Student Module 3 – Accommodation Requests & Letters of Accommodations

Welcome to Module 3 of the Ventus training for PMC students. In this video, we are looking at the Accommodations tab and how to review your template accommodations.

Let’s start by reviewing what your template accommodations are. Within each course you are registered for, there are several types of accommodations that you can select and they are linked to your user profile. Your list of accommodations available in your user profile will be established in discussion with your PMC coordinator. This is what is known as your Template Accommodations from which you can select the accommodations you require for each course and request to have them applied. For each accommodation in the template, your PMC coordinator will determine whether that accommodation can be designated as “self-serve”. If it is a self-serve accommodation, it will automatically be approved when you select it. However, some accommodations need to be approved by your coordinator, so when you select them, a notice is sent to your Coordinator to review and approve if appropriate.

To begin, access the Accommodations tab from the top menu. Also, if you have not yet selected academic accommodations for one or more of your courses, Ventus will prompt you with this notification banner below the top menu. Clicking on this banner will also bring you to the Accommodations tab.

Opening the Accommodations tab gives you the default view of your Course List for the current semester.

Let’s start by reviewing and verifying your “template accommodations” available in each course to ensure that the accommodations you have used in the past (or have recently established with your coordinator) are available for you to select now. From your course list for the current semester, click on one of your courses. Organized under the headings of “Teaching Accommodations” and “Exam Accommodations”, you will see the accommodations that you have established with your PMC Coordinator. The example shown here of this “Test Student1” profile shows a number of different Teaching and Exam accommodations (possibly many more than you will see in your template). Review all your accommodations listed and make note of any inaccuracies (for example, any usual accommodations that are missing or extra accommodations that have been added). You will report these inaccuracies to your PMC coordinator.

Thanks for exploring Ventus and how to review your template accommodations. In the next video, we will cover how to submit an accommodations request.

Welcome to Module 3 of the Ventus training for PMC students. In this video, we are looking at the Accommodations tab and will cover how to request the necessary accommodations for your courses.

For each of your courses, Ventus allows you to select the accommodations you require and submit for approval or save your request as a draft for later submission. It also allows you to opt out of all accommodations for any given course.

Now let’s go over how to make an accommodations request. To request accommodations within each of your courses, you return to the Accommodations tab and from the Semester dropdown list, select the semester in which you wish to request accommodations. Next, click the course in which you require accommodations. Then click the checkbox next to each accommodation you require under teaching accommodations and exam accommodations.

Note, that if you were not sure about all the accommodations you require, you could select what you know you need and then click the blue “Save as draft” button at the bottom of the page to save your accommodations in this course for later review and revising. Then you could move on to another course by clicking on the Accommodations tab again and returning to the Course list you are working on. Keeping in mind that once your request is submitted, you will no longer be able to modify it, this “save as draft” function allows you to come back to make changes before submitting. However, keep in mind that accommodations requests can always be modified by your PMC coordinator.

When you are sure of your accommodations selections, click the green “Submit for approval” button. This step is necessary so that your coordinator is aware of your accommodation needs and can allocate the proper resources. When you click the “Submit for approval” button, Ventus displays a message to remind you that you can no longer make changes to your request once sent for approval. Click Ok to submit your request.

The page will then reload with a banner notification with the following message: “Your selections have been submitted. If changes are required, please contact your assigned Disabilities Coordinator”. Now, in the status column to the right, any accommodations you left unchecked in your submission will have a status of “Opted Out”. Each “self-serve” accommodation requested will show as “approved” with a green checkmark. Any requested accommodation that was not designated “self-serve”, therefore requiring approval by your coordinator, will show a status of “Pending” until he or she has had the opportunity to review and approve it.

Note that you may decline all accommodations for a course by clicking the blue button labelled “I choose not to receive accommodations for this course”.

After clicking this button, all accommodations would have the status of “Opted Out”. Keep in mind that each accommodation request is visible to your PMC coordinator and its status can be changed at any time.

You can check the status of any accommodation request that requires coordinator approval by logging back into Ventus. Clicking on the Accommodations tab, select any course for which you submitted an accommodation request and check the status column to see if all have been approved. If the status is listed as “Approved”, your PMC Coordinator has processed the request and will coordinate the resources required for your accommodations.

Thanks for exploring Ventus and how to submit an accommodations request. In the next video, we move on to Student Module 4 where we will cover how to confirm participation in an exam and select exam accommodations.