 All right, it seems like the trickle of people has slowed down a little bit, so we will get started now. I want to thank you all so much for being here for this event, Graduate Students with Disabilities, the Americans Disabilities Act, Rights and Accommodation. My name is Madeline Eichen. I am a second year PhD student in biomedical engineering and I have a chronic illness. So I'm so excited to be hosting this event today. This event is being put on by the Rackham Professional Development and Engagement Office as part of their pilot affinity group program. The purpose of this event is to educate graduate students about their rights here at the University of Michigan under the Americans with Disabilities Act, hopefully bringing some clarity to the process of accessing accommodations and what rights we have as students with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And so I'm really excited. We have two 30-minute presentations by experts on the Americans with Disabilities Act and on accessing accommodations here at Michigan. And this event will be recorded and we'll be sending you the recordings after the event in an email. This event will conclude with a brief Q&A session. So please feel free to submit questions for the Q&A throughout the speaker's presentation. We'll get to them at the end. Please note that you are able to make your questions anonymous if you please by clicking a box in the Q&A. We will also be asking you to complete a survey about this event at the end. So keep an eye out for that. So we have some really fantastic panelists who have lots of information to share. So we are going to jump right in to our first presentation by Christina Klein. Christina Klein is a director and ADA coordinator for the Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office here at the University of Michigan. Her role as ADA coordinator involved providing guidance and support regarding the university's responsibilities under the ADA including answering questions and connecting people with resources on accommodations, physical expectability, service animals and disability inclusion and awareness. Christina received her BA in English from the University of California Berkeley and received her JD from the University of Illinois College of Law. She's worked as a legal fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and as a Title IX investigator. She's published articles on jury diversity and guidance on service animals in healthcare settings. Unfortunately, she will be leaving the University of Michigan in February to lead Duke University's Disability Management Services Office. So while we are sad to see her go, please congratulate her on her new position and we are so excited to have her as a panel tonight. So I will now turn it over to you, Christina, for your presentation. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. This is my second to last presentation at the University of Michigan. So I'm very, like I said, thrilled to be doing this. So I'm going to share my slides with y'all and these will be made available after the program. So all this information will be provided to you. And forgive my computer, it's going to take its sweet time for a second. Oh, nope, now it's going to be responsive as soon as I give a disclaimer. So thank you for that introduction. That gives a very good level, a high level overview of what our office does, what my role does. And while I am leaving the University of Michigan, which makes me saddens me for sure at the end of the month, we still have a great team at the ECRT, the Equity Civil Rights and Title IX Office, who I'm going to give a little bit more information on. And then I will transition into a focus around rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some information about processes and what you can expect or what goes into various aspects of the ADA process and rights. And then finally close out with a brief couple of slides on resources for a transition to Mallory. So my role as the ADA coordinator, don't worry, I will be replaced, we are in the middle of that search. So we will have a new ADA coordinator very soon, I'm sure. Megan Marshall, who is our deputy ADA coordinator, she will be our interim ADA coordinator in my absence. She assists with basically everything I do as well, with a particular focus in employment-related accommodations, but can speak to other aspects of ADA compliance and other U of M resources as well. And then Phil Deaton, he is our digital information accessibility coordinator. He is there to assist with anything and everything related to electronic and digital information accessibility. So accessibility of videos, websites, applications, software, et cetera, because that's also a very significant and important piece of ADA, as well as our disability inclusion efforts and accessibility efforts. For moving forward, as I mentioned, I'm gonna focus primarily on the law and kind of the accommodations process and what that entails, but it's important to know what we as the CRT ADA team can do and provide in terms of support and guidance for you in terms of resources. As graduate students, the big one that we might be doing is several bullet points down, but it is around collaborating with partners through various issues or questions around access and accommodations. So again, partnering very closely with Mallory, who you're hearing from in a moment, as well as SSD, the services for students with disabilities office. So transitioning into a little bit more about kind of what you can't anticipate and expect when it comes to your rights or someone's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the processes that go into that. First, we're gonna look at really what the definition of disability is. The second slide is the legal definition, which I'll go into in a little bit more detail in just a moment, but I wanna take a moment to acknowledge that that definition really only applies in that legal context. My office, when we're looking at disability from a legal compliance or from a ADA perspective, that would be the definition that we're using, but we also recognize and are very explicit and deliberate about talking about the other models of disability and how while there's a legal definition of disability and there's legal compliance responsibilities, we also try to take opportunities whenever possible to think beyond compliance as well. And that includes focusing in, in particular on the different models of disability. So there's the medical model, which is you've seen a lot of departure from, which tends to look at disability as something wrong with the person, something that needs to be fixed with the person, something that needs to be diagnosed and then treated, but that does tend to carry with it a lot of stigma because it tends to focus on something being wrong with the person versus something that we are trying to bring more focus to when we're not in that legal zone around the social model, which really looks at barriers themselves are not created by the person with the disability, they're created by the way that we tend to do things, the way we build buildings, the way we structure programs. So the thing that's great about the social model is that we try to focus on that when we are looking at beyond compliance efforts. So I always encourage be thinking about that when we're not thinking about the legal aspect of things. And with that being said though, again, I do wanna be very clear with folks on what their rights are and very specifically focusing in under the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar laws. So the Americans with Disabilities Act essentially indicates or advises that a person can be considered as somebody having a disability if they fall within one of these three categories. So the first category is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. So some guidance here. The ADA was first passed back in 1990 and when that first iteration of this law was passed and set forth, a lot of courts got a hold of this first definitions, this first sub bullet point and they interpreted disability very narrowly. They were excluding a lot of folks from the protections of this law, especially folks with non-apparent disabilities, mental health disabilities, learning disabilities, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, ADHD, things like that. Folks who should have come within the protections were being left out. So what happened was in 2008, Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act, which essentially was pretty clear with the courts that the way y'all interpreted this, wrong, okay? We don't want institutions quibbling over whether or not somebody falls within these protections. So in other words, we want to be looking at disability with a lot of flexibility and very broadly. In other words, if things are close, if it's a close call, the tie is gonna go towards providing protections. So again, does provide guidance here about what a disability is, but thinking of it with a lot of broadness and a lot of flexibility. Similarly, major life activities. It's the things you normally think about but thinking about broadly. So walking, talking, sitting, sleeping, standing, caring for yourself, working, driving, communicating. It would also include major bodily systems and functions. So a disability that substantially limits neurological functioning, reproductive functioning, your skin's ability to heal itself or your cell's ability to regenerate or duplicate. Those would all be considered disabilities under the ADA. Now, somebody would fall within all the protections of this law, even if they don't have a disability currently but had one previously. And that's under that second bullet point of having a record or a history of having the type of disability described in the first bullet point. So say for instance, I had had cancer but were now in remission, I would still fall within all the protections of the ADA based on that second bullet point there. The last one is a little bit of a