Often times in class, students will take notes so that they have access to the lecture information after class.

For some students, due to their disability, they are unable to take notes or a complete set of notes and therefore this is a barrier to the educational environment. When this is the case, access to lecture must be provided.

Many times, Instructors already have a mechanism to provide this, whether they are aware or not. For example, some Instructors have very detailed PowerPoints or detailed information within the Notes section of the PowerPoint. If the Instructor provides copies of these PowerPoints to the student with this accommodation, that often will meet this accommodation. Since students are still expected to take notes, they will be able to take notes of a minimal amount content discussed in class, because they have the detailed PowerPoints to do most of the "heavy lifting" with the notetaking. The only exception to this is for some students with mobility impairments, they are physically unable to take notes so this may not be an appropriate method of meeting their accommodation. If this is the case, our Access to Lecture/Notetaking team will let you know and work with you to find another way of meeting this accommodation.

The same applies to Instructor provided notes. Many Instructors have a set of notes that they can give the student with this accommodation. 

Some Instructors will have classes setup to where they are teaching in-person while recording the class session on Zoom, or teaching entirely on Zoom and recording. In these instances, access to lecture can be provided by providing the student with this accommodation that Zoom recording link. For most students, the Access to Lecture accommodation is not for written notes specifically, it just guarantees that the student has the ability to access the lecture content later. Zoom recordings often are not the most appropriate method for meeting this accommodation if the student has a mobility impairment, for example, and is unable to utilize the Zoom recordings to take their own notes. 

There are a few other methods of equivalent access, which our Access to Lecture/Notetaking team would help the Instructor navigate. These include utilizing a third-party service to listen to a recording and take notes to send to the student, or by identifying a peer volunteer note-taker. Because these are reliant on another person, the most equivalent access is often provided through one of the aforementioned means. 

Instructors are encouraged to email Notes.ODA@unt.edu for any assistance or clarification.