2-5-26: CUNY-wide Policies and Procedures and Important Reminders Pertaining to Accommodating Students with Disabilities at John Jay College

TO: All John Jay Faculty and Staff
FROM: Allison Pease, Ph. D., Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs
Dominic Stellini, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students
Elena Beharry PsyD, Director, Office of Accessibility Services
Myrna Forney, Chief Legal Counsel
Gina Rae Foster, Ph.D., Director, John Jay Teaching and Learning Center
DATE: February 5, 2026
RE:  CUNY-wide Policies and Procedures and Important Reminders Pertaining to Accommodating Students with Disabilities at John Jay College

All faculty and staff play a key role in ensuring that the College meets its legal and policy obligations pertaining to students with disabilities. Title II of Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 provides otherwise qualified students with a right of reasonable accommodation. CUNY’s full set of ADA policies relating to students, which were revised this year, can be found here:  Effecting Reasonable Accommodations and Academic Adjustments Procedures Relating to Accommodations and Accessibility for Students.

Regardless of learning modality, we are legally mandated to provide students with their required accommodations and it is imperative that our students receive them. The Office of Accessibility Services is available to address the needs of students with disabilities, to ensure equal access to higher education, and to provide reasonable accommodations and auxiliary aids for such students.

Please familiarize yourself with John Jay’s guidelines entitled Important Guidelines for Ensuring Equitable Treatment of Students with Disabilities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Guidelines). The Guidelines outline our institutional obligations to provide appropriate accommodations and support to our students. The Guidelines are included below and are available on the Office of Accessibility Services (OAS) website.
 

Please review the Guidelines at the beginning of each academic year and consult them throughout the year, whenever questions arise as they contain important information about your compliance obligations. We strongly encourage you to refer to them regularly to ensure ongoing compliance with accessibility standards and to foster an inclusive educational environment for all students. 

We ask that our faculty and staff make note of the actions outline below that require your immediate attention. 

1. Textbook/Course Material Information: In accordance with federal law and existing CUNY policy, textbook and course materials information must be submitted to the online bookstore Akademos/Vitalsource at least two weeks prior to the date the schedule of classes is made available. Textbook information for Spring 2026 not previously entered, must be entered immediately. Courses which do not require a textbook, must also be identified as such. This information is necessary to ensure that course materials are accessible to students with disabilities by the first day of class to the greatest extent possible. Department chairs are responsible for ensuring textbook information is posted for all departmental courses. The Provost and department chairs have access to textbook compliance reports through CUNY’s Tableau site. If a department does not have access to the report, please complete the CUNY Tableau Server Access Request Form. Note: The Interim Dean of Faculty has direct administrative access to the bookstore site.
2. Brightspace: Per Board of Trustees policy, all fully online courses, both synchronous and asynchronous, must be delivered in a university-supported Learning Management System that is vetted for security and supported for help by the campuses. That is now Brightspace, exclusively.  See the complete policy for additional information: LMS Use Policy for Online Classes.
3. Course Material Upload: In accordance with the ADA, NYS IT Accessibility Policy, and other laws, instructors should consider the accessibility of course materials, online learning products, platforms, and applications, including content they created, prior to use in the course. We strongly recommend that instructors upload their course materials to Brightspace for each class regardless of modality. A Brightspace course site has been created for every CUNY class scheduled for Spring 2026.
4. Assistance with Brightspace Courses: The Brightspace LMS features Ally, a tool to help instructors identify accessibility problems. Ally can remediate some accessibility issues and generate alternative formats that enable students to choose how to engage with the course’s digital content. Resources on how to use Ally effectively can be found here:

Ally for LMS Help for Instructors

Ally Quick Start for Instructors

Instructor FAQs for Ally           

The Office of Digital Learning – Learning Management System Support team offers curated resources for Brightspace, Ally, and accessibility on the ODL website in a dedicated User Guides and Tutorials collection.  ODL LMS Support can be reached at lms.faculty@jjay.cuny.edu (faculty) and lms.student@jjay.cuny.edu (students) and 212-484-1197.  In addition, you can seek Brightspace assistance directly from D2L at 1-888-895-2511.  Please note, D2L cannot access specific courses nor aid with CUNY-specific LMS tools.

5. Required ADA Syllabus Statement: All faculty must have an ADA statement on the first page of their syllabus that includes the location and contact information for OAS. See sample language in paragraph 7 of the Guidelines, below. 

