Adapt and Thrive

By Patrick Bohn, September 30, 2020

The Office of Student Accessibility Services helps the campus community adjust to remote learning.

As the director of Student Accessibility Services, Ian Moore has dealt with some changes to his traditional workflow.

(Photo submitted)

Ian Moore’s job as the director of Student Accessibility Services (SAS) at Ithaca College has gone through a significant change thanks to the college’s transition to a remote semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a little like being a pastry chef, and instead of being asked to make 400 of the same type of cupcake, you’re being asked to make a $4,000 cake,” he said. “The three most common accommodations we provide for students are: note-taking, testing, and attendance. Usually, at this time of the semester, our staff is meeting with students back-to-back all day, working with them to ensure those types of accommodations are all in place. Now, we’re not doing those nearly as much. Instead, we’re all working to help navigate the major challenges of remote instruction.”

That work started long before the semester began, when SAS began talking with professors about inclusive, universal accommodations, such as allowing for extended time on a test, or adjusting its start time in Sakai.

“A lot of professors are reaching out to us, asking what we can do to help their students, and talking with us about options. I’m so used to it being the other way around.”

Ian Moore, director of Student Accessibility Services

“Our faculty have done an amazing job,” Moore said. “So many of them have been putting in extra work to ensure their courses are inclusive.”

Moore credits the college’s Teaching and Learning with Technology team and the Center for Faculty Excellence, who have collaborated to host sessions on inclusive curriculum and course design for professors.

“We had one professor whose course required students to watch about 80 videos,” Moore said. “Typically, we use a third-party to provide captions for students who are hard of hearing or have an audio processing disorder. When we reached out to this professor about getting that work done, they instead went and found closed-captioned versions of every video.”

Those kinds of changes are becoming more and more common. Best of all, Moore said, is that they’re happening proactively.

“A lot of professors are reaching out to us, asking what we can do to help their students, and talking with us about options,” he said. “I’m so used to it being the other way around, where we’d have to reach out to them to discuss accommodations.”

In addition to working with faculty, Moore and the rest of the SAS staff have kept up a consistent stream of communication with students.

“With this sort of level of upheaval, and a new environment, we’re forced to take a deep step back, and ask, ‘How can I support students in a meaningful way?’”

Ian Moore

“Each week, we’re putting out a communication talking about how a note-taking or testing accommodation might work differently in an online setting,” he said. “We also reached out to students after the first week of classes to look at their accommodation plans and figure out what’s working and what’s not.”

Moore admits the change hasn’t been easy — particularly given that SAS serves more than 20 percent of the student population — but that it’s something that he and his staff of half a dozen full-time employees are used to.

“Providing accommodations is inherently about removing barriers. Different learning environments have different barriers,” he said. “So, with this sort of level of upheaval, and a new environment, we’re forced to take a deep step back, and ask, ‘How can I support students in a meaningful way?’”

This new type of support is set up to last even after students have returned to campus.

“We have so many more cameras in classrooms, and so many professors who are now comfortable giving and recording lectures on Zoom,” Moore said. “They’re realizing that this is something they’ll be able to continue to provide going forward. There’s so much more awareness about what’s available to them, and that’s fantastic.”