legal outlier but I want to be kind of clear about it. I want to explain it a little bit more depth but somebody could fall within some, not all but some of the protections of this law even if they don't have a disability at all. And that's if they are perceived or regarded as having a disability as described in that first sub bullet point. So here's what I mean by that, all right? Say for instance, as an example, my partner were HIV positive. Now, because of that relationship, if my employer also assumed that I also had that same disability under the ADA, I am protected from discrimination and discriminatory harassment based on that perception, whether it's accurate or not. So the law is trying to broaden its protections as well to say, look, we don't want people discriminating against folks even if they don't, even if they mistakenly assumed they have a disability. We also want to make sure that we are prohibiting discrimination based on that assumption because we don't want to be perpetuating discriminatory treatment, even if this person happened to make an incorrect assumption about this person. So I'm talking about these protections under the ADA, under this law. So the protections under the law include, there we go. So very high level in one sentence, basically the ADA provides that no qualified individual with a disability shall on the basis of that disability be denied the benefits of or be excluded from the programs, services or benefits provided or activities provided at the University of Michigan. And that breaks down into three distinct protections. The first is prohibition against disability based discrimination. The second is a prohibition against disability based harassment. I'll talk about both of those in a moment, I promise. The third, which I think is really great because the ADA is like a lot of other civil rights laws that provides these prohibitions against discrimination and harassment protections from these things. But it also provides an affirmative responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations to ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities have equitable access to the programs, services and benefits that we provide here. So something to note, back to the definition of ADA, of disability under ADA, those first, all three of them under all three categories, you are protected from discrimination and discriminatory harassment, whether you have an actual disability at the moment, a history of a disability or you're perceived as having a disability. The protection or the right to a reasonable accommodation, however, only applies if you fall within the first two categories. So in order for an individual to be given reasonable accommodations, they must either have a disability described in the first bullet point or have a history or record of having that type of disability. It can't just be a perception that leads to that reasonable accommodation. And the thing about these protections is it applies to everyone who comes into our community, right? We owe this responsibility to everybody, no matter what their relationship is to us, whether it's an employee, a student, a visitor, someone who's coming to a game, someone who's going to a restaurant or a cafe, these all apply at all times, within the context, of course, of that relationship and that scope of interaction. So disability-based harassment, basically it's conduct that's based on or motivated by an individual's disability that is so severe, persistent or pervasive as to create a hostile environment. So some examples of this would be like negative comments or jokes or slurs about disability. It could also include things like disclosing in details about somebody's disability or their accommodations, for example. And then disability-based discrimination that some folks tend to be a little bit more familiar with. It's differential treatment that's based on or motivated by a disability as compared to similarly situated individuals who don't have a disability. So we can see that anywhere, right? In the employment context of not hiring somebody or promoting someone to the student context of not allowing somebody to participate in a program or excluding somebody from that, a failure to provide a reasonable accommodation could be considered a type of discrimination and that it is exclusionary as a result, you're denying someone equitable access as a result. Or it could also even be sort of treatment of somebody as a result of requesting an accommodation or disclosing a disability like heightened scrutiny, additional micromanagement, things like that. If you ever have any concerns about disability-based discrimination or harassment or a denied accommodation, that is something that you can report to our office. So the ECRT, Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX office houses my role to provide guidance around ADA's responsibilities, the university's ADA responsibilities. But also we do have investigators who can, and equity specialists who can work with folks who have concerns or experiences around this to share with them options, including processes or resources or other ways of addressing concerns that like I said, would go towards addressing these issues. So if you ever have any of those issues or concerns, like I said, please contact our office and we can at least contact you to share with you what your options are and what your resources are that are available to you. That doesn't just apply to disability-based discrimination and harassment, I just wanna put in this plug. It's also for other types of discrimination and harassment, including based on race, age, height, weight, veteran status, sexual and gender-based misconduct, sexual harassment, things of that nature as well. So as I mentioned, there's that third protection involved of a duty to provide a reasonable accommodation. Basically, like I said, we have a responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in order to ensure that they have equitable access to everything that we basically provide here at the University of Michigan. And like I said, same thing, that protection applies to everybody. Now, the way to request reasonable accommodations varies based on your status, like who you are, what your relationship is to the University. And as I mentioned, Mallory's gonna be coming on in a minute to talk more about the processes around graduate student accommodation. So I'm not gonna get into that too much. I'm gonna give sort of a high level overview of what all those processes tend to have in common. But what they also share in common basically is that when someone requests an accommodation, the University engages in what's called the interactive process. It's basically this individualized interaction, as you would imagine, collaborative interaction between the individual making the request and the University, whether that's maybe your unit, if you're an employee, your program, if you're or the event coordinator, right, facilitated by our office or other offices as well, where we try to determine what if any reasonable accommodations are going to be provided. So a very high level overview of this process. Again, the University has designated various offices throughout to address accommodation requests for various folks, which I'll talk about in a moment, kind of who takes which process or who takes which request specifically. And so, but they all tend to have something very similar in common. There's an element of disclosure. It's important to know that if you are an individual with a disability, there's no like legal responsibility that you have to proactively disclose anything. It's up to you when, where and how you disclose information about yourself. However, right, with this caveat, if you are seeking accommodations under the ADA, there is a responsibility to disclose. You need to be able, you need to make sure that you share enough information with the University to put us on notice that there is a disability and there's a need for disability related accommodations. If you ever have questions about how to disclose, who to disclose to, when to disclose, you can always start with my office. You can always start with Mallory's office and we can talk through what your options are based on kind of where you're at. What are you thinking? What's the question? What's the concern? But you don't, I often get the question of do I have to kind of declare this or let folks know, not necessarily. But the only other encouragement I would make is if you're concerned that your disability might impact performance or might impact your access, then we might wanna be strategic about being more proactive and requesting accommodations before that occurs. And again, that's something that our offices can help answer questions about and help talk through your options for. This can include also essential functions of a job or fundamental requirements of a program, kind of shifting through those to make sure we are all on the same page of what's required of anyone participating in a program or a position at the University, clarifying what it is about the job, the program, the environment, the way things are done, that's creating a barrier for you to make sure that if we're brainstorming accommodations, we're really focusing in on accommodations that are gonna remove those barriers and provide equitable access. Medical documentation can be requested for an accommodation request. The only time it's really inappropriate for medical documentation to be requested is if the disability and the need for accommodations is obvious or apparent. But as I mentioned, there's other, there are specific offices throughout the University that are specifically designated for various processes. And they're also trained specifically in how to handle and manage medical documentation in an appropriate, confidential and respectful way. Consulting with resources for guidance, including my office, RACM, et cetera, determining what accommodations are reasonable then implementing them or an alternative. And