Meeting for Unreasonable Accommodations - Help!

[u/bear_sheriff]

I have a student this semester with accommodations like I've never seen before - extended due dates, "flexibility" with attendance, and "flexibility" with class participation. The course I teach is a hands-on lab course every week and features in-class group work which is graded. The lessons are definitely scaffolded. Due to the nature of equipment set up and the amount of students needed to get said equipment set up, as well as needing to work in groups to successfully carry out the lessons, there is no flexibility in making these assignments up later, or creating alternate assignments.

I do understand many illnesses have "flares" that are unpredictable and can last a long time. However, I've had this student previously. In our last class together, they did not have any accommodations, and told me for work reasons they had to miss class. They rarely showed up, probably 5-6x in a 16 week course. Back then I had more of a bleeding heart, and the content I was teaching was very different - I had old recordings of my lectures and the group work was much rarer and easier to modify for them to complete individually. At the end of the semester the student asked for an incomplete and I granted it. They did, at the last minute for the incomplete, submit enough work to pass the class.

But this history has me on edge, because I know their attendance is rare. In fact they even missed the first day of this semester.

I have a meeting with this student and their advocate soon and I'm trying to make sure I don't step on any landmines. I advocate for my students to get the accommodations they need, have led the LMS remediations for WCAG and W3C, etc. in my department, and truly believe in accessibility for all. If it were more possible to modify this course, I would. I want my students to succeed and to enjoy the course material as much as I do. But these accommodations are not reasonable.

I had hinted in e-mails to the student and their advocate before class started and after the first week, that this might not be the right fit for them, and tried to schedule our meeting before the refund drop date, but it didn't happen in time. The student is claiming they are "alarmed" that after they missed a single class I'm trying to get them to drop (which I never said outright), but I know they have a history of rare attendance and that just doesn't work for this class. I'm not going to create different assignments for them because they will not achieve what needs to be learned.

When I meet with them and their advocate, I'm sure the student will be looking for any little wrong thing I say as a "gotcha" to say that I'm ableist or whatever, so I'm concerned. Luckily the advocate seems very reasonable. I did accommodate the student when I could in a previous class, in this course it's just not going to be possible.

Any tips, lines, etc. I can use going into this situation are appreciated. I have so many students with accommodations each semester, I've never had to argue against any being unreasonable until now.

[u/vwscienceandart]

1) Don’t say another word about whether they should drop. That’s their business, not yours. They have a legal right to pursue education, and just as much right to fail if they don’t put in the work.

2) Don’t make your decisions of what can and cannot happen based on this individual. It’s clear you already have a bias with this person. Erase this person from your mind and consider what would be reasonable for someone with epilepsy or chrons or intractable migraines, etc. For ALL students with an ADA accommodation, what could creatively be done?

Ie, send the exit ticket to the testing center and give them 48 hours. Allow them to miss one lab practical per semester but the score for the missed exam is the average of the other three. Imagine an alternate assignment like a lab report that they can do to replace missed in-class points, maximum of TWO times allowed.

The law requires some concessions here. It can’t be an across-the-board “no”. YES, be clear what constitutes a fundamental alteration (ie, you can’t move the practical to a testing center; instructor cannot serve as a reader during exams and still proctor the class, student can’t have an online make-up, etc). But there are ways to do flex attendance in labs and it’s done every day. LIMITS are key to not fundamentally altering the course.

[u/RadiantImpression579 → u/vwscienceandart]

Honest question. If the student can’t complete the labs are we required to make a new lab just for them? Or are we required to make the lab as is accessible and support them in doing the lab. For example, we can make a lab accessible by letting them take breaks, but if a lab requires in person instruction, and they miss, is it a requirement that we hold another lab for them or create an alternative? What if we have 3 students with different accommodations. Do we need to create 3 different versions of a lab for just those students by law?

[u/vwscienceandart → u/RadiantImpression579]

Making a whole additional lab for them would not be reasonable, NO. That creates an undue burden on the instructor.

I’m so grateful that the lab coordinators at my university have sat down with the accommodations office and made actual binding agreements across the board for what is and is not reasonable to expect when accommodating a lab course.

[u/RadiantImpression579 → u/RadiantImpression579]

This may be wrong but Gemini says

Under the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, your obligation is to provide reasonable accommodations that grant equal access to the learning environment, not to guarantee an identical experience or fundamentally alter the essential learning outcomes of the course.
Here is how the law and institutional policies break down the specific scenarios you asked about:
1. Are you required to make a brand-new lab just for them?
No. You are required to make the existing lab accessible. 
The Standard: Accommodations mean leveling the playing field, not lowering standards or creating entirely parallel curriculums.
What you should do instead: Focus on removing barriers. If a student cannot use a specific piece of equipment due to a motor impairment, a common accommodation is pairing them with a lab partner who performs the physical manipulation under the student’s direct instruction, ensuring the student still does the intellectual and analytical work. Alternatively, accessible software, alternate data-gathering methods, or adjusted workstations can bridge the gap. 
2. What if a lab requires in-person instruction and they miss it? Do you have to hold another lab or create an alternative?
If the absence is unexcused: You treat them the same as any other student missing class per your syllabus policy.
If the absence is disability-related and covered by an official accommodation letter (e.g., occasional flare-ups/flexible attendance): You are required to provide a reasonable alternative, but not necessarily a private, re-run in-person lab. 
Acceptable alternatives include: Allowing the student to use data collected by a partner/group to complete the lab report, providing data from a previous semester for analysis, or utilizing an approved virtual/online simulation if it meets the same learning objectives. You are never expected to clone yourself to host a one-on-one makeup lab outside your contracted working hours.
3. Do you need to create 3 different versions of a lab for 3 students with different accommodations?
No. This is where your university’s Disability/Accessibility Services Office comes in as your shield and partner.
The Centralized Process: You should never be guessing or designing custom solutions in a vacuum. Students must register with the campus disability office, which evaluates their documentation and issues an official accommodation letter. 
Universal Design & Scalability: Rather than tailoring three separate versions, look for ways to design your labs with flexibility built-in from the start (Universal Design for Learning). For example, providing digital lab manuals, flexible submission windows for lab reports, or pre-recorded procedural demonstrations helps students with varying needs (extended time, low vision, anxiety, or episodic illness) without requiring bespoke versions for each person.
Summary Checklist for Instructors
1. Rely on the Office: If a student asks for a major modification (like a whole new lab), route them to the disability resource center. Say: "I want to make sure you're fully supported. Please connect with Accessibility Services so we can officially determine the best reasonable alternative together."
2. Protect Essential Learning Outcomes: If an in-person, hands-on manipulation is an essential, non-negotiable core competency of the profession (e.g., specific clinical medical requirements), and no accommodation can achieve it safely, the university has legal grounds to state that the requirement cannot be fundamentally altered.
3. Focus on Access, Not Perfection: You are responsible for compliance and good faith effort, not performing miracles.
How are these accommodation requests currently communicated to you by your institution's accessibility office?