Note taking accommodations are common for students registered at the Student Accessibility Services (SAS). Notes as a resource from lecture-based content can help all students registered in your course, not just students registered at SAS. Having access to notes can support students who may have missed a class due to disability, illness, or an emergency, as well as support learners with reviewing course content or processing of information. 

Instructors may see note taking as an accommodation listed in Brock’s accommodation system, OASIS, or as one of the options provided as an alternative to the recording (Genio) accommodation.Instructors play an important role in the note-taking accommodation support, this resource highlights how instructors can support students with note-taking accommodations both procedurally and pedagogically with course design choices. 

Procedural Supports 

• Access OASIS as soon as possible in the semester and review all the accommodations present. If you have any questions about any of the accommodations you can select the “consult” radio button in OASIS and this will alert [email protected] that you would like to discuss the accommodation in relation to your course design. The Educational Developer, Accessibility & Inclusion will follow up and reach out to discuss these accommodations with you in the context of your course. 
• Accessing OASIS early and reviewing the note-taking accommodation is helpful to support having a note taker in place and registered with the SAS system so that they can access the secure portal where notes are shared with accommodated students in the course only.  
• Delays in securing a note taker means delays in the accommodation being in place for the students with accommodations. 

Pedagogical Supports 

• Review what information the students are provided as part of the course design. 
• Are they given slides and other material ahead of time or after class?  
• How detailed are the slides and materials provided?  
• Are there lecture notes that the instructor uses support lecture material? Can these notes be shared with students? 
• If you do not have detailed slide decks, materials, or lecture notes, there are options that can be put in place to support the note-taking accommodation that will be context specific to the course. For example: 
  1. Can collective note-taking activities be added as part of a class participation grade or part of the work done in seminars if there are seminars as part of the course? 
  2. Can a detailed summary of the material covered by the instructor be provided at the end of class in Brightspace? 
  3. There may be other options besides these that would work best in particular course contexts. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] and the Senior Educational Developer, Accessibility & Inclusion will be happy to meet to discuss the context of your course and accessible pedagogical design.