then also remaining open and available for any ongoing questions or concerns or need to re-engage in the interactive process. I'm coming towards the end of my time, so I'm gonna go a little bit more quickly through the rest of these slides, but you are getting them, I promise. So as I mentioned, reasonable accommodations, basically when I'm on accommodation, there's no like set list. Folks might ask that like, well, what is available? It depends on you, right? We're going to look at what is gonna be effective for you as an individual. So an accommodation is basically any modification, adjustment or change to a policy, a practice, an environment, a program, a job, right? That provides equitable access. Now, once we know what's gonna be effective for an individual, we still need to assess it for reasonableness. It might work for someone, but it might not be reasonable. So we might need to look for an equally effective alternative. But the thing to remember about accommodations, they can change over time. You can decline in accommodation. If you do decline in accommodation, that doesn't necessarily mean that an alternative or your preferred accommodation is gonna be provided instead. It also means that even if the accommodation was there to ensure that you could perform at the appropriate level to ensure your success, if you decline the accommodation, you're still gonna be held to those standards in terms of performance, whether it's in the program or in the position. There are some examples, but again, this is a very like high level list. There's so many other things, right? Where we are, how we do things, modifying how a supervisor interacts with you or how a faculty member interacts with you. Equipment, leave, there are various types of leave. Reassignment is kind of a tricky one. It's very specific. So of course you have questions at Reassignment. You can consult with me. But in terms of determining what accommodations are gonna work for me, there are resources available. There's M Healthy Medical Ergonomics for you as employees. The Knox Center is great for students in digital adaptive equipment or adaptive technology in particular. The employee or the graduate student or the student, right, whomever, you can consult with your physician, your healthcare provider, might have some good suggestions. Another really great one, especially in the employment context, but I've found it's a little bit broader in terms of application, is AskJan.org. It's called the Job Accommodation Network. But really what you can do is you go in there and search, and you can search by disability and it can give you a lot of suggestions for potentially effective accommodations in the employment realm. But I've found, again, also in student realms or others as well, it gives us a good jumping off point if we need to brainstorm. Reasonableness, there are three reasons why accommodation might not be considered reasonable. One is if it is an undue hardship. What's an undue hardship is gonna be case by case, accommodation to accommodation. But we're really gonna look at how does it impact a unit or the program or the other individuals involved necessarily? Not necessarily fairness per se, but I mean like, what's the impact on the functioning of the program or the functioning of the unit or the services they're able to provide? Direct threat to health or safety and if an accommodation would pose a direct threat to health or safety to the individual or others, it may be unreasonable, but this cannot be determined based on stereotypes, biases or assumptions about the person or about the disability. It has to be based on objective data and information. So that second one is a very narrow specific exception that we don't see very often. So I wanna be very clear about that. And then the third one is, it's typically not considered a reasonable accommodation if it will result in the modification of essential functions of the job or fundamental alteration to the requirements of an educational program. So again, what those are varies from program to program and we would have to do an individualized assessment. What's typically not considered a reasonable accommodation but I say typically meaning there's no yes or no to anything. We always have to look at the circumstances even if this is what's being requested. But typically, you know, transfer to a new supervisor we've seen often might not be considered reasonable removing essential functions or fundamentally altering the program creating a new position or a new course maybe, maybe not, right? Again, just depends on what the past practice has been accepting unreliable or inappropriate behavior, behavior, attendance or performance. And then personal use items are typically outside the scope of our role as the university. So that's things like glasses or a wheelchair or personal care attendant typically wouldn't be something that we wouldn't that would be considered reasonable in our role as the university. And then very quickly wrapping up students with disabilities if you are seeking academic accommodations you would still go through the SSD office for graduate students, graduate student employees with disabilities not gonna talk about this because that's Mallory, the RACOM office or your administrative designee, visitors with disabilities. Again, you can always start with our office my office the ECRT office to help navigate this. But again, it's always important to sort of think about ways that you if you are expecting visitors how to make it more accommodating and more accessible. And there's a little blurb there about service animals I could talk about those for hours. So I'm not gonna get into it too much, but I'm available and our office is available to address that or ask or share more information. And then there are some disability advocacy resources available for you. If you wanna check that out or really get involved I would encourage you to do that. University of Michigan resources all right there. And then some other resources that are available both on the Ann Arbor side as well as broader in Michigan and federal and just the World Wide Web. So if you ever have any questions I know we're doing Q&A at the end I did just provide a little information here about our office or email addresses are also on these slides but there's also a little blurb there that shows our disability and accessibility page on the ECRT website. And you can click that little button that says contact the ECRT ADA team and you'll get right to us. So with that, I think I'm on time, right? Which is impressive because I usually run over. But with that, thank you so much and I will still be here for Q&A and I'm gonna turn it over now to Mallory, right? All right, thank you so much, Christina. Yeah, we will be transitioning over to Mallory now. I'm gonna give her a few minutes to turn on her camera, fantastic. Yeah, Christina, you were actually ahead of schedule so that is awesome. Okay, well thank you so much. That was very informative. I find that really helpful of like, you know, I personally identify as a member of this community but what does that mean in a legal sense? I think that's really helpful. And thank you to the people who've asked some questions in the Q&A. Please keep them coming. We will have a Q&A portion after Mallory's talk. So I am looking forward to that. So I will now introduce our second speaker who's Mallory Martin Ferguson. Mallory is the Director of Graduate Student and Program Consultation Services in Rackham Graduate School. The GSPCS advises graduate students, faculty, postdocs and staff on emergencies, crisis situations, academic misconduct and other situations. The office provides support to students' mental and physical health challenges, including supporting referrals to on and off campus resources. Mallory previously worked at Rackham as a conflict resolution and academic relations specialist and as the associate resolution officer. She received her BA in international studies from the University of Colorado and has a master's degree in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Washington. She also received a graduate certificate in restorative practices from the International Institute of Restorative Practices. I invited Mallory to this event after seeing her speak at another event about disability accommodation. She really understands the process of accessing accommodations at Michigan and I am so pleased to have her with us sharing all of her knowledge about accessing accommodations at Michigan. So I am so pleased to introduce Mallory who is gonna give an awesome presentation. Thank you so much. I appreciate the introduction, the invitation and of course the time to just spend in conversation with folks today. I had mentioned earlier that I'm managing a handful of family things also so I will do my very best to be as focused as possible as we get things started and as questions come up, clarifications are needed, please make sure that that's either reflected in the Q&A or you kind of take note of it so that we can address it in the most helpful way possible towards the end of our time. So I will go ahead and share my screen. Wanna make sure that it populates okay. And really wanting to, I think, take note of perhaps the similarities but also the differences of kind of this component of the presentation versus the great information that Christina shared. And so really wanting to talk one about the role that Rackham Graduate School plays in disability accommodations for graduate student employees but also the ways in which we work to support graduate students kind of across the board when it comes to their experience and maybe challenges in navigating the graduate school experience. And as mentioned, sorry, my computer wants to go to sleep. I apologize. What was mentioned is that we want to do that and it is a service of ours right in our office in the GSPCS office. And so if there are questions, there are concerns, you're unsure kind of what to do or where to go next. You can always start