You may find additional information on John Jay’s accessibility website: https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/accessibility. For any questions related to providing services, accommodations, technical or other supports related to students with disabilities, please contact Elena Beharry, PsyD,  OAS Director, at ebeharry@jjay.cuny.edu or contact Office of Accessibility Services at accessibilityservices@jjay.cuny.edu or 212-237-8031.

For questions related to providing faculty support or inclusive online and hybrid learning, please contact Gina Rae Foster, Director, John Jay Teaching and Learning Center at gifoster@jjay.cuny.edu or contact tlc@jjay.cuny.edu.

Faculty are also welcome to schedule a one-on-one appointment with an instructional designer from the Office of Digital Learning or email digitallearning@jjay.cuny.edu. Instructional designers will work closely with faculty members to understand their teaching goals, learning objectives, and target audience.

For general questions concerning CUNY’s Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy and harassment related to students with disabilities, please contact the Chief Diversity Officer, Office of Compliance & Diversity, cdo@jjay.cuny.edu or  call (212) 621-3712.  

Important Guidelines for Ensuring Equitable Treatment of Students with Disabilities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

January 2, 2025

1. Online Learning. Please be aware that some students with disabilities may experience unique challenges accessing and using web-based technology or otherwise adapting to online learning and may require an accommodation, such as assistive technology, or a different kind of support. Please encourage students who have these concerns to contact OAS as soon as possible. If you choose to use a vendor or textbook publisher supplied platform such as Pearson it is essential that you make sure it is accessible for students who need accommodations.
2. Accommodation requests. All student requests for accommodations or academic adjustments (“accommodations”) that fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) must be vetted first by the Office of Accessibility Services (OAS). Such accommodations may impact classroom or exam protocols or other curricular or extracurricular activities. If the student directly requests an accommodation with an instructor or staff that has not been approved by OAS (or the instructor or staff has not received an accommodation letter listing the particular accommodation), the student should be directed to OAS to initiate the process. Faculty and staff are prohibited from denying OAS-approved accommodation requests on their own or from discouraging students from seeking an accommodation with OAS. Once OAS has approved a student’s accommodation request, faculty and staff must cooperate and assist in ensuring that the accommodation is delivered.

3. Notification of accommodation. One of OAS’s departmental goals has been to streamline the accommodation request process and reduce the amount of follow-up required of students and faculty. We are pleased to share that CUNY has launched CUNY Accommodate across all campuses on January 2, 2025. The new platform can be accessed via the link below with your CUNYfirst credentials.  CUNY Accommodate is an innovative platform designed to streamline the management of student accommodations, providing a more efficient way for Faculty to receive accommodation forms, fulfill student exam requests, and retrieve completed exams. With CUNY Accommodate, students with disabilities will have a streamlined process for requesting their accommodations, ensuring a smoother experience for everyone involved. This system integrates students, their accommodations, course schedules, Faculty, and the Office of Disability Services (ODS) into one cohesive platform, promoting an inclusive and supportive environment for all students. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with CUNY Accommodate by exploring our self-directed instructional videos and comprehensive guides that walk you through what you need to know to use the system (Access SharePoint then enter your CUNYfirst username and password to get started). You can access these resources and the CUNY Accommodate system using the links below.

- CUNY Accommodate

- Faculty Resources (Video & Documentation)

- OAS CUNY Accommodate Faculty Handbook

If you have any questions or require further assistance regarding CUNY Accommodate, please contact the Central Office of Disability Programs at Disability@cuny.edu.

As a reminder, accommodation cards are obsolete.  Professors will be notified of student accommodations via a letter sent electronically by our office once a student has completed their semester request which activates their accommodations each semester. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please reach out to OAS for clarification.

 4. Raising concerns around an accommodation. The objective of providing accommodations for students with disabilities is to ensure their equal participation and not to dilute or fundamentally alter academic or extracurricular requirements. If you believe an approved accommodation is not suited to a particular situation, or if you have any questions about delivering an approved accommodation, please contact Elena Beharry, PsyD at ebeharry@jjay.cuny.edu. Alternatives to approved accommodations must be assessed and approved in writing in advance by OAS. Please do not attempt to negotiate alternative accommodations with the student.  

