Learning Accessibility & Student Support

Here are a few resources and reminders about working with students with disabilities this semester, as well as resources for students who may drop away from your classes or benefit from learning or wellbeing support.  

The Learning/Access Center

The L/AC provides academic coaching and tutoring to all Pratt students.  The L/AC also coordinates access for students with disabilities.  You may already have received confidential accommodation letters for students enrolled in your courses.  If you have any questions or concerns about how to enable accommodations for your students--especially for online teaching--please reach out to the student’s L/AC advisor.  The L/AC advisor is listed on that letter. 

To access the Learning/Access Center, click here.

Kurzweil

Please read the memo below on Kurzweil.  It’s a powerful literacy tool that can read texts out loud, has highlighting & annotating tools, and can help with brainstorming & paper outlining.  It’s free to all students and faculty; this might be a great tool for courses with dense and/or long texts.  

Starfish

Please do continue to use “Starfish” this semester.  You can access Starfish here.  Log in, find the student in your course about whom you have a concern, and “raise a flag.”  There are different flags based on the concern, such as attendance or wellbeing.  This can feel like surveillance, or punitive, I know; the purpose of this tool is to alert someone in student services to reach out and assist that student.  Especially when students disengage from courses / don’t attend, or when they need support with health or wellbeing issues, using Starfish can be vital.  For academic concerns, of course address those to your students; raising an "academic performance flag" can be a useful parallel support or follow up if you don’t see changes.  Students will be working through challenging learning conditions again this semester; support is available to them, struggling in isolation isn’t necessary.