with GSPCS and then we can work to kind of consult and refer as necessary. So my slides, okay. So what I wanted to share with folks this evening is just a few highlights and again the connectors to Rackham Graduate School in particular. So one is being mindful and kind of calling attention to the campus disability initiatives of which there are many to talk about accommodations, both academic and employment related to share more about the Rackham central office as designated by the GEO contract. And then of course, you know, have some time for Q&A and perhaps even just comments from participants who are present. So as far as campus disability initiatives go, there have been, you know, I think a handful of initiatives and kind of longstanding efforts at increasing I think awareness and support for kind of disability accommodations but also just disability awareness and culture on campus. One of those was a report in 2020, excuse me, that talks specifically about the graduate student experiences with disability accommodations. And I'll share a little bit more about what that report found on the next slide. Work across different kind of collaborative communities on campus was part of this idea board and the recommendations that they kind of brought forward. You might be able to kind of see and experience in different capacities on campus through like, you know, testing centers, different accommodation, you know, access points and then student kind of participation and advocacy. Disability awareness training for faculty was kind of an outgrowth of most of those accommodation and idea board, you know, recommendations and reports and then really being attentive to efforts aligning across units. So how do we take kind of this large institution with a multiple, you know, multiple touch points, multiple barriers, obstacles and opportunities and ensure that we're doing our very best work across the institution for students with disabilities and, you know, the community at the University of Michigan. So specific to the report, again, in Rackham, here were some key findings. So this was done in conjunction with Advance and Rackham staff in 2020. At that time, a little over a thousand students responded of whom, you know, the vast majority in many capacities, 350 almost identified as having a disability and 147 or more felt they would benefit from accommodations. And within this diverse group of students, it became clear that there was kind of large scale difficulty in obtaining accommodations, difficulty in implementing those accommodations. So there were concerns, you know, at multiple touch points of an accommodation process. And these can be exacerbated because of the graduate students' unique role as a student and an employee. And Christina alluded to this very nicely in her presentation around maybe different roles or access points that exist on campus. And Rackham is kind of the place that as a graduate school, we primarily work with students, correct? But also we know that our students are also employees. So GSIs, GSSAs and GSRAs. And that being an employee kind of comes with it has with it, excuse me, some specific requirements, obligations, challenges, as does being a student. And sometimes those things are very closely related and sometimes they're very specific to the role or the appointment that a student has. Rackham's response to that report but also to some of these initiatives across campus were to really be mindful of how can we improve education and compliance? Someone I had noticed mentioned earlier in the Q&A, how do we move beyond compliance? So how are we more attentive to what can exist ahead of a response or a need that is being raised to having things be more proactive, more kind of part of the fabric of the university and move beyond compliance, move beyond just kind of the foundation of ensuring that we are kind of in good legal standing. So that paired with education and that I would say goes across the board for the university community, faculty, staff and even no other students and peers. Really working to disseminate the best practices to create a more welcoming program climate for students who need accommodation. So where are we really hearing positive things from students? Where are we understanding that there's some concerns or some barriers? An example of that is labs in and of themselves often provide some barriers and some challenges to thinking about what an appropriate or reasonable accommodation may be because of the nature of that setup in general. And then working to partner with other units on campus to create a more welcoming institutional climate for students who need accommodations. And again, this is thinking, I think very specifically in these bullet points but about the beyond compliance kind of mindset generally is how from the get go, how from even the introduction to this institution are we being really mindful, attentive and proactive in educating about these resources for students but also talking about what exists as far as accommodations but also resources kind of across campus in a more, I think, forward and upfront way. American's not the only, I think, entity doing that but we are kind of working to coordinate those with other campus partners, ECRT being one and SSD. So folks may or may not know the SSD kind of has this expanded name and services. So they're now called S-A-A-S or Services, excuse me, Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services of which SSD is kind of a component. But SSD really has kind of the role of working to verify the disability for students seeking academic accommodations. So what might be the need for an accommodation in the classroom setting? I think many folks, if you're graduate students kind of on this webinar, recognize that you may not always be in the classroom or in a classroom as one might traditionally think about it. And so sometimes there can be challenges and even thinking what could be possible for me as I'm pursuing my dissertation, my prelim exams or other types of academic milestones for graduate students. But if it's related to kind of the academic component, SSD or S-A-A-S is the place to start. So working with them to kind of verify the presence of the disability and then determine the appropriate minimum, legally mandated academic accommodations for students. And again, programs advisors might kind of already be moving beyond that or be more inclusive of that. But again, at the base level really wanting to make sure that there is that response for appropriate academic accommodations. This includes that documentation, evaluating the request, assisting faculty, staff and students with the information and resources, perhaps consulting with those who might need information or referral to an outside agency. And then as necessary, facilitating access to appropriate accommodations. And in this way, from the RAGM perspective, I have worked with SSD quite a bit with some of their staff members to say, what's the context here? What's this person's kind of timeline to degree? What's happening academically? What's the landscape? So that in some of that consultation and facilitation, there's a little bit more context around what's possible academically and of course within policy and our legal mandates for the student who's seeking the accommodation and request. Employment accommodations then on the other hand is something that is specifically administered within the RAGM space. I did put a link at the very top of this slide. It's small, but my hope is that by at least seeing that or knowing that it's there, folks could just kind of access that to see the comprehensive information that's on the website, including the forms and kind of other requests and eligibility information that would be beneficial as you're considering applying for and reaching out for an employment accommodation. So forms can be available. These are all web forms that you can reach out to your program. So programs are asked to have what is called an administrative designee. So a person who's designated as kind of the point person to help assist navigate and then consult around the need for an accommodation and the implementation of that accommodation. They are trained and kind of identified in many ways through the RAGM central office, which I'll talk about in a little bit. So that could be the initial point, you know, placed for a student employee seeking accommodations or you could come directly to RAGM to myself or to the form and just kind of initiate the process in that way. Accommodation requests can be made at any point during or preceding the term of employment. So this tends to be, you know, November, December was the time when we were anticipating, you know, many requests for what was going to be happening in the winter term. And as long as that happens, you know, kind of prior to or in the midst of that term, you know, those are kind of helpful times to keep in mind in pursuing the request. Informal requests certainly happen and can be made directly to your immediate faculty supervisor, the appointing units, faculty or staff with whom there's responsibility for the appointment. So that's again for GSIs and GSSAs. As Christina mentioned, there is this interactive process. So it is very specific and individualized and is kind of in conversation around the appointment, the unit, the role, the accommodation and then all of the other details that kind of follow. And it is also kind of, you know, verified or solidified by a written notification of the decision to the employee. I will say from the time that I've been, you know, kind of generally involved in this accommodation process, there has not been an employment accommodation that's been denied, right? It's been about kind of how do we determine, right? What is reasonable? What is in the scope of the position? What is most helpful for the student employee? And then how that is implemented. And that is again the benefit, I think of having this interactive process where nothing is necessarily formulaic in a way