Advice to graduate students with disabilities

[AJ_Katz]

Greetings Fora!  I'm writing a document to help guide new graduate students in our program.  I've modeled this document off of several others I've found from programs like ours.  The vast majority of our students conduct research and are paid by their major advisor's grant or a department research assistantship (we do not have teaching assistantships and students do not pay their own way).

I would like to include some advice in this document for students with disabilities.  I have taken language provided by our university written for a class syllabus.  It specifies that the student should inform their instructor of their need for accommodation and that students may need to register with the office of student disability services in order to coordinate accommodation.

So, if I adapt the syllabus language to this guide for new graduate students, it basically says that students should inform their major advisor if they have a disability and need accommodation.  In writing it out, I suddenly feel uncomfortable about directing students to divulge that they have a disability requiring accommodation to their major advisor.  In fact, I think they really need not divulge that information to anyone, but that could also put them in hot water if the lack of accommodation is a significant barrier.  So, what is the best advice to give in this situation?  I want to ensure these students are accommodated, safe, and avoid opening themselves up to potential discrimination.  Is the Graduate Chair for the department the better person for this student to talk to?  Or is the department head the best person?  I'd be interested to know what others recommend.

[mamselle]

Here's a case from the old forum where the advisor was not told before a significant marker event occurred (the OP never gave a final discussion, but the situation is worth being aware of):

   https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,175589.0.html

Another, here:

    https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,175589.0.html

There may be some others that might be useful.

M.

[Puget]

I would take to your disability office about this-- I would be somewhat surprised if there wasn't a procedure already in place. It's also possible that accommodations would go through HR instead, depending on if grad students are considered university employees in their capacity as RAs. It may be that they get accommodated for courses through the disability office, but as student workers through HR.

I certainly think students should be encouraged to communicate early and directly with their advisor (I certainly hope my grad students would), but they certainly also need someone to talk to if they aren't comfortable doing that for whatever reason. In our department that would normally be the DGS.

[AJ_Katz]

I would take to your disability office about this-- I would be somewhat surprised if there wasn't a procedure already in place. It's also possible that accommodations would go through HR instead, depending on if grad students are considered university employees in their capacity as RAs. It may be that they get accommodated for courses through the disability office, but as student workers through HR.

I certainly think students should be encouraged to communicate early and directly with their advisor (I certainly hope my grad students would), but they certainly also need someone to talk to if they aren't comfortable doing that for whatever reason. In our department that would normally be the DGS.

Thanks.  I have sent a message to our office to inquire about this. 

[the_geneticist]

I would take to your disability office about this-- I would be somewhat surprised if there wasn't a procedure already in place. It's also possible that accommodations would go through HR instead, depending on if grad students are considered university employees in their capacity as RAs. It may be that they get accommodated for courses through the disability office, but as student workers through HR.

I certainly think students should be encouraged to communicate early and directly with their advisor (I certainly hope my grad students would), but they certainly also need someone to talk to if they aren't comfortable doing that for whatever reason. In our department that would normally be the DGS.

Here, Graduate Students are considered students if they are taking a graduate class, but employees if they are either teaching or working in a lab.  As students, they work with the Student Disability Office.  As employees, they work with HR.  I ran into this exact issue when a TA for one of my courses needed accommodations to be successful at his job.  It worked out just fine for everyone, but took a while to get everything organized and set up (who needs to know what, what documentation is needed, who pays for services, etc.).

[AJ_Katz]

Update:

I was able to get good advice from people at our student disability services office.  Their main suggestion was to encourage open dialogue between the student and the supervisor / faculty advisor, and if the student/advisor are not able to find a resolution, they suggested the student reach out to the chair of the graduate committee and/or the student disability services office. 

They also acknowledged that there is considerable grey area about how to determine when this person is an employee working for their stipend and when they are a student, working towards their degree.  Especially tricky because many of us try to identify projects that can serve to accomplish the goals of the paid research position.  In fact, one person I talked to admitted that there could even be disagreement between the applicable laws, but they did not know of situations that have gone that far. 

Thanks all!