Students with various types of disabilities use note-takers for a variety of reasons, including difficulty with hearing, memory, writing, spelling, or attention.

You must provide documentation that shows that the service is needed and discuss it with the appropriate OAR staff member.

No, you may not need them for some non-lecture classes – those administered in computer labs, for example. We encourage many students to record the class with a digital recorder. There are a variety of technology tools and apps that are now available to support independent note taking.

Ask for a Note-Taker Request Form for each class for which you need notes. Meet with your professor to discuss your needs. The Office of Accessibility Resources  (OAR) will simultaneously be looking for a note-taker as well.

When talking with the instructors during office hours early in the first week of class- find out how the course is structured, if there are notes or PowerPoint’s provided to all students or posted on blackboard. If these do not meet your needs, ask your professors to request a volunteer by making an announcement in class- bring the note-taker request form to the instructor and they will an announcement or pass the form around in class. OR You can ask a fellow classmate yourself if you feel comfortable doing so.

If you coordinate your own Note-Taker, bring the completed note-taker request form with the name and contact information to OAR so we can discuss our procedures and acknowledge them. The office will contact you using your MVCC email account if we have located a Note-Taker ourselves.

OAR will send an email to each note-taker explaining how the process works and how to use the copier in our office as a scanner. All approved note-takers are expected to view a Note-Taking PowerPoint training.

Your note-taker should scan notes using our copying machine right after class, or as soon as possible thereafter, and you should check your MVCC email account regularly to get your notes.

Review them daily.  If you need clarification or have a question, go to your instructors’ next office hours.  Record your classes and use the recording as a back-up to the notes.  Consider copying the notes over in your own handwriting or typing them on a computer.

No.  Any student can make private arrangements to share notes with a classmate. However, you must go through Office of Accessibility Resources (OAR) if you would like them scanned in and emailed or to make copies free of charge in our office.