that might feel comfortable to some, but it's really about engaging in the most appropriate and helpful accommodation given the role and appointment. So the GEO contract overview, folks may be familiar with this and I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that the acronym is the Graduate Employee Organization and Article 22 language was bargained into this contract in 2011. Excuse me. In that the contract requires that employing units have an administrative designee, right? So that's our schools and colleges that offer letters contain administrative designee contact information. And that offer letters also contain a statement that the university complies with the ADA. They're also required to train, right? The administrative designees and that falls to the Rackham Central Office to kind of be mindful of maintaining the list of folks, training them and ensuring that there's an opportunity for there to be offer letter information, contact and then context around complying with the ADA. As part of, right? That Article 22, the Rackham Central Office was created and the intention there was that there would be a central office with which employee accommodation requests would be received and responded to. So the role of the central office then is to advise employees who are requesting accommodations about the process, what to expect, what might be kind of considered reasonable, what other resources might exist for this employee and what might be some context considerations of the role that they have or of the unit that they're coming from. We also work to advise employee schools or colleges or the appointing units as appropriate in determining whether the requested accommodations are reasonable. And again, Christina kind of mentioned this earlier in her content around what actually might make sense in the context of the appointment and that is highly individualized. Coordinating with the administrative designee of the employee school or college in the implementation of accommodations. So really existing with that person or people in partnership to talk about, again, with the student request, the accommodation, the implementation of that and then even the follow-up and the follow-through of is that working? How are things going? What might need to be amended or changed? The central office also manages what's called the central accommodation fund which is a fund that can be accessed by programs, schools or colleges in particular to help fund additional resources that might be requested in an employee accommodation. We also produce an annual report which kind of gives a sense of how many requests we've received with the type of accommodations that have been offered. And as I mentioned on a previous slide, training the employee schools or colleges and or the appointing units about the ADA and contract compliance as well as best practices for interacting with employees with disabilities. I think it's very fitting that this central office kind of is housed then within the graduate student and program consultation services office because we do engage in these conversations with programs and with students on a fairly frequent basis. And so to then know that there is a process by which in an employment context, a student could request something and that we have colleagues, like Christina and others in SSD, as AAS and ECRT to help assist is I think immensely helpful. Just to say a little bit more about the administrative designee role and I apologize if this is way too much specificity for what you were hoping to get kind of in this presentation but my hope is that it just presents that there are processes and protocols and kind of a plan for employment accommodations for graduate students in particular. So one, communications is really ensuring that our administrative designee or the AD promotes their role that they let folks know in their school or college, this is who I am, this is the role that I have, please use me as a resource, right? So that there can be kind of in-house, so to speak, conversations and consultation. They also help ensure that the offer letters include the statement about compliance with the ADA, the contact information and contact information for the designated central office. We don't want for there to be any surprises or lack of kind of transparency or information for folks to understand where can I go in the context of this appointment, where can I go to request an accommodation? And then again, their role to inform the parties of those accommodation requests. So being mindful of their role, promoting that internally, ensuring that kind of those who are being employed within that school or college have information and are the conduit of those accommodation requests, implementation kind of an approvals. So they receive and respond to those employing the accommodation request, facilitate the implementation and can request funding from the central accommodation fund. And I would say that this is all kind of done in partnership together with myself in the Rackham Central Office. As was kind of mentioned earlier, kind of this duty to accommodate, I don't want to kind of reiterate all of the things that Christina said, but do want to just kind of highlight this last point on the slide, which says we do not have to modify our academic standards as an accommodation. And I think sometimes this can feel really challenging or maybe cumbersome, but it is helpful I think to keep in mind that there are some things that occur within the context of graduate education or as an academic standard that don't have to be modified in order to ensure that there is a reasonable accommodation. So for example, a dissertation, I would say it would be highly unlikely that a dissertation standard would be eliminated for a PhD student. And what then might be helpful as far as an accommodation, the flexibility kind of addition in order for this student employee or student in this case to be able to kind of meet those academic standards and kind of have the necessary accommodations for their success as a student here. So this is all I think again, conversation and in partnership. And there are things that kind of need to happen in the context of the academic space for the conferral of that degree. Resources, as I mentioned, and as you've kind of seen iterated in multiple capacities, the Central Accommodation Fund, ergonomic assessments do just want to share a little bit of a resource there for folks who have an interest. And then the offices that have been mentioned and are in some ways represented in this session, ECRT and then the Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services. So as far as ergonomic assessments go, there is this fantastic resource in OHS, the Occupational Health Services of staff who can work with you to provide guidance and assistance to facilitate a successful match between an employee's abilities and the job site needs. I was just speaking with a graduate student employee earlier today around kind of the needs that they have for being able to kind of sit and move between different stations. And so we're talking through, where might the best place be to get this assessment or to understand what will be the most helpful for you, kind of given the needs that you have shared. And so this would be kind of one place, in addition to perhaps not a medical provider or other supplemental information to get a sense of what is most helpful when it comes to ergonomics or a worksite disability accommodation. And they can be accessed on this and healthy.umich.edu webpage. I won't go down the list of ECRT resources as well, but do you want to say some of the questions I had seen earlier were around like, well, where do we go? What happens if, you know, an accommodation kind of isn't one approved, maybe denied? I feel as though I might be kind of receiving harassment or discrimination over a disability or perceived disability. And again, we, at least in the Rackham office would always kind of refer and connect those students and student employees with ECRT to kind of talk through that there is a conversation around concerns for compliance or other, excuse me, federal or state laws and regulations related to individuals with disabilities. Okay, that was it for me. And I know it's a lot. Some of it is very, you know, similar. Some of it is, you know, kind of dissimilar in different ways. Things that I was just curious about and wanted to at least pose for the good of the group is, you know, what kind of comes up for you as a result of this information, any specific questions related to academic versus employment accommodations? And then, you know, specifically what might be needed further, right? In your program or department that would be helpful kind of in this regard related to either student academic accommodations or graduate student employee accommodations. So I'll leave it there. I'll stop my screen share and then I'll direct it back to you, Madeline to help lead us into the next component. