DSP Accommodations
This page has information for students who are enrolled in (or plan to enroll in) the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP). For more information about DSP, see https://dsp.berkeley.edu/.
Table of contents
Exams
Exam Logistics Form
We will release an exam logistics form on Ed a few weeks before each exam.
If you need any alterations on the exam (e.g. alternate time, additional DSP accommodations not on your letter, DSP Proctoring Center, etc.), please fill out this form to let us know.
Other requests may get lost and won’t be considered. Do not email instructors or individual TAs with these requests. Please send everything through the form instead.
If you do not fill out the form, we will default you to the regular exam time (see below), in-person, proctored by TAs, with the accommodations on your DSP letter.
Exam Proctoring
We will be proctoring DSP exams ourselves, proctored by TAs, in a way that meets your accommodations.
You do not need to request proctoring from the DSP Proctoring Center, except in two cases:
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If you prefer to use the DSP Proctoring Center, please fill out the exam logistics form (released a few weeks before each exam). Use the box at the end of the form to explicitly say that you want to be proctored by the DSP Proctoring Center.
If you do not fill out the form, or fill out the form late, we will default you to being proctored by TAs.
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If we are unable to meet your accommodations ourselves, we will send you an email before each exam asking you to request proctoring through the DSP Proctoring Center.
Exam Times
Here are the regular exam times:
Midterm: Monday, October 19, 2026, 7–9 PM PT
Final: Thursday, December 17, 2026, 3–6 PM PT
DSP students with extended-time accommodations will receive information about their specific exam start and end times before each exam.
If you are unable to take the exam at the scheduled time, we will be offering only one alternate exam time, in-person only, immediately after the scheduled exam.
There are no other alternate exam times.
We will release an exam logistics form before each exam. To request the alternate-time exam or other exam arrangements, you will need to fill out this form.
Exam Accommodations
Here is a list of common exam accommodations, as well as how we plan on meeting them.
If you have any special requests, regardless of whether they are part of your accommodations or not, you can let us know by filling out the exam logistics form (released a few weeks before each exam).
If you have questions, or if you have an accommodation not listed here, feel free to email cs188@berkeley.edu.
| Accommodation | Description |
|---|---|
| Alternative to Scantron sheets | We don’t use Scantron sheets for in-person exams. |
| Computer with word processing for exams that require written text responses | If this accommodation is included in your DSP letter, please let us know through the exam logistics form so that we can make the appropriate arrangements. |
| Make-up exams | Please fill out the exam logistics form and/or email cs188@berkeley.edu ASAP if you can’t take an exam at the scheduled time, and we’ll do our best to determine an appropriate arrangement. The only alternate time we can offer is immediately after the exam. If we’re unable to schedule an alternate time for you in time, we may offer you an incomplete or replace your midterm score with your final exam score instead. |
| May need to eat, drink, or take medication during classes and exams | We don’t have any rules against eating, drinking, or taking medication during classes or exams. If you’d like us to explicitly remind any specific section TA about this while preserving your anonymity, just let us know by emailing cs188@berkeley.edu. |
| May need to leave and reenter room during classes and exams | We don’t have any rules against leaving the room during classes or exams. |
| May wear hat or sunglasses during classes and exams | May wear hat or sunglasses during classes and exams: We don’t have any explicit rules about what you can and cannot wear to classes and exams. If you’d like us to explicitly remind any specific section TA (e.g. discussion) about this (while preserving your anonymity), just let us know by emailing cs188@berkeley.edu. If you’d like a darker room to yourself during the exam, you can let us know by filling out the exam logistics form and we can try (but no guarantees). |
| Placement in room with white noise machine in use | You can wear headphones during exams if you’d like. Alternatively, if you’d like a room to yourself during the exam, so that you can play white noise out loud, you can let us know by filling out the exam logistics form and we can try (but no guarantees). We can also provide a physical white noise machine for you if you explicitly request it in the form. |
| Reduced distraction | We will assign you to an appropriate exam room that meets your accommodation. If there’s anything specific you need, please let us know by filling out the exam logistics form. |
| Rest breaks during exam | If there’s anything we can offer to make it easier for you to take rest breaks during the exam, please let us know by filling out the exam logistics form. |
| Room alone | We’ll assign you to a room by yourself. If you have specific additional requests, let us know by filling out the exam logistics form, and we’ll try our best to accommodate. |
| Time of day cannot take early/late | If the scheduled exam arrangements conflict with this accommodation, please let us know through the exam logistics form and we will work with you to find an appropriate arrangement. |
| Use of earplugs/noise canceling headset | We have no rules against DSP students using earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones during exams. We provide earplugs to all DSP exam rooms during the exam, or you can bring your own earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones. |
| Use of personal noise cancelling headphones in class and exams | We don’t have any rules against DSP students using noise-cancelling headphones in class. For exams, please follow the arrangements communicated by course staff. |
Pending Accommodations
This section is for students who are in the process of registering with DSP, but will not officially receive their letter of accommodation until after the exam date.
If this applies to you, then we can offer you an exam consideration:
Before the exam: Fill out the exam logistics form (released a few weeks before each exam), and indicate the accommodations that you are requesting. In the text box at the end of the form, write something like “I am requesting an exam consideration.”
