At Penn State Harrisburg, we are committed to providing a welcoming, encouraging, and empowering environment for students with disabilities to ensure equal access, full participation, and reasonable accommodations for their academic pursuits. Student Disability Resources (SDR) engages students in an interactive process to review requests for academic accommodations. The approved accommodations are designed to ensure access to course content and programming while mitigating disability-related functional limitations that may adversely impact a student’s ability to fully participate.

When you receive an Academic Accommodation Letter, please review it promptly and discuss with the student how their accommodations will be implemented in your course. If you have any questions, the Disability Coordinator listed at the top of the letter is available to assist.

Flexible Accommodations

Students may also be approved for flexible accommodations related to attendance, assignment due dates, and/or rescheduling exams. If such accommodations are listed on a student's letter, please review and complete the corresponding Flexibility Agreement Form to clarify how these accommodations will be implemented in your course. This form serves as an addendum to your syllabus and should be returned to the student within 2 business days.

Testing Accommodations

Faculty are responsible for implementing approved accommodations, including testing accommodations. Upon receiving an accommodation letter, faculty should discuss with students how these accommodations will be carried out in the course.

To support the implementation of testing accommodations, the Student Disability Resources (SDR) office operates an Exam Center that provides a secure, accessible environment for proctored exams. The SDR Exam Center is located in the Student Enrichment Center (SEC), room 213. The SDR Exam Center is only for students registered with SDR. Hours of operation are Monday–Thursday, 8:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. and Fridays, 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. during the Fall and Spring semesters. Summer semester is by appointment only.

The SDR Exam Center serves both students and faculty by coordinating approved testing accommodations, including extended testing time, reduced-distraction testing spaces, and other accommodations as outlined in students' accommodation letters. The SDR Exam Center utilizes RegisterBlast (RB), an online platform that simplifies exam scheduling and submission for faculty and students. Faculty will need to enable RB in their Canvas course. To get started with RB, you may follow this online video tutorial, or the written instructions are provided below:

Setting up RegisterBlast (RB)

  • Log into your Canvas course
  • Select Settings
  • Select Navigation
  • Find the item called “RegisterBlast”
  • Click the three dots and choose Enable
  • Don’t forget to save

RB will now be available in Canvas for you to submit all quizzes and/or exams for students with approved academic accommodations. As a reminder, the SDR Exam Center is only for students registered with SDR.

To-Do List: Adding Quizzes & Exams for Students Registered With SDR

  • Navigate to RegisterBlast within your Canvas course. If you do not see RB, you will need to enable it in your course by going to Settings, Navigation, RegisterBlast, Enable, and then Save.
  • Click on the + (plus) symbol on the submissions page.
  • Add details and follow the prompts.
    • This is replacing the form that would have been sent via email from [email protected]. Adding them now will save you time and emails.
    • Please name your quiz/exam: “Name of Class, Section Number, Name of Exam.”
  • Add your quiz or exam now or later. You can edit your submission later if needed.
  • Students will be able to sign up for scheduled quizzes and exams directly through their SDR portal.

If you have a specific question regarding test procedures at SDR, please contact the Coordinator of SDR and Testing by phone at 717-948-6025 or by email at [email protected].