Disability Accommodations - Policy Statement and Definitions

Accommodations

The University provides reasonable accommodations to qualified academic appointees with a disability who need assistance to perform the essential functions of their positions. See APM 711. The accommodation process begins with a dialogue that occurs between the university and the appointee, coordinated by Disability Management Services (DMS). DMS works with the appointee and the department chair/unit head to consider suitable options that will assist the appointee in performing their essential functions. DMS maintains the confidentiality of all medical information shared by the appointee, and only shares information about the appointee’s limitations with others who have a business need to know. Please see the DMS site for more details about reasonable accommodations and the interactive process.

Sick Leave/Medical Leave

In some cases, a reasonable disability accommodation includes medical leave, described in APM 710. This policy outlines medical leave options for academic appointees depending on their title or affiliations. For example, faculty who are in the Health Sciences Compensation Plan (HSCP) will follow their School’s relevant Implementing Procedures. Faculty who are not members of the HSCP are eligible for specific amounts of medical leave (by quarter/semester) depending on their years of service and usage. Other academic titles accrue sick leave, while represented academics follow their bargaining agreements.

General Principles on Remote Instruction

1. The Academic Senate has authority over courses and instruction

Committee On Courses of Instruction (COCI) Policies and Procedures - General Procedures

"The Regents have delegated to the Academic Senate responsibility for authorization and supervision of courses of instruction Board of Regents Bylaw 40.1); in accordance with this delegation, the Davis Division Committee on Courses of Instruction must approve all courses or changes in courses offered at UC Davis, including Continuing and Professional Education courses yielding credit, before they may be taught or information regarding them be announced in any University catalog, schedule, or other publication. Approved courses are subject to the Committee's review at any time.”
 

2. The Committee On Courses of Instruction (COCI) has defined virtual and online courses as distinguished from remote instruction

Statement of COCI on Virtual and Hybrid Courses

“Courses in which an average of one or more contact hours per week are conducted online should be classified as hybrid or virtual. Contact hours are defined as time when instructors are presenting to or interacting with students (e.g., lecture, laboratory, discussion). Contact hours do not include office hours. Courses taught entirely online are referred to as ‘virtual’ courses; while courses that are mixtures of online and in-person contact hours are referred to as ‘hybrid’ courses.”

“The Committee notes that remote instruction, which is the practice of temporary modification of instructional delivery due to a change or anticipated change in campus operating status due to pandemic, natural disaster, or other events, is not the equivalent of online instruction.” 

“As above, courses in which an average of one or more contact hours per week are conducted online should be classified as hybrid or virtual. Courses with less than one hour per week of online contact hours (less than 10 hours total in a quarter length course) should not be classified as hybrid or virtual and do not need additional approval from COCI.”
 

3. The University has an obligation to provide reasonable accommodations, as mentioned above

Academic Personnel Manual (APM) 711-0 Reasonable accommodations

The University provides reasonable accommodation to otherwise qualified academic appointees who are disabled or become disabled and need assistance to perform the essential functions of their positions. Accommodation options will be considered in an interactive process with the appointee and determined by an individualized assessment. The University and the appointee are expected to participate in the interactive process in good faith.
 

4. Teaching is an essential function of faculty appointments

APM 110-4 (15)

A member of the faculty of the University is an academic appointee in a School, College, Division, Department, or Program of instruction and research who has independent responsibility for conducting approved regular University courses for campus credit.
 

5. Faculty must be able to perform the essential functions of their appointments with or without accommodations

There may be requests for modifications or adjustments to teaching that are not considered forms of reasonable accommodation. The University is not required to eliminate an essential function, i.e., a fundamental duty of the position, as a reasonable accommodation (see California Code of Regulations).
 

6. Requests for remote, hybrid, or virtual instruction as a reasonable accommodation should be shared with Disability Management Services (DMS) and be supported by appropriate medical documentation

Disability Management Services assists the faculty member and their department chair (or other unit head) by facilitating an interactive process to discuss the disability related limitations or restrictions, accommodation options, and recommendations for reasonable accommodations. It is the responsibility of the faculty member to provide documentation from a health care provider regarding limitations/restrictions to Disability Management Services. The documentation should include a description of specific functional limitations impacting the faculty member’s ability to teach or engage in other campus activities on site. The Department Chair (unit head) then makes the final decision on accommodation.

For example, “needs remote work” is not a functional limitation - it is a request for a specific accommodation.  A functional limitation might be “high risk of serious medical complications if exposed to respiratory viruses” and the University will explore reasonable accommodation ideas (see #7 below). The recommendation for accommodation from the health care provider will be considered but the University is obligated to provide a reasonable accommodation that is effective (see #9 below).
 

7. Remote instruction may be considered as a temporary accommodation only after other accommodations and adjustments have been explored. Other options must be explored for long-term needs.

If a faculty member has a limitation requiring a long-term need for hybrid or virtual instruction as defined by COCI, an appropriate accommodation might be to consult with their chair about changing teaching assignments. This might involve changing the scheduling of their classes, assigning them to teach classes approved for online or hybrid instruction, or proposing to convert one or more of their current courses to online or hybrid instruction, in accordance with the procedures set forth by COCI. Depending on the limitation, other options for reasonable accommodations as an alternative to temporary remote instruction, virtual, or hybrid instruction may include:

• Larger classrooms
• Smaller class sizes
• Classrooms with operable windows
• Higher grade air filtration systems
• Air purifiers
• Mask options for the faculty member
• Social distancing
• Virtual office hours
• Postponement or rescheduling of teaching duties
• Assistance with on-campus transportation
• Recommendations for alternate transportation options
   

8. In rare circumstances, remote instruction may be granted as a reasonable accommodation on a temporary basis

In some cases where the limitation is temporary, an essential function may be waived, but only on a temporary basis. For requests involving remote teaching or instruction, temporary is generally considered one quarter or less.  As an example, remote instruction is not an appropriate accommodation for limitations related to commuting to campus.
 