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Mallory. I want to acknowledge that this has been a lot of information in the past hour. And so if everyone needs like a few seconds to decompress, think about it, please take that time. But we will be transitioning into a Q&A portion. People have been asking questions throughout and I really appreciate those questions. And so I am excited to head into the Q&A portion but there is still time and will be still time throughout the Q&A for you to continue asking your questions. And we will do our very best to get to as many as we can or at least definitely try to pick up some of the questions that have been asked kind of repeatedly with slightly different wording. Okay, so yeah, thank you so much Mallory and Christina and now we'll put you in a little bit of a hot seat to answer some of these questions. And just before we go into the Q&A I want to put a link to a survey about this event in the chat. This I will also be plugging it at the end of the event and in an email after the event. So if you do not have the bandwidth to get to it right now, that's totally fine. We really want your feedback for this event. We, this event was guided by feedback that we've got from students in RACM who have disabilities and we want that experience of multiple many students at RACM to continue informing our programming for the rest of the spring. So we really, really appreciate any of your feedback for this event. Okay, so now I think we'll jump into the Q&A. So let me get that, add, great. Okay, I might remove myself from the spotlight but I don't know if I can look at myself for that long. Okay, fantastic. So we will get to some of these questions. We have questions coming in. Thank you very much for everyone for your questions. Hopefully we can get to as many as we can. We have plenty of time in the next 30 minutes to hopefully cover a lot of these. So I think this one is sort of overall question about the ADA and how that functions at the University of Michigan. So the question is, since the ADA is a backbone legislation of baseline rights, what is the university's responsibility to ensure graduate students and workers' rights are fully met? In other words, what does thinking beyond compliance look like for the university? And either Mallory or Christina can jump in on either of these but maybe this would be a given for Christina to start with. Of course. So starting very high level, again, it goes back to those baseline rights of prohibitions against discrimination and harassment and the responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations. And the guidance that we've received from a legal perspective, this is separate from the question of beyond compliance, right? So starting first with compliance is around ensuring that we have the structures in place so that folks are able to make these requests and that as a result of these processes and structures, the university engages in an individualized interactive process in order to assess or assess and determine reasonable accommodations and that that process be available throughout anybody's participation or engagement with the university. As graduate students, as I mentioned, we have processes and structures both in SSD and in RACM and both of those offices engage in this interactive process, including interfacing with the graduate student in the academic setting or graduate student in the employment setting, gathering appropriate documentation, clarifying barriers and then communicating with the unit or through the accommodate system allowing for communication to individual faculty around various reasonable accommodations that have been approved. The other thing that's important to know is as I mentioned, having that structure around reporting and looking into and addressing a discrimination or discriminatory harassment is through my office. So those are what the university has done to ensure meeting those responsibilities. At the same time though, what we were trying to do in addition to that, our activities like this are trying to bolster our communication and our visibility, our awareness about our offices as resources that folks know where they can go in order to navigate this and request those different information about those various protections. So in terms of what beyond compliance looks like, it is just that, of course, we put these structures in place to make sure that we're meeting our responsibilities. But then there's also these efforts across the university to bake in accessibility, to explore wherever is feasible and appropriate and where we can and where we can encourage and support efforts for universal design, whether that's in the space itself, whether that's in a program, whether that's pedagogically or in learning. That's talking about incorporating suggested practices where it's not just about on an event saying, if you need accommodations, here's the phone number for it. It's also trying to disseminate information about how to create a more inclusive and accessible experience so that folks don't have to request accommodations. And that's where a lot of the encouragement is. The other piece of going beyond compliance is actually really a lot of these various efforts, including through a lot of the efforts that Mallory was talking about that we're trying to be involved in around raising awareness just generally in that DEI, we do have those great initiatives that have been going on for the last seven years or so. But over the last seven years, there's been a growing demand. I don't want to say demand, but really just being like, this is disability's part of this, part of our DEI efforts. So DEI efforts are not legally required per se, but they're being put into place because we know that that's what supports a more inclusive and more accessible and a more just a better environment for folks that folks want to stay in. So these efforts to try and also increase awareness around disability and incorporate disability as part of diversity, but also the diversity of disability within that as well. And then I guess finally, I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought. There was a third one I promised that I was saying in terms of kind of going beyond compliance. It's, I will think of it. So I'm going to turn over to Mallory for a second, but basically I said meeting compliance with these structures and these processes and these offices and resources, trying to increase awareness around those resources to make sure that folks are nowhere available for those protections and those rights and those processes, but then also all these other advocacy efforts to increase in universal design and accessibility to make sure that folks can show up without needing to make the request. And again, these are things around suggested practices that can, oh, oh, oh, sorry. And also creating more resources to support this. So say for example, like my office recently, we were just able to obtain some funding to hire two American Sign Language interpreters for events and for employees. We've also obtained funding, centralized funding for CART services for events and for employees as well. So it's continuing to engage in these initiatives to increase funding and increase resources that aren't just so that we're trying to be responsive but being proactive. Thank you. All right, that's it. And I honestly wouldn't add much onto that aside from I think emphasizing the importance of addressing this from the lens of an inclusive climate and culture, which again, I think hasn't not been present but is working to be more present kind of in the university setting. And this is a big place. There are lots of levels and sizes and programs and departments. And so I think that just further speaks to the responsibility that we have as community members to share the information that we have, raise the concerns we see, continue to kind of advocate either for yourself or others kind of within the disability community for the benefit of the entire campus community. And so I think just engaging in conversations like this, continuing to ensure that folks are connected. If someone raises a concern or an issue with you, then like take that into account, like take that with you for future planning, for future events, for other things like that. And that's some of the work that we try to emphasize at least in our consultations with programs and faculty around. So now you know, and now this is something that kind of has come up, what would this look like if that were included in how you approached your teaching and how you approached the writing of your syllabus, how you approached, how you proctor or administer an exam, again, for the benefit of all the students in the class. All right, thank you for answering that question. For those who would like to see these questions written, they should be in the Q&A under answered. And if they're not, please let me know and I will try to fix it. Okay, so the next question is about some of the data that Mallory shared from that report about disability and accessing accommodations. And the question is, how do you explain the very low numbers of accommodations that are actually formally requested by graduate student workers compared to the large numbers who said such accommodations would be useful to them? Yeah, I don't know if there's like the super clear answer that maybe would be helpful to you. What I can say is that there is kind of the formal request process for students, employees with disabilities to request those accommodations. I think the report highlighted that that's not comprehensively known or clear to all graduate student employees. And so I think that that demonstrated the disconnect or the absence of like proactive information that could go to the benefit of a graduate student employee who may need or want to request an accommodation but is unsure how to do that, doesn't know that there's point people designated to assist in that process or that they could consult with myself or other offices around the implementation of that. I think what the report did highlight is that, again, there's challenges at multiple levels of the accommodation process and something that I was just chatting with a colleague about a few weeks ago is that graduate school is this really interesting time in our lives when we might be doing very different things than what we were previously doing or maybe learning in different ways than we previously were learning and that there might have been strategies or mechanisms that we use to kind of manage or to address the needs that we had that are totally different in the graduate school context. And so sometimes it's just that change of context that can lead to kind of that barrier or maybe lack of information around like, oh, what do I do? Or this has never presented for me in this way before and I'm not sure kind of what to make of it. So I think it's more than just, I guess the numbers in one way but it's really about the awareness and the understanding and then I think people's like confidence, right? And