentation of disability. Furthermore, while the issues we raise in this letter affect Disabled students and workers disproportionately, they are relevant for every student and worker during these times of increased stress.
We request as Disabled student-workers and allies that faculty:
Build a more inclusive learning environment by easing deadlines, increasing flexibility, and incorporating generosity in grading. Some ideas include:
Granting extensions to students who request more time to submit assignments;
Grading generously the work that students submit;
Allowing one assignment or project to be submitted late with no penalty;
Dropping the lowest assignment grade so that it isn’t included in the final grade;
Consider revising their syllabi and teaching plans to lighten course-loads. This is pedagogically important, and requires active work to make courses more accessible;
In case a student or worker discloses they have tested positive for COVID-19, or has a family member who is sick with or passes away from COVID-19:
Respond with generosity, kindness, empathy, and flexibility;
Center the student / worker, their health, and recovery;
Provide excused absences and extensions for students who miss synchronous classes or assignments;
Share resources with students and workers as appropriate;
Supervisors should be aware that employees’ responsibilities may take more time:
For example, assigning teaching assistants the same amount of grading as pre-pandemic grading puts an unreasonable burden on graders/TAs. Consider reducing grading loads when possible;
Online communication takes more time, in particular for RAs and GAs whose jobs require a lot of communication with and feedback for students;
Don’t encourage or expect students or workers to have their cameras on during Zoom meetings, classes, etc. (For some quick explanations of why, click here and click here.) Understand that many people are working from home, or even their bedrooms, and requesting or encouraging them to turn on their cameras violates their privacy, and potentially their safety;
Enable the caption feature when you are providing video content—whether during a Zoom meeting, a video lecture on Moodle or Blackboard, etc.—so that participants can choose to access captions on their screens. For instructions to enable this feature on Zoom, click here. For instructions to edit and publish captions using Kaltura, click here;
Understand that as TAs, some graduate workers are also the first line of support for students experiencing significant financial and personal upheavals due to the pandemic:
Recognize that TAs are likely helping students navigate their additional stressors;
Be aware of the additional emotional labor this places on graduate workers;
Understand that increased restrictions on lab schedules and working conditions may impact students’ and workers’ lab work:
Lab workers should not be pressured to work unduly late or early hours to accommodate a more spaced out lab-visiting schedule;
More time should be allocated to completing lab work;
Have disability provisions set up in your Safety Plan that specifically deal with COVID-19 exposure levels in your lab;
If you can’t limit exposure, have alternative ways for Disabled students to continue lab work essential to progression towards their degree;
Understand that students with sensory disabilities (such as those who are Deaf, hard of hearing, Blind, DeafBlind, or colorblind) are often left out of remote learning:
Educators must make a conscious decision to make sure their courses are captioned, visuals are colorblind-friendly, all websites used are operable by screenreaders, and images are accompanied by image descriptions. For instructions on how to create image descriptions, click here.
These aspects of universal access design are much faster to incorporate proactively when building your course, rather than retroactively when a Disabled student registers and requests these accommodations.
For guidance on how to make sure your remote course is accessible, you can find information at the A11y web accessibility site: https://www.a11yproject.com/.
You can also contact the director of the Online Degree Program for your department, or DRES for additional assistance in making your course accessible.
Remember that if you do not know of any Disabled students or workers in your courses or your lab:
According to 2015-16 survey data of postsecondary institutions from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, approximately 20% of undergraduate students report having a disability;
About 12% of students in postbaccalaureate programs report having a disability;
If you are not aware of any Disabled students or TAs in your course or program, the odds are that they do not feel comfortable disclosing their disability;
You should always operate under the assumption that there are Disabled students in your course, and that you are supervising Disabled employees, and strive to build accessibility into your on-campus and remote teaching and research.
As the GEO Disability Caucus, we appeal to your humanity. Please extend some grace. Considering the incredible stress all students and workers are experiencing in these unprecedented times, and considering the access issues that Disabled students always face, we encourage you to look into changes to make your course more accessible. Google can be a great place to start searching for ideas and resources!
As a small group of Disabled graduate student-workers, we are limited in how much we can support you individually and respond by email. We will be checking email on a weekly basis, and attempting to respond as we are able.
Thank you for your consideration, and we wish you the best with your instruction this spring!
Sincerely,
The Disability Caucus
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
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