Editing Herzing Issues: ADA and Disability Accommodations (section)

=== HU-189: Herzing failed to provide virtual simulation presentation slides at least 24 hours in advance as required by the reporting student's written accommodation letter ===
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
! style="width:14em" | Severity
| Critical
! Status
| CONFIRMED. Unlike most accommodation entries in this tracker, the underlying accommodation is expressly documented in writing in the February 3, 2026 accommodation letter, so no verification of the accommodation's existence is required
|-
! Issue type
| Failure to Deliver an Expressly Documented Written Accommodation, Advance Provision of Synchronous Session Slides
! Date added
| 2026-08-05
|-
! Owner
| colspan="3" | Heather Gregg (Clinical II faculty) / Dr. Raywattie Prashad (Program Chair) / Jessica Tressler / Emilie Thompson (ADA and Title IX Coordinator) / Dr. Danielle Laban (Associate Vice President, Student Affairs)
|}
'''Finding.''' The reporting student's approved accommodations, as set out in writing by Emilie Thompson, ADA and Title IX Coordinator, on February 3, 2026, expressly include that the instructor should provide the PowerPoint slides for any synchronous session to the student at least 24 hours prior to that synchronous session. For the virtual simulation session scheduled for Wednesday, August 5, 2026 in NSG525 Clinical II, that accommodation was not delivered. On August 4, 2026 at 10:02 AM, Heather Gregg wrote that she had been asked to provide review materials, but stated that she did not have access to the PowerPoint presentations that would be used during the session, and instead supplied her own topical presentations on Schizophrenia, PTSD, and ADHD together with Nursing Leadership materials provided by Dr. Prashad. She further noted uncertainty as to the session content itself, stating that Wednesday's topics were to include Schizophrenia, Nursing Leadership, and PTSD, but that PTSD may have already been covered on Day 2 and might be replaced by ADHD, so she was providing materials for both possibilities. The reporting student replied the same morning asking how to obtain the actual case studies, noting he had received them the prior week from Jessica Tressler, and explaining that they are very hard to read because they are very small on the screen and because he is unable to move back and forth between slides. At 9:09 PM that evening, roughly the eve of the session, the reporting student emailed six Herzing recipients stating he still had not received the slides, that he could not complete the associated assignment because he was struggling to read them on the small screen share, that the screen share is not compatible with his screen reader or zoom features because it is pixelated, and that his accommodation requires the materials at least 24 hours in advance, which had not occurred. At 9:17 PM he sent a parallel Microsoft Teams message to Dr. Prashad, Emilie Thompson, Dr. Laban, and Dr. Black, in which he stated he understood the university wished to keep the virtual simulation slideshows confidential, disclaimed any intention of sharing or publicizing them, and asked the university to confirm that it intended to comply with his accommodations as written. In that message he also stated that he had received the materials the prior week only after pushback, that he is not receiving effective extended time because the professor advances to the next slide before he has finished reading, and that he has the right to use a screen reader and to print the materials. The reporting student has separately described the institution's stated rationale as a desire to keep copyrighted or proprietary simulation material from being released, while nonetheless displaying that same material to students on a screen share he cannot magnify or process with assistive technology.

'''Evidence.''' Accommodation letter, Emilie Thompson, February 3, 2026, subject "Academic Accommodations Updated," addressed to faculty and copied to the reporting student, Dr. Prashad, and Dr. Laban, stating among the approved accommodations that the instructor should provide the PowerPoint slides for any synchronous session to the student at least 24 hours prior to any synchronous session, and separately that the instructor should record and transcribe any live or synchronous learning session and provide a copy to the student. Email, Heather Gregg, August 4, 2026, 10:02 AM: statement that she did not have access to the PowerPoint presentations to be used during the session, provision of substitute topical materials, and description of unresolved uncertainty as to whether the session would cover PTSD or ADHD. Email, the reporting student, August 4, 2026, 10:15 AM: request for the actual case studies and description of difficulty reading them at small size and inability to move between slides. Email, the reporting student, August 4, 2026, 9:09 PM, subject "Sims": statement that the slides had still not been received, that the screen share is pixelated and not compatible with his screen reader or zoom, that he requires a hard copy to complete the assignment, and that his accommodation requires provision at least 24 hours in advance. Microsoft Teams message, the reporting student, August 4, 2026, 9:17 PM: acknowledgment of the university's confidentiality interest, disclaimer of any intent to share the material, statement that he received materials the prior week only after pushback, statement that he is not receiving effective extended time because the presenter advances slides before he finishes, and request for written confirmation of intent to comply. (Source Group: email, Heather Gregg to the reporting student, cc Jessica Tressler and Dr. Raywattie Prashad, August 4, 2026, 10:02 AM Central, subject "Supplemental Materials for Sim Day"; the reporting student's reply, August 4, 2026, 10:15 AM Central; the reporting student's email, August 4, 2026, 9:09 PM Central, subject "Sims," to Dr. Danielle Laban, Dr. Raywattie Prashad, Heather Gregg, the ADA office, Emilie Thompson, and David Steele; Microsoft Teams group chat message from the reporting student, August 4, 2026, 9:17 PM, to Dr. Prashad, Emilie Thompson, Dr. Laban, and Dr. Stephanie Black; and the governing accommodation letter, Emilie Thompson, ADA and Title IX Coordinator, February 3, 2026, subject "Academic Accommodations Updated.")