like the ability to be able to reach out in these ways to seek the accommodations requested. Christina, do you have anything that you would like to add? Okay, I couldn't tell if your arm was moving so I'm sorry to run to you. Sorry, no, no. Okay, well then this next question, I think is probably for Christina to answer. And it is, who ultimately gets the say on what is reasonable when it comes to accommodations or essential when it comes to essential duties? Is it ultimately the employer slash institution that decides what resource do persons with disabilities have if there is a disagreement? Absolutely, so when it comes to determining both things essential functions and reasonableness. So when it comes to essential functions, yeah, when it comes to essential functions and reasonableness we do have guidance from federal regulations about what both of those things look like and factors and considerations that go into that. So there's just that, like just first of all that's not the answer but just some guidance that guides the ultimate determinations. In terms of who makes the ultimate say it is more of a collaboration where ultimately my office is often consulted and can give guidance on what from a legal right from a legal perspective what is reasonable and required here what is essential or marginal and then give that guidance to the unit and give them the ultimate that ultimately it's up to them if they don't take our guidance then we might need to escalate that as part of it but basically I said I'm a guidance body to give that guidance folks and most folks do adhere to that. Here's the thing, I don't make that decision with just one perspective ever. That is not something that I just listen to the unit and that's that the unit's perspective is critical just as the person with the disabilities perspective is critical especially when there is a disagreement that I might gather additional evidence and do additional inquiry whether that's when it comes to essential functions right a unit says well no or no yes everybody has to do this it's important it's critical it's in the job description and the employee says no I've never done that I did it once and no one else has to that's where I need to resolve that by doing some I'm a neutral entity right I'm not here to advocate for anybody or any entity I am here as a the university is entrusting me with telling them what they need to do to make sure we're meeting our legal responsibilities to give them guidance and options to go above and beyond that as well and then part of that includes doing my due diligence in gathering information that's necessary and appropriate to make that call whether that's talking to other employees in the area doing site visits, consulting with other experts outside of this and reviewing documentation I take into account all that information as part of that for reasonableness again same sort of thing there's these guiding principles that I take into consideration when looking at this but again when we look at what's the impact on the unit I'm looking at not just what the unit says but I'm also trying to understand the employee's perspective as well so that's why there's a lot of back and forth in these processes an employee will tell me something I go to the unit and say hey can we do this well that's not reasonable for XYZ reason I'm not just then like okay you said this you said that and I'm just gonna go with that the next step is usually for me to go back to the employee and say here's what I'm being told is not reasonable and why let's talk it through let's discuss it of course when it comes to recourse there's a few options when it comes to for example if there's a concern about an accommodation that's being made by services for students with disabilities office the appeals come to me similarly my office is here to consult on any disagreements for other accommodations processes whether they're managed by RACM or managed by other designees other areas in the university that manage other types of accommodations processes my if there is a disagreement with my judgment and outcome then I escalate that up to my leadership and then it's reviewed independently with my leadership as well so those are kind of the levels and layers of those decisions and determinations and decision-making. Do you think you could give an example of like what kinds of things might not fall under reasonable? Not really the answer is always it depends I was like I'm not like yeah I can I can't it always it always depends and that is the reason that it has to be this individualized process but here's what I mean by that okay so but I can I can give some examples for example it could be completely reasonable to modify your scheduling in one unit because the nature of your job is such that you know when you it doesn't really matter when you arrive you just need to make sure that you start consistently each time for like a lab for example you work in a lab you run experiments the experience honestly need to start at 8 a.m. but they need to start the same time every day so maybe we can set that time to 10 a.m. or something along those lines whereas there may be other areas where actually your role is specifically to teach a class at that starts at 8 a.m. so there may not be that flexibility and it may not be reasonable to allow for the class to not start on time because it has that impact on the students and their learning as well but again that's a very basic example each one it can be completely reasonable in one and unreasonable in another even when I said typically not I said typically because for example transfer to a new supervisor past precedent matters when it comes to reasonableness so if I'm working with a unit where the past precedent is we kind of shift people around like you know I don't have a problem we have 40 supervisors and 400 employees that's a lot but like you know and 40 employees or 80 employees so we can shift them around pretty well without much impact then it's reasonable whereas we have one supervisor for this unit and there's no one else to provide that supervisory capacity then it might not be reasonable to provide an alternative supervisor for that person we could explore alternatives though so even if I make a recommendation that based on the impact I'm hearing based on maybe a modification of essential functions I don't think this is a reasonable accommodation but that doesn't stop us that doesn't stop the conversation it's what all their alternatives are there available maybe we don't change your supervisor but we change how you communicate with your supervisor maybe we allow you to have a support person present when you have certain types of meetings with your supervisor or we make sure that there's a Google document with agenda in minutes so that there is no misunderstanding about what was discussed during a meeting some folks would prefer to meet in Zoom in person it just depends on kind of that what would work for the person so we can propose alternatives but they still work always with the goal of an effective alternative as well I don't know if that fully answered the question but ultimately a lot of factors go into it and it's always an individualized determination which I know can be frustrating when that folks are asking for guidance but that's the thing if you have a question so if you have a question about anything related to anything related to disability accessibility accommodations like I said my office might not be the right office to pursue employment accommodations as a graduate student it might not be the right office to pursue academic accommodations but you just wanna talk for a second and ask like, well, what do you think? Well, let's talk some more I will be upfront and say well, these are the resources that we're gonna need to connect you to but we can also talk through things and I can offer as much information as I can I won't be able to answer everything because we won't be able to engage that interactive process I won't know what your unit will say but you can always start with us and see kind of kick the tires see kind of what answers you might need to help you make a decision about where I move forward coughing fit while you're talking so I'm sorry that my voice is gone so we had several, oh my goodness we had several questions about documentation and the challenges in getting documentation I promise I'm fine so the question is there's a perceived hierarchy within those with disabilities those with invisible disabilities have a burden of proof that can be easily manipulated to deny accommodation given the context and the needs and challenges of getting documentation for disabilities I'd like to hear your views on the system that currently exists as well as the shortcomings at Michigan Do you want me to start Mallory or do you want to start? Okay, I'm going to try and answer this one if I don't get through it all just like correct me, right? Bring me back to it because I do tend to go off on tangents okay, given the difficulty of the hierarchy of disabilities that often times there's a I understand that and you know I've worked with folks about the and understand the reported stigma of non-apparent disabilities versus apparent disabilities or kind of the combination, right? Where I have a disability that may be for example, if someone might have a disability where it's apparent in one context but perhaps not another and everything in between so when it comes to documentation as I mentioned even for apparent disabilities like I can tell what the disability is if there isn't a apparent if it's unapparent what the accommodation need is there would still be and it would still be appropriate to ask for medical documentation under the law from the legal perspective so when it comes to that I do recognize that that is an additional step that folks need to take in the process the reason we do that though is because it's the formal route is to formalize the accommodations it's to make sure that we have all the appropriate information