Margarita Levine

The story about the technical standards, specifically the case of Casey Martin vs. the PGA in higher education is fascinating! It is a great illustration  how attention and legal procedures are important in each particular situation.

It was interesting to learn about architect Ron Mace who coined the term Universal Design (UD) and a barrier-free design to describe the concept of designing all products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life.

I truly like the quotation by Helen Keller who was once asked whether she considered blindness or deafness to be the more significant handicap. She responded, "Blindness is a barrier between people and things. Deafness is a barrier between people and people." I believe that the section on how to accommodate veterans in academia should be expanded.

It was interesting to know that "emotional support animals" are not included into the category of "service animals". Also, I would challenge the statement regarding the excess of accommodations to one student with disability and the right of the institution to refuse access to another with an identical case.

It was a surprise to learn that if a Homeland security requests to verify the individual’s identity and authority, the faculty must release the information as appropriate, and document accordingly without asking the purpose of this check up.

I take into the consideration that some states have laws designed to provide the public open access and transparency to certain governmental records. In circumstances where a student’s educational record includes information contained in a record deemed as “public.” There can be a conflict between an institution’s FERPA policy and the state’s mandate to make such information available.

In this section the most important point was about the information that may not be deemed Directory Information: race, gender, soc. sec.,grades GPA, county of citizenship, religion.

One of the most valuable takeaway point for me was to obtain a written permission signed by the student if someone is requesting any academic information.

I include diverse types of questions and organize the quizzes or tests in blocks. It helps the students orient themsleves better thoughout the process. They know that the degree of the sophistication and comprihension increases as they move to the end.

I prefer to ask something like "Should I clrarify any informstion one more time?" instead of "Does it make sense?" - in pedagogy it is recommended to avoid this question as well, as it undermines intellectual ability of an individual.