Notetakers

·         Notetakers assist students who have disabilities that prevent them from taking effective lecture notes. The need for a notetaker must be appropriately documented.  Winthrop provides notetaker services to students with appropriate documentation.  Services for Students with Disabilities coordinates with the professors of qualifying students with disabilities to find notetakers for each class.  

Student Responsibilities

·         Stop by the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSWD) office at least 2-3 times per week to pick up your notes.  Notetakers are instructed to drop off or e-mail notes to Services for Students with Disabilities in Crawford 110A within 24 hours of the class period, so notes will usually be available to receiving students on a daily basis.

·         Attend class. Notetakers’ notes are meant to provide a comparison, to "fill in the blanks" in the class notes of students with disabilities. Attending class is crucial to this process.

·         Keep in touch with the SSWD office.  If there is anything wrong with the notes that the notetakers bring in, or if you are not getting your notes in a timely manner, Disability Services needs to know as soon as possible so that the problem can be corrected or a new notetaker can be found.

While Services for Students with Disabilities provides notetaking services gladly, they are given with the expectation that students receiving the notes will use this accommodation responsibly.  If students who receive the assistance of a notetaker regularly skip class, fail to pick up their notes on a regular basis, or engage in any other negligent behavior, they may risk losing this accommodation for the remainder of the semester.

Professor Responsibilities

·         Work with the student and the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities to find a notetaker. You may recommend students or announce that a student in the class needs a notetaker. A peer notetaker is a paid position.  Services for Students with Disabilities will send you information to help you make the appropriate announcement.  Do not identify the student needing the notetaker in the announcement as this is a violation of confidentiality. Collect names and phone numbers of potential notetakers to give to Services for Students with Disabilities for the student needing the accommodation.

·         Students receiving notetaker accommodations need to attend class.

·         Contact the SSWD Coordinator or Graduate Assistant at ext. 3290 with concerns regarding accommodations and/or difficulties helping the student to find a notetaker for class.