Note-Taking Accommodations
Faculty Systems for Supporting Note-taking or Providing Access to Shared Class Notes
More and more faculty are using universally-designed systems such as guided or shared notes that allow all students to access support for capturing class content; and many students with a note-taking accommodation have found that such systems meet their access needs. Professors have shared with ADS how such systems reduce barriers and promote equity for not only students with disabilities, but those with processing challenges, non-native speakers, disadvantaged students, and those contending with trauma or illness. (Click here to see a sampling of faculty talking with ADS about their UDL-based systems and the benefits to their diverse learners and themselves!)
Accommodating Students Who Request a Note-Taker
If you do not have a shared system for access notes (and perhaps even if you do), some students have disabilities that necessitate the accommodation of receiving notes from a class note-taker. If, after discussing your course plans during your Access Plan meeting with the student, they request a peer note-taker for your class, please review this Guidance for Identifying and Setting up a Note-taker. (Note: some of the features of the Access Plan have changed -- such as the look at locations of certain icons. ADS will be updating this document shortly!)
There you will find the instructions for...
- looking at your class roster to see if any students have been a reliable note-taker in the past,
- recruiting possible note-takers (there's a script that you could read and/or email),
- assigning a class note-taker from your class roster in CLIQ. (If you'd like, here is a on "How to Assign a Note-taker in CLIQ"), and
- accessing the notes that your class note-taker has posted.
Please ask all who volunteer to be the class note-taker to show you their notes so that you can select a note-taker whose notes best reflect the lecture that you've given. If you only have one volunteer, you can use this opportunity to give any feedback you feel would be constructive and to express your appreciation for the volunteer's service.
Thank you for remembering to keep the identity of the recipient of the notes confidential (unless the recipient indicates otherwise).
Once you’ve chosen a note-taker for the class and made the assignment from your class roster in CLIQ, you're all set! (ADS will receive an automated message alerting us to the assignment, and the note-taker will receive a message with instructions for how to scan and upload their notes.)
If you have any questions or concerns about setting up a class note-taker, please direct them to Erika Salter, Access and Assistive Technology Coordinator, by emailing notes@dickinson.edu.
Use of a Smart Pen
Please note that the note-taking accommodation allows for “Use of a note-taker or assistive technology (such as smart pen) to capture the sound recording of class,” and for some students, use of a smart pen better aligns with their disability-based needs. Access and Disability Services provides LiveScribe smart pens to eligible students. For your reference, here is a of how the LiveScribe pen works.
If a student chooses to use a smart pen to implement a note-taking accommodation, professors must allow the recording of their classes. To ensure our compliance with PA Wiretap Law, professors must then notify the students that the class may be recorded for accommodation purposes. This can be accomplished through a simple sentence, which professors can include in their syllabus, in an email message to the class, or as an announcement (with no fanfare): "This class may be recorded for accommodation purposes."
It is important to keep the identity of any students recording the class as an accommodation confidential. Students with this accommodation do not need to receive permission from professors or other students to record the class. (Their accommodation is their permission.) If, however, your class is discussing something sensitive that you would not expect students to be taking notes on, it is perfectly acceptable to announce to the class, "For this discussion, there is to be no recording and no note-taking."
Laptop Use for Note-taking
Some students may be granted the accommodation of taking notes using a laptop. This may be due to such diagnoses as arthritis, dysgraphia, dyslexia or other disabilities that severely limit a student's ability to take notes by hand. Students with this accommodation are to disable the internet when taking notes (unless you permit this), and must be only using their laptop for the purpose of note-taking. Such students may also use their computers to record class.
Jamworks
Jamworks is a thoroughly vetted recording-to-transcription service used by colleges and universities across the country (and now Dickinson) to address the higher-level note-taking assistance needs of certain disabled students. Eligible students who opt to use Jamworks for note-taking would use its app on their phone, laptop, or tablet to do so. This document provides information about Jamworks’ use of AI and its data security, the platform’s accessibility features, and a list of other schools using this tool.
Please note: There are restrictions placed on students’ use of a recording device in the classroom. All students with an accommodation to record class are required confirm their understanding of the college's expectations by completing this . Students are further reminded that if they use Jamworks, a smart pen or another device to audio record class, they may not share, send, post, publish, make public, or duplicate any recordings without the written authorization of each recorded person. Failure to abide by these rules would be a breach of Dickinson's Community Standards as well as PA wiretap and copyright laws.