Serving as a contact person at the department
Being a contact person for students with disabilities means that you are a support when making initial contact with staff at the department and in other areas of the University, if so desired by the student.
Students who have been granted support should inform the department about their support and adjustment requirements by the date on which the course starts. In connection with the start of the course, they should receive information about who their contact person is at the department.
List of contact persons (in Swedish)
Who can be the contact person?
A contact person could be a study adviser, course administrator or director of studies, for example. What is most important is that it is a duty officer who has time for the task and an understanding of students’ varying needs and abilities.
What duties can a contact person be expected to carry out?
Provide information about adjustments to examination
Provide information about the procedures that apply to adjustments to examination, that is:
- who takes decisions regarding adjustments at the department/course/programme and how the student can contact that person. At times, certain decisions regarding adjustments are delegated to the contact person.
- how and when the student is given information about whether an adjustment can be made.
- the latest date on which the student is to be informed that they are to participate in a specific scheduled exam.
Book a place in an examination hall for adapted examination
At Klostergatan 3 in Uppsala there is an examination hall for students with special needs.
Serve as support in the contact with teachers regarding adjustments to teaching
Many students are given recommendations about accessing lecture materials in advance. Contact the teacher and establish a procedure for sending out the materials to the student or ensure that the teacher does so. The best scenario, of course, is to arrange for the teacher to upload the materials for all students on the course ahead of the lectures.
Some students are given recommendations such as “Instructions are to be given both orally and in writing”. If the student so wishes – contact the teachers on the course and inform them about the recommendations.
Find note-taking support
If a student is granted note-taking support, the student can ask a course mate or get help from the contact person. Email a request to participants in the course being taken by the student. A template for such an email could be as follows:
We are currently looking for a person who can take on the task of sharing their notes (note-taking support) for the course XX. This task involves sharing and conveying their notes during lectures and seminars to a coursemate. It is important that the notes are clear and that you use headings and sub-headings. You would ideally take notes on a computer. To receive a fee, the person receiving the money needs to have a Swedish personal identity number for tax reasons. You will be remunerated for the equivalent of one hour (SEK 120) per day on those days you have had a lecture and share your notes.
Once a course participant has signed up for the task, you are to pass on the name + email address of that participant to the student who has been granted note-taking support.
The student is responsible for letting the coordinators know each semester who is sharing their notes and the email address to which the student would like to receive the notes.
The coordinators are then responsible for sending out information about the task/fee to the student and note taker.
Students with note-taking support may need to be in the same seminar group as the note-taker, so in your role as contact person, you need to be of assistance in contacting the teachers about this if so desired by the student.
If the note taker writes their notes on paper, the department is responsible for photocopying expenses. This could mean the contact person organising a photocopying card, for example.
In your role as contact person, you may meet students who experience challenges while studying but who are not granted special pedagogical support. In such cases, please inform the students about the general resources available at the University which they find in the student gateway.
Responsibilities of the student
Serving as a contact person does not mean taking on responsibility for the student’s study situation. The student is responsible for:
- Applying in good time for special pedagogical support to ensure its availability at the start of the course or in advance of future course components.
- Informing the department about their support and adjustment requirements by the date on which the course starts, and to present the decision regarding such support upon request.
- Informing themselves in good time with the applicable procedures at each department regarding adaptations to exams/alternative forms of examination.
- Notifying the department well in advance of a specific examination about desired/recommended adaptations to the exam/alternative form of examination.
- Making additional contact with the coordinator if another pedagogical support is required beyond that which has been granted or recommended.
What aspects should be kept in mind when meeting students?
- To be clear and precise with regard to time It is preferable to write “you need to register for an exam at least three weeks in advance” rather than “in good time”.
- To be receptive to the students’ needs. Every student functions differently – whether or not they have a disability.
- To provide information both orally and in writing. For example, send an email after a meeting detailing the points agreed upon.
- That the student is not obliged to tell you or anyone else about the specific disability they have.
- If some students happen to prefer telling the teacher on a course about which disability they have, then the student can explain this themselves or ask you to support them when contacting the teacher.
- That some students already have a lot of contact with various authorities in their lives. So be helpful when contacting other staff and in reviewing how the department can reduce the number of contacts a student with special pedagogical support needs to have.
GDPR and sensitive personal data
To ensure your work as a contact person can be done smoothly, certain information about a student’s support and adjustments may need to be saved locally at your department. To obtain authorisation for this, you need to report it to the data protection officer.