5. Administration of exams in the OAS Testing Center. There are several points and clarifications regarding testing for OAS-registered students:

• Students who request testing accommodations must do so with OAS at least seven calendar days before a scheduled exam. Faculty will then be notified that a student in their class will be taking their exam in our office. Faculty can send their exams to the OAS office electronically or deliver them in-person.  Please note: Faculty need not wait for a student testing accommodation request.  Faculty are encouraged to submit the exam to OAS ahead of time.
• All testing accommodations for in-person exams must take place in the OAS Testing Center unless OAS approves a different arrangement in advance. Instructors should not provide a testing accommodation on their own in lieu of an approved testing accommodation.
• Once OAS notifies the instructor that a student in the instructor’s class will take an upcoming exam in the OAS Testing Center, it is the instructor’s responsibility to ensure that OAS receives the exam to be administered at least 48 hours before the beginning of the exam. This can now be done through CUNY Accommodate by uploading your exam (see below) or you can contact the Office of Accessibility Services, at accessibilityservices@jjay.cuny.edu to arrange drop-off to OAS.
• OAS will attempt to accommodate instructors’ preferences for when an exam in the OAS Testing Center should be administered; however, the precise timing of the exam will also depend on the student’s schedule and the operating hours of the OAS Testing Center. This means that some exams, as determined by OAS, may occur before, during, or after the time when other students in the class take a particular exam. OAS will notify instructors when their students’ exams have been scheduled to take place in the OAS Testing Center.
• For online exams located on Brightspace, faculty members will need to go to their "Classlist" for the course the student is enrolled in on Brightspace. Click on the arrow beside the student's name, select "Edit Accommodations", and modify the time limit so that is says "2 times" or "1.5 times", according to the student's accommodation, under "Multiplier of original quiz time". This will automatically apply to all quizzes/exams given to the student for that course on Brightspace. Instructors who have concerns about asynchronous administration of exams should contact the OAS or the Academic Integrity Unit for strategies on how to maintain or foster academic integrity while upholding the requirement to accommodate students with disabilities.
• OAS normally arranges the return of exams administered in the OAS Testing Center to instructors by the following day that the College is open. Instructors should coordinate with OAS about when and how exams are returned to them. In some cases, particularly when instructors are not available to retrieve exams in person within 72 hours, OAS may be required to scan and deliver exams to instructors electronically. Under no circumstance should students be penalized for any delays in returning exams to the instructor. 

6. Pregnant or parenting students. John Jay College does not discriminate against any student on the basis of pregnancy or related conditions or parental status. If a student discloses a pregnancy or related condition to an employee, the employee must:

1) Promptly provide the student with the Title IX coordinator’s contact information (below) and 2) Inform the student that the Title IX Coordinator can coordinate reasonable modifications to preserve their equal access to the institution’s education program or activity.

 Absences due to medical conditions relating to pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions will be excused for as long as deemed medically necessary by a student’s doctor. Students must be given the opportunity to make up work missed due to pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions. In addition, failing to accommodate pregnant or parenting students may violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. If you have questions related to Title IX, please contact Jessica Greenfield, at jgreenfield@jjay.cuny.edu, Title IX Coordinator and Chief Diversity Officer, Office of Compliance & Diversity at cdo@jjay.cuny.edu.

7. Course syllabus guidelines.  All faculty must have an ADA statement on the first page of their syllabus that includes the location and contact information for OAS.

Suggested language:

“I am committed to creating a course that is inclusive in its design. Students who need an accommodation due to a disability are encouraged to contact the Office of Accessibility Services (OAS) within the first week of class or as soon as possible thereafter.  Requests for Accommodations can only be approved by the OAS. Students with disabilities are entitled to confidentiality over disability-related status or details. Students are not required to disclose their specific disability to their instructors or anyone else. All OAS approved accommodations will be honored and implemented in my course.”

Contact OAS, New Building, room L.66

Phone: (212) 237-8031

Email:  accessibilityservices@jjay.cuny.edu.

8. Maintaining confidentiality. As indicated in the syllabus statement above, students with disabilities are entitled to confidentiality over disability-related status or details. Students are not required to disclose their specific disability to their instructors or anyone else. (Instructors are entitled to know when their students have registered with OAS and what accommodations they have been approved to receive.) Instructors and staff must take care not to seek the disability-related status or information from students or to disclose a student’s disability status to others in or outside the classroom.   

For any questions regarding accommodations, please contact Elena Beharry, PsyD, OAS Director, at ebeharry@jjay.cuny.edu or contact:

Office of Accessibility Services
Suite L66 in the New Building
524 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212.237.8031
accessibilityservices@jjay.cuny.edu