Notetaking Services

If a student receives a peer note taker accommodation, the accommodation letter will include an announcement for the instructor to make in order to recruit a notetaker.  Students who are interested in being a notetaker should visit the ODS Online Portal and select Sign Up as a Notetaker to proceed.  ODS will assign the notetaker to the class within the ODS Online Portal.  The notetaker will upload notes to the ODS Online Portal, and the accommodated students will be able to view the notes.

Accommodated Student Responsibilities:

1. Students must first be evaluated by their Accommodation Specialist and determined eligible for the Notetaking Services accommodation.
2. Students must select the Notetaking Services accommodation for specific courses in their accommodation letter.
3. Students must communicate promptly with faculty and with ODS if issues arise (i.e. a notetaker fails to upload notes in a timely manner).

Faculty Responsibilities:

1. Faculty should begin recruiting a notetaker in the course if the Notetaking Services accommodation is listed in the accommodation letter.
2. Instruct any interested notetakers to sign up as a notetaker in the ODS Online Portal.
3. If there is a preferred note taker, faculty should notify ODS as soon as possible to ensure that the preferred student is matched, in the case that other students may have also signed up to be a notetaker in the course.
4. Visit the ODS Online Portal to see the name of the assigned notetaker and view uploaded notes.  Faculty can view the names of the accommodated student and the notetaker, but this information is not available to other users.
5. All Notetaking Services will be managed in the portal.  Use of UA Box for note taking is no longer supported, and nothing further is necessary for the note taker to be reimbursed.

ODS Support:

1. ODS staff will manually match notetakers each work day, and will select the first notetaker that signs up, as it is marked in the portal.
2. If no students sign up to be the class notetaker, ODS will send faculty an email about the continued need for recruitment.
3. If there is a delay in locating a notetaker, ODS will email qualified students who are enrolled in the class, and encourage them to sign up as the notetaker.
4. In the case of an extended delay in locating a notetaker, ODS staff will be in contact with faculty to make other arrangements to accommodate the student.
5. ODS uses the portal to manage all assigned notetakers and will ensure the notetaker is reimbursed at the end of the semester.
6. If the notetaker cancels the assignment, or needs to be replaced, this process will be repeated.

To qualify as a notetaker, a student must:

1. Attend class on a regular basis
2. Take clear, legible notes, save as a PDF or Word document
3. Upload notes promptly to the ODS Online Portal

Students who have been approved to receive notes as a disability-related accommodation are ineligible to serve as a designated note taker for other students with disabilities and, therefore, cannot be awarded a note taker stipend through ODS.