Campus-Wide Information on Accommodations for Students

The sections provide information to students and faculty about academic accommodations for L&S undergraduate students due to medical or disability reasons.

The university's policy is to provide reasonable  accommodations to students who qualify with disabilities or other medical situations.   Thus, instructors are expected  to work with students to identify and to provide reasonable instructional or academic accommodations, although the student is responsible for the self-advocacy.   If the instructor has worked with the student and the student has not followed through based on the instructor's expectations and guidelines shared with the student who has provided documentation, there is no rule (or expectation) that the instructor must pass a student in the class.    Information about accommodating students can be found at:

Academic Flexibility as a Disability Accommodation: A Faculty Guide for Implementation

Students with Disabilities: Requesting Reasonable Accommodations

Neither a student nor a faculty member is required to engage the McBurney Disability Resource Center in determining accommodations.  Faculty, however, do retain the right to request from a student verification (e.g., medical documentation, etc.) of the need for accommodation.   More detailed information about accommodating  students can be found at ADA Campus Policies .

 Important information about accommodating students:

  • The grade a student earns in a course should be based on the quality and quantity of the work submitted, less any grade percentage that would be lost due to non attendance.  
  • If a student has been missing classes because of health-related reasons, the faculty member can definitely consider whether to enact the attendance penalty and may even work with the student to adjust deadlines but should not let go of a reasonable expectation for work completion. 
  • If not enough work has been turned in by a student to earn a passing grade, a passing grade should not be awarded. 
Feel free to contact the McBurney Disability Resource Center with further questions:
Phone: (608) 263-2741
Email: mcburney@studentlife.wisc.edu