Audio Recorded Lectures
An audio recorded lectures accommodation allows students to record audio of class material including lectures, discussions, presentations, and demonstrations. Students may use a personal device such as a digital recorder, phone, or computer to record audio. Recordings are for personal review and studying purposes and may be used to annotate notes or create a text transcript.
Audio recorded lectures allows students with disabilities an equitable opportunity to receive, record, and process information presented in class. Audio recordings are the equivalent of written notes taken by other students.
Who is this for?
Audio recorded lectures may be necessary to support equitable learning opportunities for learners:
- Who experience barriers to perceiving information presented in visual format only.
- Who experience barriers to capturing and reviewing lecture content in visual forms.
- That use assistive listening devices, amplifiers, or transcription services.
- Who experience barriers to perceiving information presented orally.
- Whose spelling, grammar, and punctuation and or clarity and organization of written expression is significantly below expected level.
- Whose stamina, energy, or ability to engage is significantly diminished by disability.
- Experiencing significant pain due to persistent, episodic, or temporary medical conditions impacting the ability to take notes.
- Who have physical difficulty writing quickly and legibly or typing.
- Have difficulty filtering out distracting visual and auditory stimuli impacting their ability to focus, process information and record information.
- Whose disability impacts their reading comprehension, accuracy, rate, or fluency or causes significant reading fatigue.
- Who experience barriers to interpreting and understanding audio information, even if their hearing is unaffected.
- Who experience barriers to processing information and benefit from reviewing audio notes at their own pace.
- Whose ability to follow information over short periods is significantly impact by disability.
- Requiring the use of assistive technology such as specialized note-taking, transcription, or mind mapping software.
This accommodation supports students to:
- Focus on lecture content by alleviating extraneous limitations on their ability to take notes.
- Equitably access class material. Audio recordings are the equivalent of written notes taken by other students.
- Augment their own note-taking efforts.
- Understand and organize information.
- Review concepts and ideas.
- Revisit instructions and guidelines.
- Prepare for tests and assessments.
- Enhance the detail and accuracy of notes.
- Engage and actively participate in class.
- Be more autonomous.
- Use assistive technology in class.
What it is
Audio recorded lectures are a direct equivalent of other students’ notetaking methods. Students may record audio in any situation in which other students are permitted to type or write notes. Students may use an audio recorder or software on a phone, tablet, or laptop computer.
Students are responsible for making and storing their own recordings. Recordings are only for the student’s individual personal use to study, review, and prepare.
Instructors will be informed via accommodation letter that their lectures will be recorded.
Right to privacy and copyright concerns do not override a student’s right to this accommodation.
Some institutions have students sign an agreement that recordings are for personal study use only and recordings will not be shared. Accessibility services offices will work with students and instructors to develop recording agreements.
What it’s not
An audio recorded lectures accommodation is not:
- A barrier that prevents students from working with peers or in experiential settings.
- A substitute for attending and engaging with in-person instruction and discussion.
- A change to course or program requirements.
Audio recordings may not be shared with any other person, even a student in the same class.
Recordings are not to be reviewed by the instructor, nor can instructors request recordings be destroyed as they are the equivalent of other student’s written notes.
Recordings do not compromise the privacy or confidentiality of discussions. Students can only record when all other students are permitted to take notes. More information on privacy is available below.
How can I support this in my classroom?
Coordinate with accessibility services offices and accommodate student requests to place a recording device near you.
Inform guest speakers that the class will be recorded.
There are instances where recording may not be possible. However, in any instance that students are permitted to type or handwrite notes, a student with an audio recorded lectures accommodation must be permitted to record. Remember, the audio recording is the direct equivalent of written or typed notes.
A classroom is built on an implicit consent to the recording on paper or digital document by anyone in class of all comments, questions, and discussions. As an audio recording is a direct equivalent to note-taking, students implicitly consent to the recording of audio as a necessity of a student’s accommodation.
Some classroom discussions include personal disclosure, confidential information, and particularly sensitive subjects. In those instances, best practice would be to inform the class that no one should record the session, be it via handwritten, typed, or audio recorded notes.
Allowing students to type or handwrite notes but prohibiting a student from recording audio will be a failure of the legal duty to accommodate as the audio recording is the student’s substitute for written or typed notes.
Instructors can record lectures and distribute the files via the institution’s LMS or email. Recording lectures allows instructors to stop and start, or retroactively edit, the recording as appropriate to exclude sensitive discussions.
Additional Notes
British Columbia law allows individuals to record without consent, provided one party is aware of the recording (Privacy Act of British Columbia, S. 2(2)(a)).
Students may request to put a digital recorder or phone close to the speaker.
Audio recording outside of typical classroom instruction such as clinical settings, fieldwork, etc. may need to be tailored on a case-by-case basis. Collaboration between instructors, students, accessibility services staff, and appropriate external parties may be needed.
