Covid-19 Pandemic Resources

Accessible Campus Action Alliance has put out this statement about Disability and Campus Reopening. We recommend all universities and colleges heed the advice in this statement, including Virginia Tech: Statement on Disability and Campus Reopening

Below are specific advice for people looking for accommodations during Fall 2020 due to Covid-19 concerns. We will be updating these as more people share resources. Our hope is that Virginia Tech makes it easy (with no documentation required) to get the accommodations and work/school situations people need to participate as equal community members during Fall 2020.

Association of Higher Education and Disability has collected resources for students and faculty.

Student Accommodations and Resources

updating soon

Faculty & Staff Accommodations

Ellen Samuels has a great post on Facebook that contains good information for faculty and staff who are looking to have new arrangements during Fall 2020: Samuels’ FB post on faculty accommodation

From that post:

Here are some main bullet points:
*You can request telework as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA.
*You can request this accommodation because of your own high risk for COVID due to physical health condition.
*You can also request this accommodation if the COVID/pandemic situationhas exacerbated an existing mental health condition.
*You cannot request this accommodation because someone you live with is high risk for COVID.
*Your employer must follow the usual “interactive process” for ADA accommodations. They can ask you questions to determine if you have a disability and how it limits your functions. An example of how to answer these questions from your employer would be “I have a medical condition that makes me high risk for COVID such that I cannot teach in a classroom with students and need to teach online instead.”
*Your employer can ask for medical documentation. Such documentation must be kept strictly confidential, in a separate file from your regular personnel records. Your chair, for example, cannot just ask “what is your medical condition?”
*Your employer must give you reasonable time to provide requested medical documentation.

What You Should Know from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Advertisement