Accommodation Notification Process

Policies/Procedures

SAR does not automatically issue accommodation notifications to students and instructors. In order to receive approved academic accommodations, it is the student’s responsibility to request that faculty notification letters (FNLs) be sent by the SAR online system to each of their instructors at the beginning of each semester. These letters are emailed through the SAR online system and outline a student’s approved classroom and/or testing accommodations. Instructors are under no obligation to provide accommodations for a student without an accommodation letter from SAR.  

In order to ensure they are accommodated, students should follow the following process each semester. Failure to follow these steps may hinder the provision of accommodations.

• Log into the SAR student portal with your Patriots login information and select which accommodations you would like to receive in each course. Students will also receive a copy of each FNL via their Patriots email. Students should review each FNL to ensure every accommodation the student intends to use for a specific course is outlined on the FNL. If a student believes an accommodation is missing, they should contact their SAR coordinator immediately.
  
  
• After FNLs are sent, the student should meet with each instructor during their published office hours and discuss needed accommodations for that particular class. These meetings should occur as early in the semester as possible. For online courses, these meetings may be completed via email exchange or Zoom meeting.  

If the student or professor has any questions about the student’s accommodations or the professor indicates that an accommodation is a fundamental alteration of their course, the student should contact their SAR coordinator and encourage their professor to do the same. SAR staff can provide guidance regarding the provision of accommodations and recommend alternative accommodations if necessary. 

• If the student receives testing accommodations, the student should login to the SAR student portal and schedule any exams or quizzes they intend to take at the UTTyler Testing Center (instructions provided at training meeting). If the student attends courses at a satellite campus (i.e. Longview, Palestine, Health Campus, Medical School, HEC), they should coordinate testing accommodations using test scheduling instructions for their campus (instructions provided at training meeting). If students have questions about how to schedule exams or encounter scheduling conflicts, they should contact their SAR coordinator. 

Important Guidelines:

• It is not reasonable to alter fundamental course requirements.
• Although there is no deadline to deliver FNLs, students who plan to use their accommodations should deliver the accommodation letter early in the semester so instructors have sufficient time to coordinate the necessary accommodations.
• If the student is approved for testing accommodations, it is the student’s responsibility to remind the instructor of their accommodations and make arrangements for testing accommodations at least four business days before each semester exam/quiz or at least three weeks before each final exam.
• If a student registers with SAR later in the semester, FNLs should be delivered and discussed within one week of registering with SAR.
• Accommodation letters become effective on the date the letter is delivered to the instructor and ARE NOT RETROACTIVE.
• Accommodation letters contain confidential material and should be handled and filed accordingly.
• SAR will not be able to process accommodation letter requests with incomplete information.
• If a student needs to request an update to their accommodations, the student must meet with their SAR coordinator to discuss the change and the request must be reviewed for approval by the SAR Accommodation Review Committee.