Re: An LD Student Who Needs a "Scribe"

[Suzanne Diamond <diamonds@marietta.edu>]

Thanks, Anne.  I do believe that our designated person is at
least SUPPOSED to be this expert delegator I mention; but
I'll fish around.

Yours,
Sue

A.F. Herzog/H.C. Graham wrote:

> Dear Sue,
>         This is a thorny one and because of the legal issues involved needs to be
> handled carefully.  If a student files a case for discrimination under the
> ADA, both the individual faculty member and the institution can be held
> liable.
>         The best first step you can take is to communicate with the person on
> campus who is responsible for determining the particular accommodations
> provided under the law for a student with a disability.  Under the
> Americans with Disabilities Act, every university/college needs to appoint
> such an individual.  Faculty members who have had the student in the past
> do not have that authortiy; the learning resource person you mention
> doesn't sound like she's the designated individual, but I'd want to
> establish whether she is or isn't.  Someone at your university has
> responsibility for checking the medical documentation provided by students
> with disabilities and determining what accommodations are necessary.  The
> nature of the disability is confidential information under the law; the
> student is free to discuss or not discuss the particulars with you.
>         I'd begin by doing a little more followup about how students become
> documented as disabled on your campus.   Yours, Anne Herzog
>
> Writing Center Director
> West Chester University
>
> At 04:50 PM 10/4/1999 -0400, you wrote:
> >   Dear All:    How would you handle
> >a student with a learning disability who came to your writing center
> >asking for a "scribe"?    A few weeks
> >ago, our new learning center coordinator--an expert delegator, I have
> >witnessed--sent me an e-mail recounting a meeting she had with a
> >student whose learning disability entailed an inability to write. This
> >student, she claimed, had used a "scribe" in the writing center in
> >the past (he is a junior), someone to whom he dictated his papers.
> >  I responded that no student had, to my knowledge,
> >used the writing center in this fashion since I took over in the fall
> >of 98, but that I believed that there was software out there that
> >  (Her position
> >and budget have been funded by a $150K Teagle grant for two
> >  I suggested that she invest in this software, especially if,
> >in her judgment, there would be other LD students who might
> >require it.    He said that the
> >learning center director had referred him to the writing center.
> >  I wondered
> >aloud what he would do eventually when he needed to prepare
> >a report, say, on the job, or write a letter, say, to his local
> >  "As a teacher," I told him, "I feel I would be
> >doing you a disservice to just offer you a scribe, and that is NOT
> >  We talked
> >for a while longer, and I proposed that he put whatever prose he
> >  Though he seemed
> >intrigued by this option, his objection was odd and telling: "My
> >  I told him I was
> >not going to be focused on these at first, that many writers come
> >to us with these concerns, and that I just wanted to see how he
> >shaped meanings in his writing.  Because I have a policy of updating
> >instructors about students
> >who register for sustained help at the center, I left voice mails
> >(without all the detail of my note above but basically) laying out
> >the plan the student and I had agreed to for his upcoming tutoring
> >  Wierdly, I had a voice reply on my own machine today
> >from one of those instructors, stipulating along the lines of "no, no:
> >  He needs to tell
> >someone else what he's going to write and they need to write it
> >  I left a gentle reply back, saying that we should at least
> >at first be guided by the student's own enthusiasm to try this on his
> >own, and suggesting that we could regroup after his first two sessions
> >or so to weigh results and strategies.    Am I right to find this a very
> >troubling way to use the center, or am I just being blind to the
> >  I do not trust
> >my own responses here, but these responses sure are strong! Any
> >light any of you might shed on this would be most welcome.  Yours,
> >Suzanne Diamond
> >Assistant Professor of English and Director,
> >THE WRITE PLACE
> >Marietta College
> >diamonds@marietta.edu
> A.F. Herzog & H.C. Graham
> 441 Highland Avenue
> Downingtown, PA  19335
> (610) 518.1212
> herzgrah@chesco.com