After the exam: As soon as you receive your DSP letter of accommodation, send the letter to cs188@berkeley.edu. We know the DSP office can be slow, so it is okay if you receive your DSP letter a long time after the exam, or even after the end of the semester (e.g. in the case of a consideration on the final exam).
If the accommodations you requested are on your DSP letter, then you are good to go.
If the accommodations you requested do not match your DSP letter, we will work with you to figure out next steps, based on how big the discrepancy is. While we hope to avoid it, we do reserve the right to void your exam score and have you make up the exam score some other way (e.g. clobbering a voided midterm with your final exam z-score, or receiving an incomplete and taking next semester’s exam).
Extensions
Requesting Extensions
If you need extra time on any assignment, please fill out the extensions request for the corresponding assignments.
Other requests may get lost and won’t be considered. Do not email instructors or individual TAs with extension requests. Please send everything through the form instead.
Processing Extensions
We will process your requests in accordance with your accommodations; for example, if you have the “Extensions of up to 3 days” accommodation, we will approve extension requests up to 3 days for you.
Note that we do not automatically extend deadlines, even if you have extension accommodations on your letter. You will still need to fill out the form to request the extension.
If you need a longer extension than what’s listed on your letter, you can still fill out the form, and we will process your request on a case-by-case basis.
If you don’t have extension accommodations on your letter, you can still fill out the form, and we will process your request on a case-by-case basis.
If you need an extension for more than 7 days, please first talk to a staff member in OH or make a private post on Ed. We want to check in with you to make sure you’re not falling off track.
Classroom Accommodations
Here is a list of common classroom accommodations, as well as how we plan on meeting them.
If you have questions, or if you have an accommodation not listed here, feel free to email cs188@berkeley.edu.
If you would like us to remind TAs about a specific accommodation (while preserving your anonymity), feel free to email cs188@berkeley.edu.
| Accommodation | Description |
|---|---|
| Use of laptop or tablet for note taking | We don’t have any rules against using laptops/tablets in class, so feel free to use them whenever you need them. |
| Use of laptop or tablet for reading course materials | We don’t have any rules against using laptops/tablets in class, so feel free to use them whenever you need them. |
| Use of recording device in class | We don’t have any rules against using audio recording devices in class, so feel free to use them whenever you need them. |
| E-Text | Our course materials (e.g. lecture slides, discussion worksheets, homeworks, and projects) are posted electronically through the course website and course platforms. If there is some course material that is not posted electronically, feel free to post on Ed or email cs188@berkeley.edu. |
| Allow to photograph boards before they are erased | We don’t have any rules preventing students from photographing boards. If you’d like us to explicitly remind any specific section TA about this while preserving your anonymity, let us know by emailing cs188@berkeley.edu. |
| Absences | We don’t require attendance for any part of this class except exams. If you are unable to attend the exam, we have an alternate exam time, in-person only. We don’t require attendance for lectures or discussions. Lectures are recorded and posted. |
| For group projects, student may need assistance joining a group | Projects may be completed alone or in teams of two. We have a thread available on our Ed forum to help assist with finding a group. If additional help is needed, feel free to email cs188@berkeley.edu. |
| Late arrival | We don’t take attendance for lectures or discussions, so showing up late is okay. |
| Wait for student to raise hand to call on | If you’d like us to remind any TA about this while preserving your anonymity, let us know by emailing cs188@berkeley.edu. |
| Messenger Pigeon (Remote Peer Notetaker) | Feel free to email cs188@berkeley.edu if there’s any action required from us to meet this accommodation. |
| Note-Taking Software (Glean, Otter) | We don’t have any rules against using note-taking software, so feel free to use it whenever you need it. |
| Providing Powerpoints/slides | We post lecture slides and other course materials on the course website. If you do not see a resource posted, please reach out to us and we will try to get it for you. |
| Seat near door | We don’t have assigned seating during classes, but if you’d like us to reserve a seat near a door during lecture or a specific discussion section, let us know and we can set that up for you. If you’d like a seat near a door during exams, just let us know through the exam logistics form before each exam. |
| Seat on aisle of row | We don’t have assigned seating during classes, but if you’d like us to reserve a seat near an aisle during lecture or a specific discussion section (e.g. discussion/lab), let us know and we can set that up for you. If you’d like a seat near an aisle during exams, just let us know through the exam logistics form before each exam. |
Data Access
We are committed to creating a learning environment that meets the needs of our diverse student body, including students with disabilities. If you anticipate or experience any barriers to learning in this course, please feel welcome to discuss your concerns with the instructors or head TAs.
All DSP- and accommodations-related materials for this course are kept in a repository separate from the rest of the course materials that is visible only to staff members with the “DSP Data Access” tag on the course website.
If you have a disability, or think you may have a disability, you can work with the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) to request an official accommodation. The Disabled Students’ Program is the campus office responsible for authorizing disability-related academic accommodations, in cooperation with students and their instructors.
Students registered with DSP can expect to receive an onboarding email within a week of sending us their formal Letter of Accommodation through the AIM portal.
If you have any questions about accommodations, please email cs188@berkeley.edu rather than individual instructors or TAs.