Students

Greetings from the Office of Accessibility at Winthrop University. The following video will show you how to request a Letter of Accommodation to be sent to your instructor(s).

A Letter of Accommodation, or as we like to call them, an LOA, informs an instructor of a student's approved accommodations. The professor will not know if a student receives an accommodation(s) unless a student sends them an LOA. Accommodations are NOT retroactive, so it is best to submit your LOA requests at the beginning of each semester so you can take full advantage of your accommodations. LOA requests are completed in the AIM Portal.

Step 1 to sending your LOAs is to log-in to the Student AIM Portal. Please see our video titled "How to Access the Student AIM Portal" to assist with this step. Once you have logged in, navigate to "My Dashboard". You can do so by clicking "My Dashboard" in the left-hand menu. Next, you should navigate to the box titled "Select Accommodations for Your Class". In the box titled "Step 1: Select Classes", place a check-mark next to the classes you wish to send out Letters of Accommodation for. Then click, "Step 2 - Continue to Customize Your Accommodations".

On the next screen, you will see all of the information for the course that you have selected. In the "Select Accommodation(s)" box, place a check-mark next to the accommodations you wish to receive for this class. Then click, "Submit you Accommodation Requests".

To verify that your Letter of Accommodation was sent, navigate back to "My Dashboard" and find the box labeled "Select Accommodations for Your Class". Next to each class that was sent a Letter of Accommodation, you will see the word "Requested". You will also receive a confirmation email to your Winthrop account.

As always, if you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us. You can contact the OA via phone at 803/323-3290 or via email at accessibility@winthrop.edu.

Greetings from the Office of Accessibility at Winthrop University. The following video is to show students who have approved exam accommodations, how to scheduled an exam appointment with the Office of Accessibility's Test Center through the AIM Portal.

To submit appointment requests to the OA Test Center, you must first have already sent your Letters of Accommodation(s) to your professors. Please see the video for the step-by-step process of sending out these letters in our video titled, "How to Request a Letter of Accommodation".

To begin log-in to your Student AIM Portal, using the same credentials you use to access your Winthrop email and Wingspan accounts. Please see the video of "How to Access the Student AIM Portal"for step-by-step instructions to log-in. Once you are logged in, you will need to navigate to the "Alternative Testing" page. You can do so by clicking on "Alternative Testing" in the left-hand menu, under "My Accommodations". Once you are on the "Alternative Testing" page, you need to select the class for which you are trying to schedule an appointment. You can select your class from the drop-down menu and then click "Schedule an Exam". On the next screen, you will complete the "Exam Detail" box. Under "Request Type", you will select "Standard Exam", "Quiz" or "Final", depending on what appointment you are trying to schedule. And then in the "Date" box, I recommend using the calendar icon feature, to select the date for which you would like to schedule this appointment. In the "Time" box, you will select the hour and minute of the start time of your exam. (Let's say 2 o'clock.) And then in the "Services Requested" box you will see all of your currently approved accommodations populate. You will use the check-mark feature to select which accommodations you would like to use for this particular appointment. And then in the "Additional Note" box, this is where you will enter any information that you think the OA Test Center staff needs to know about this appointment. For example, this class is actually at 10AM, but with the extended time accommodation, this creates an academic conflict for myself, so I am scheduling this exam to happen after all of my classes are completed for the day to avoid any academic conflicts. And once I input that note, I can hit "Add Exam Request".

The Alternative Testing Agreement is a form in AIM that allows the instructor to give the OA Test Center important information needed to proctor your exam. You can request your exams with or without your instructor's submission of the Alternative Testing Agreement. However, your instructor must complete the agreement by the test date in order for the Test Center to administer the test. We cannot approve or proctor any exams without a completed Alternative Testing Agreement. You can see whether or not a professor has completed their Alternative Testing Agreement(s) on your Alternative Testing page in AIM. All of the exam requests you submitted will be listed on this page. If an instructor has not completed the Alternative Testing Agreement for your course, you will see this red banner above the appointment information that says. "Instructor Has Not Submitted Alternative Testing Agreement". If you see this red banner, you may kindly remind your professor(s) in class to complete the Alternative Testing Agreement, so we can schedule your exams. If they need assistance, please refer them to our office.

Please keep in mind that exam must be scheduled one week, or 5 business days, in advance to the exam date. For example, 5 business days prior to a Monday is the previous Monday. Each student will receive one late exemption for the semester. You will be notified via email when that exemption is used. Lastly, remember that all requests submitted within 24 hours of an exam will be automatically denied.

If you submit a request within 5 business days of an exam, you will be directed to a second page while scheduling your exam, after clicking the "Add Exam Request" button. You must submit a reason as to why this is a late request. You will do so by selecting one of the options in the drop-down menu and adding any pertinent information to the text box. Your request will not go through if you do not complete this step. So please make sure you hit the "Submit" button. Again, students are allowed one late exemption per semester. If your exam request is denied, a notification email will be sent to your instructor and your Winthrop email account.

If you would like to cancel or modify a request in AIM, you can do so through the Alternative Testing page. You will find the box labeled "Upcoming Exam Request(s) for the Current Term" and look for the appointment that you are trying to change. If you would like to reschedule this exam, please click "Modify Request". This will allow you to change the date and/or time of the exam. If you would like to completely cancel the appointment, click "Cancel Request".

As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need assistance. The OA Test Center can be reached via phone at 803/323-3290 and select option 3, or email us at testcenter@winthrop.edu.