Faculty and Staff

Student Disability Services (SDS) is here to help faculty and staff best serve our students with disabilities. This page serves as an active and growing resource. Current information will be revised as needed, and new information added when available. For example, information about particular types of disabilities, including tips for instructors working with students with particular disabilities, will be added to on a regular basis. The goal of SDS is to provide as comprehensive and practical a resource page as possible. Comments or suggestions from faculty and staff about content are most welcome.

Faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to review the entire website to ensure a full and comprehensive understanding of the Student Disability Services office and related services. It is important that faculty and staff know their responsibilities and rights when it comes to providing students with services.

Notifying Students of Services

Students are notified of services available to disabled students through a variety of channels, including brochures, this website, my.newschool.edu, and statements in handbooks, bulletins, and catalogs. Instructors are strongly encouraged to help with this notification process by informing students about available services and related procedures. A good two-fold strategy is to include a statement on your syllabus about disability services and to announce to the class at the start of each semester that any student with a disability who needs accommodations or related services can discuss options with you in private. This will help students with disabilities feel more comfortable speaking with you about their needs and also show a good faith effort on your part to make students aware that the school does have a system to help them obtain equal access. Information about SDS is also available on Starfish, and faculty can make referrals to SDS using this system if a student mentions the need for accommodations or says he or she has a disability.