'''Reported statement.'''
<blockquote>[Accommodation letter, Feb 3, 2026:] Instructor should provide the powerpoint slides for any synchronous session to the student at least 24 hours prior to any synchronous session. [The reporting student, Aug 4, 2026:] I still have not received the respective slides for the assignment for tomorrow. That is not compliant with my accessibility features such as the screen reader or the zoom feature because it is pixelated. [Heather Gregg, Aug 4, 2026:] I do not have access to the PowerPoint presentations that will be used during the session.</blockquote>

'''Standards.''' Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. §794, and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §12181 et seq., together with 34 C.F.R. §104.44 (academic adjustments), require that approved academic adjustments actually be delivered. This entry is materially stronger than most accommodation entries in this tracker because the specific accommodation is expressly stated in Herzing's own February 3, 2026 accommodation letter in mandatory terms, so the question is one of delivery rather than of whether the accommodation exists or was approved. A stated institutional interest in protecting proprietary or copyrighted instructional material is not, without more, a defense to non-delivery, particularly where the same material is displayed to the student in a format he cannot access; the ordinary course would be to provide the material subject to confidentiality conditions, which the reporting student has stated he would accept. Whether Herzing in fact asserted a copyright or confidentiality rationale in writing, as opposed to the reporting student's account of what he was told, has not been confirmed from a Herzing-authored document in this entry and should be verified. The related accommodation in the same letter that the instructor record and transcribe any live or synchronous session and provide a copy to the student is also potentially engaged and should be checked for compliance.

'''Impact.''' The reporting student faced a graded virtual simulation session and an associated assignment on August 5, 2026 without access, in any usable format, to the presentation materials the assignment is based upon. He states he cannot read the material as displayed and cannot apply his screen reader or magnification to a pixelated screen share, and that the presenter advances slides before he has finished, which negates the practical benefit of extended time. Faculty were themselves uncertain what topics the session would cover, so the substitute materials provided may not correspond to the session content. This occurs in the same week as the compressed examination schedule documented in {{HU|HU-187}}, compounding the cumulative academic risk.

'''Notes.''' IMPORTANT COLLATERAL FINDING: the February 3, 2026 accommodation letter located in connection with this entry expressly documents 250 percent time on timed testing, a 72-hour assignment extension on request, advance provision of synchronous session slides, and recording and transcription of synchronous sessions. It does NOT, on its face, enumerate screen magnification or text-to-speech read-aloud as named accommodations. That bears directly on the open item flagged in {{HU|HU-175}} and in both pending OCR complaints, and should be reconciled before those filings are relied upon; there may be a later or supplemental accommodation letter, and the reporting student should be asked whether one exists. It is recommended that written confirmation be requested of whether Herzing asserts a copyright or confidentiality basis for withholding the simulation slides, and if so, why provision under a confidentiality condition is not workable given the reporting student's stated willingness to accept one. It is also recommended that the recordings and transcripts of the synchronous sessions, which the same accommodation letter requires, be requested. Cross-References: {{HU|HU-187}} (compressed examination schedule in the same period), {{HU|HU-175}} (accessibility failure cluster and the open question, now partly answered by the February 3, 2026 accommodation letter, of what accommodations are formally documented), {{HU|HU-186}} (accommodation gesture and integrity exposure), and the earlier tracker entries documenting clinical and simulation scheduling instability in NSG525 Clinical II.

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