Starting the Conversation: A Faculty Toolkit for Student Support

Why check in proactively? (Read before using)

Many students arrive on campus without the K–12 safety net of a parent or IEP team advocating for them. Some don't know their experience "counts," some are intimidated by self-advocacy to an authority figure, and some simply haven't connected the dots yet. Waiting for a formal accommodation letter misses all of them.

This toolkit borrows from the curb-cut effect: supports designed for one group (e.g., a student with a documented disability) tend to help many more people than intended (e.g., a student working a night job, a parent, a non-native English speaker). A low-stakes, universal invitation to talk about learning needs benefits the whole classroom, not just the student who was already going to self-identify.

It frames accommodations as a collaborative tool for success, not a bureaucratic hurdle (Friend & Cook, 2017).
It offers a flexible menu of ways to connect, lowering the relational anxiety and cognitive load that self-advocacy can carry (Schmarder et al., 2024).
It invites the student to co-construct the solution rather than dictating it, building their sense of control over the process (Shogren et al., 2015).

Setup Your course details

Fill this in once — it's used by both generators below.

Course name / number

Term

Your name

Your title / role

Your campus disability/accessibility office name

Tool 1 Whole-class check-in message

Sent to everyone, early in the term, on the LMS or by email. Nobody is singled out; students who see themselves in it are invited to opt in.

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Tool 2 Individual conversation starter

For reaching out to one student — whether they have a formal accommodation letter, you've noticed something, or they've mentioned a challenge informally.

Student's name

Reason you're reaching out

How could they reach you? (check all that apply)

Optional: anything specific to mention (context-only, kept low-key)

A note on language: describe what you've observed ("deadlines have been tough," "you mentioned finding the reading dense") rather than naming or guessing at a diagnosis. Let the student decide what to disclose, if anything — your job is to open the door, not to label what's on the other side.

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Reference Laws, regulations & frameworks

ADA National Network — Postsecondary Institutions and Students With Disabilities Plain-language factsheet on how Title II/III of the ADA applies to colleges and universities.
U.S. Department of Education — Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act Federal civil rights law prohibiting disability discrimination at institutions receiving federal funding.
U.S. Department of Education — Auxiliary Aids and Services for Postsecondary Students What counts as an auxiliary aid/service and how institutions must provide them.
ADA National Network — Research Brief: Higher Education and the ADA Overview of faculty and institutional obligations, and where responsibility for coordination sits (usually the campus disability office).
CAST — Universal Design for Learning Guidelines 3.0 The framework behind the "design for the margins, benefit everyone" approach used in this toolkit.

This is general information, not legal advice. Accommodation determinations and legal compliance questions should go through your campus disability/accessibility office and institutional counsel.

Sources & further reading: Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2017). Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals. — Schmarder et al. (2024) on self-advocacy load for neurodivergent young adults in postsecondary settings. — Shogren, K. A., et al. (2015) on self-determination and action-control beliefs.