Skills You Need: An Introduction

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This lesson teaches you how to negotiate with a teacher or other staff person for the accommodations you need to be successful in college. We have organized these skills around the practical idea that you are having a meeting with the instructor or other person (we will say “staff member”) who would be giving you the accommodation. We realize that your request may not always happen in a face-to-face meeting. You might have a phone call or email exchange, for example. Or you might just talk informally after a class. In any case, if you know these skills you will know the best way to ask for, and get, your accommodations.

In this lesson you will:

  • Learn how to prepare to make your request and decide what accommodations are best for you;
  • Learn the three steps to a successful meeting with a staff person to request your accommodation;
  • Apply the steps to a personal hypothetical situation.
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