in place and to make sure that when we set those accommodations they are difficult to remove when a reasonable accommodation has been put into place it can't just be removed without any consultation or guidance or without the appropriate level of scrutiny from the institution and a meeting of pretty high burden to demonstrate that it's not reasonable that it needs to be modified for some reason so that's why we still pursue this documentation process as part of the interactive process set out and contemplated under the Americans with Disabilities Act based on the guidance that we've received from the federal agencies that have forced this law so when it comes to the current systems in place academic employee graduate student employee what we try to account for within all of these processes is to understand that there may be to be some time to get documentation and in all those cases like with any interactive process it's individualized so what we do try to assess and try to put into place is are there accommodations that we can put into place in an interim basis for a certain period of time while we're waiting for some documentation to be pending or while we're waiting for the accommodations process to be pending now what accommodations are put in place interim or temporarily and for how long that's always gonna be a case by case individualized assessment so again we do try to account for the fact that there are barriers to receiving documentation we also try to be familiar with and connecting folks to resources whether it's the Michigan Rehabilitation Services Office whether it's resources through SSD or on the state level which is MRS the Michigan Rehabilitation Services Office is one of those to try and connect folks to agencies that can provide either funding or facilitate testing working with maybe our internal UHS or others FaceApp to try and facilitate quicker referrals to specialists as well so we're still in each case trying to assess what can we do while the case while the request is pending and how can we help facilitate access to that documentation? Yeah. I was just gonna add I think there is also not necessarily like documentation can look a number of ways and come from a number of places and so just being mindful and I think attentive of that and then working kind of as best we can with what we have at the moment to then like review and kind of implement requests with what is provided I think when it comes from like the informal to the formal as Christina mentioned like that while another step I think does can provide a layer of protection right kind of at the institution for both the program and the student or employee and so you know thinking of that as something that helps solidify right the ability to kind of have that accommodation in place I think is helpful too but it looks yes very very different. Okay, thank you. I think this question might be easy to answer. So and I think I'll have Mallory give it a try. So this question is if you have a permanent condition do we have to renew our ADA accommodations for GSI every semester? If so, why and how can we navigate going through that process? Yes, thank you. So if you are a GSSI yes every kind of new position that you hold even if it's you're still a GSI but you're a GSI for a different course or different faculty it needs to be kind of a new request because it's in a new employment or appointment context. And I would say if there are challenges with that or concerns over that that would be a great kind of like direct kind of connect for us to kind of problem solve or navigate with like the initial request what then can we keep in mind for the future? How might this kind of be helpful in information sharing? But if there was an request made in winter or excuse me in fall 2022 that was one appointment period that ended and then now if there's a new appointment in winter 23 that's a new appointment period that has begun. And so the request needs to be made kind of each time. Okay, thank you. I think we only have time for one more question and I am seeing a lot of questions is sort of to me expressing generalized frustration at the accommodation process. And so I just want to take this time to acknowledge that frustration and say that it is valid for all the people who are experiencing it. And I'm sorry that we did not get to all of these more specific questions but this question I'm hoping like can kind of encapsulate some of these frustrations that people are expressing and that is what can you do if you believe the university is engaging in bad faith in the process? So I do want to note that since we're not getting to all the questions, I'm happy to offer up that I can review the questions afterward and offer answers and guidance on this as much as possible. Although note that talking through it might be a little bit easier so I'll try and note that when I write out an answer. When there are concerns about bad faith interaction or bad faith engagement in the interactive process it's gonna depend on who the bad faith actor is. If it's anyone at the university other than me or my office, you can report that to my office and we will intervene to help facilitate that and to try to address that, to try to get the interactive process back on track. And if there's particularly egregious behavior then we might explore or we might talk with you about other options like say there's been some conduct that you're concerned is discriminatory in nature that we want to look at or that you would like to have looked at as a potential violation of the university's policies against that. So that is our role is to again, part of my ensuring that we are meeting our responsibilities is also to help facilitate the interactive process to make sure it's on track, moving along in good faith. And even if it's not bad faith or egregious conduct per se but there's a question like I just don't think that outcome was right or I have a question this doesn't seem it's just going in a direction I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with. You can start with me and like I said we can help step in and try and manage that process to make sure that we get to the right outcome that we get to that good faith ultimate engagement and reengagement in the process if needed. If it's my office, if it's me, right? The next step of course would be my supervisor but also we do have external kind of reporting about our office as well. If you're concerned that I've engaged in discrimination or harassment or that I violated our policies in some way then I would direct you to my leader who would then direct you. I believe it's to like an external resource to look into that and review that conduct. I do just want to mention sorry I'm looking at the Q and A as well. I saw just a question here that I want to shout out which is that people can get involved in GEO for disability rights. I didn't, I'm so sorry. I should have mentioned that on that advocacy resources page but yes very active whether it's in actual active union contract bargaining or there's also ongoing initiatives and I know activities and exploring different ways to again to continue to either improve or change the university's processes or policies but also to change and improve the university as a in terms of climate and environment community. So definitely get involved with that group as well. And yes. There was one also I think comment on this early question just around like what might even be an accommodation, right? And I know that Christina provided some examples and this has I think come up in different capacities and in different spaces at least that I've been in. So I'm aware that there are conversations around not as an exhaustive list but to say for example like here are some things that might be considered you know kind of an accommodation outside of a conversation and that's actually something that a committee on campus is looking to kind of cultivate or just kind of understand better like where that could live and then who kind of updates that and has responsibility for it but I definitely appreciate the point around yes having a conversation is good and if I could just even like dabble in understanding what might be possible for me that that would also be equally as helpful. And so along those lines too we're updating our website to try and be a little bit clearer about where you can go and what those things all look like as well. So it's not just like, here's a lot of information we're trying, we're working with our website person to really improve our communication. So there's that as well as the other resources there is also a resource disability.umich.edu that just kind of lists a lot of different resources around disability and accessibility at the university. It gives kind of descriptions of those. I'm not sure how, whether you know you'd have to navigate it a little bit to really look at in terms of like accommodations in terms of processes and resources but there is kind of that was intended to be available so folks could maybe check that out first before having to reach out to my office or if you're not comfortable reaching out to my office or others than doing that first as well. All right, fantastic. Thank you both so much for taking the time to answer questions as well as talk to us about both of your roles. I'm sorry for mysteriously dropping out of Zoom. I have no idea what happened but I also really wanna thank everyone who attended for their attendance. I really, really appreciate it. We will be putting some of those resources and websites as well as Mallory and Christina's emails in the chat as well as in an email that will be coming out after this event. And I will do one last plug for the survey. Please take it and let me know what you wanna see for future events for this community. And we are at 630 so thank you so much for being here and thank you both to Mallory and Christina for sharing all of this information. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good evening. Have a good evening, everyone.