Brightspace offers three ways to implement accessibility accommodations in a course site.
Individual access and timing overrides can be added through Special Access in each assessment tool (Assignments, Quizzes, etc.).
Course-wide timing adjustments for Quizzes can be added in Classlist.
Grade accommodations/exemptions can be managed in Grades.
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Instructors can find their students' SAS-approved accommodations in the BrockDB OASIS Instructor Portal and can connect with Brock’s Student Accessibility Services (SAS) for further support and guidance when it comes to working to address student needs. |
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Manage Special Access
Special Access refers specifically to the Brightspace options for providing students with extra time or adjusted due dates. It offers the most thorough method of applying accommodations but can also be used to grant extensions on an individual basis.
The Manage Special Access options will be found in different places based on the type of assessment and each will be described below.
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Special Access has two main functions:
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Assignments and Quizzes
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Special Access can be found in the same location in both Assignments and Quizzes.
Assignments Special Access in assignments allows instructors to give students different due dates for the assessment to accommodate extra time. There is not a way to increase the submission count for certain students, so CPI recommends that if the instructor is predicting many students will want to submit multiple times, they should open the entire assignment for multiple submissions. Quizzes Special Access in Quizzes allows instructors to change the following:
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Surveys
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When editing a Survey, Special Access can be found in the Restrictions tab at the top of the editor.
Special Access in Surveys allows instructors to give students different due dates for the survey to accommodate extra time. |
Self-Assessments and Discussions
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Self-Assessments Self-Assessments do not give the option to assign Special Access. This is because self-assessments cannot have any sort of restriction placed upon them besides being visible or not to students. As such, there is no need to put Special Access on them. Discussions Discussions do not have Special Access. Instructors will need to reopen a forum/topic for all students if a student needs to post after the end date. |
Accommodations in Classlist
If instructors know that they will have to apply a time-specific accommodation for multiple quizzes for a specific student, they have the option to go into the course Classlist and automatically set a student’s accommodations there. At this time, the only accommodation that can be set in this manner is the time limit for quizzes.
Go to Classlist.
Click the drop-down arrow next to the student who will be receiving a timing accommodation.
Select Edit Accommodations.
Select Modify Time Limit and then either choose to apply a multiplier, or set the given extra time for every quiz the student accesses. The multiplier is useful if the student is always granted 1.5x the amount of time as per their accommodations, but instructors can use the extra time box to be more specific.
Click Save. The timing accommodations will now be applied for every quiz the student takes.
Grade Exemptions
Instructors may encounter situations where they need to exempt students from certain assignments. While Brightspace does not allow instructors to tailor final grade weight calculations between students, it does allow instructors to exempt students from assessments. If the assessment the student is being exempted from goes toward their final grade, Brightspace will instead calculate their final grade out of the weight remaining (i.e. If a student is exempt from an assignment worth 10% of their final grade, Brightspace calculates their final grade based on the remaining 90%).
Go to Grades.
Select the Enter Grades tab at the top of the Grades area.
Scroll down and search for the student to exempt from an assessment.
Click the drop-down arrow next to the student’s name, and select Bulk edit exemptions.
Select whichever assessments the student is being exempt from, then click the Save button.
Grouping Students with Accommodations
Instructors may attempt to streamline the accommodations process by placing students with the same accommodations into a Brightspace group, and then just selecting that group when editing Special Access.
This process is not recommended.
There is no way in Brightspace to hide students from seeing other members of a group they are a part of. In this sense, students will be able to see who they share accommodations with, which violates their right to privacy in this matter.
Should instructors desire strongly to implement this form of accommodating, please reach out to cpi@brocku.ca to discuss.