Assignment Deadline Modifications: Guidelines and Procedures

Students affiliated with Disability and Accessibility Services (DAS) are expected to meet course assignment deadlines. Faculty have the right to establish due dates and late work/extension policies. In instances where a student provides documentation of a disability that involves random or cyclical acute episodes that may occasionally impact the student's ability to complete course work, DAS may recommend brief extensions of assignment deadlines as an accommodation.

The specific extension provided for each individual assignment must be determined on a case-by-case basis. In determining whether an extension is reasonable, and/or the length of an extension, instructors may factor in the amount of advance notice provided for the assignment.

Students approved by DAS for a modification of course assignment deadlines must note that:

• The accommodation directs a course instructor to consider providing occasional, brief extensions on out-of-class assignments up through the last day of class. It is not intended to provide the student with consistent extensions on all assignments, or additional time to complete the course.
• Students requiring this accommodation in a particular course must include it when submitting their requests for DAS to email instructors at the start of the semester.
• When the instructor receives the notification email from DAS, they are prompted to log in to the Instructor portal and fill out a Flexibility Plan for the course. The Flexibility Plan will outline the types of extensions the instructor expects to be able to provide an extension on. It will also indicate the length of the extension that is reasonable for each type of assignment.  DAS generally recommends providing an extension of at least 24 hours for most assignments, and consideration of 48 hours for assignments given with less than a week’s notice.
• If the instructor does not fill out the Flexibility Plan in the Instructor portal, DAS and the student will assume that the professor can provide an extension of 24 hours for all out-of-class assignments in the course.
• If the student feels the information outlined by the professor in the Flexibility Plan will not meet their medical needs, they must email their DAS Accommodations Advisor within three business days of receiving the plan from their professor to inform them of their concerns. 
• To use the accommodation, the student must email their professor to notify them about the need for an extension. Students should send the email prior to the due date, unless that is not physically possible due to their symptoms (in which case the student should email the instructor as soon as possible). The student should note that the request for the extension is/was related to his or her disability. The student does not need to provide a diagnosis or specific details of the symptoms.
• This accommodation is generally not reasonable for group assignments or assignments tied to real time data.
• This accommodation is not applicable for in-class assessments or assignments (such as a test or quiz). A student should consult the instructor’s absence policy if they cannot attend class.
• The accommodation may need to be strictly limited in time in situations where prompt completion of the assignment is essential to the student's ability to continue to understand or complete ongoing coursework, or to safely participate in an upcoming activity, such as a lab.
• The accommodation is not intended to be applied retroactively. If a student waits to submit a request for DAS to notify their instructors of their approved accommodations until the mid-point or end of the semester, DAS expects that the instructor will consider the accommodation from that point forward.
• The accommodation of modification of course assignments only applies to situations where the need for the extension is related to the student's disability symptoms. It is not intended to cover situations such as work conflicts, personal issues, travel, etc.
• If a student submits an assignment beyond the date of the extension agreed upon in the Flexibility Plan, the professor has the right to implement any late work policies established for the course.