9. The University must consider requests for remote, hybrid, or virtual instruction as an accommodation, but may offer other effective accommodations in lieu of remote instruction

Employers must consider the preference of the employee with regard to reasonable accommodations but may offer alternate accommodations that are effective in allowing the employee to perform the essential functions of the job. A faculty member is not entitled to the accommodation of their choice or to the accommodation requested by a medical provider but to one that is reasonable.
 

10. Partial leave or reduction in time may be an appropriate accommodation in some situations

When the interactive process fails to find an accommodation such as those listed above and the faculty member is unable to change teaching duties to virtual or hybrid instruction consistent with COCI, partial medical leave equivalent to the effort reflected by the teaching assignment may be a offered as temporary accommodation. A faculty member also may request a reduction in percent time of appointment as a reasonable accommodation for a long-term limitation related to onsite work.

 

• Notify

  • Notify their department chair and contact DMS at dmshelp@ucdavis.edu. DMS will help facilitate the interactive process and identify options for reasonable accommodation. DMS works with the appointee and the department chair to try to find accommodations that enable the appointee to complete their essential functions.
     

• Roles

  • DMS is only involved to facilitate the process for academic appointees seeking accommodations for their own medical disability/limitations. 
  • The department chair provides assistance and support to their faculty member in considering the options that may be available under the individual circumstances, connects the faculty member with DMS when appropriate, and seeks consultation with the dean’s office and Academic Affairs as needed.  The department chair approves recommendations for accommodations for academic appointees in concurrence with the dean’s office.
  • The dean’s office supports departments as needed, including assisting in considering accommodation options and additional resources. The dean’s office should be in concurrence with any final accommodations proposed.
  • The Office of Academic Affairs provides overall support and oversight of academic policies and academic personnel matters. Academic Affairs will also assist in advising on complicated matters and in supporting the documentation of approved accommodations.

• Documentation

  • Documentation of approved accommodations are maintained in confidential files in DMS, the department office and in Academic Affairs, separate from the official personnel file or advancement dossier for appointees.

If an instructor who does not have personal medical limitations or a disability wishes to request alternative instruction options, they should:

• Work directly with their department chair to consider what options may be possible.

• Roles  

  • The department chair works to support to their faculty member in considering the options that may be available under the individual circumstances, and seeks consultation with the dean’s office and Academic Affairs as needed. Determines what, if any, adjustments can be made.   

Note: DMS only assists in requests that are related to an academic appointee’s own medical disability/limitations. 

Department chairs may consider the following options for those instructors seeking accommodations or adjustments related to instructional responsibilities:

• The department chair can encourage an instructor with personal medical limitations to work with DMS confidentially to help the instructor identify accommodation options for the chair’s consideration and approval. The department chair should not ask for information about the instructor’s condition or its expected duration, but instead have access only to information about limitations that affect the essential functions of the job.

• If the department has existing virtual or hybrid courses in their catalog, the department chair can consider assigning one or more of those courses to the instructor in need of accommodation.

• The department chair can propose shifting the workload to later in the academic year for instructors who seek an accommodation based on a temporary disability or medical situation. The chair can work with DMS to manage this process to assess if this is an appropriate option and help with the resulting necessary documentation. If the instructor will not be able to teach in-person for a longer period, they would be expected to propose, in coordination with their department, a hybrid or virtual course per COCI policy.

• The department chair can think creatively about instructional duties that can be completed in lieu of official hybrid and virtual courses:

  • Could the instructor be paired with another instructor to co-teach, and teaching tasks be split in a way that allows for remote work? Example: In a seminar course with many guest speakers, the remote instructor could be in charge of recruiting and scheduling guest speakers, creating and grading assignments, handling student email correspondence, and running a few online class sessions, etc., while the in-person instructor attends and ensures that the seminar sessions run smoothly.

  • If there is an instructor who oversees/administers internships, practicums, or honors theses, could that work be completed remotely?

  • Are there 98, 198, or 298 courses that the department plans to offer? Those courses can be offered remotely without additional approval from COCI.

If the department does not have any hybrid or virtual courses in their catalog, they may want to consider if there is pedagogical rationale for offering a course virtually. If so, they should submit a request to COCI for a new hybrid or virtual course as soon as possible.  Note that the approval process requires some time, so those courses may not be available in the current quarter, but they may be available for subsequent quarters, which would allow additional flexibility to the department chair in assigning teaching.

Testing Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

• The Instructor of Record, or designated Alternate, is responsible for implementing exam accommodations as outlined in Letters of Accommodation issued by the Student Disability Center (SDC). As such, Faculty, the Alternate, a course TA, and/or the academic department manage most exam accommodations. In cases that require complex assistive technology such as a screen reader, a scribe, reader, materials converted into an alternate format, or specialized adaptive devices, the Student Disability Center/Accommodated Exam Services is ready to assist. Subject to availability, Accommodated Exam Services (AES) may proctor additional accommodated tests.  Accommodated Exam Services | Student Disability Center (ucdavis.edu). Please reserve exam accommodation spaces early, and keep in mind that with just 145 seats the unit is limited by existing space and resources. This means AES is unable to proctor most accommodated exams during peak periods. The administrative support staff in your department and/or Dean’s office can assist with identifying and securing exam spaces, when needed.