Peer Notetakers | Disability Support Services | SIU

Note Taker Guidelines and Procedures

The Rehabilitation Act, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act, requires that Southern Illinois University accommodate students with disabilities. One of the required accommodations may be note takers. The DSS staff reviews disability documentation and determines if note takers are appropriate. DSS provides note takers for students whose disabilities require such assistance.

To request a note taker for a class, sign into the DSS Student Portal to submit accommodation requests and select the note taker accommodation. You will be notified via email when a note taker has been recruited.

Your note taker will upload your class notes through the DSS Student Portal and you will access them there. Once you receive notification that a note taker has been recruited, login to the DSS Student Portal select "Notetaking Services" under the My Accommodations box on the left side of the page to access notes posted by the note taker.

DSS does not share information about students' disabilities with note takers. Students must make their own arrangements to acquire course notes and materials during absences. If you need an alternative arrangement, including receipt of note taker services without disclosing your identity to a peer, have concerns about your note taker, or how to access your notes, contact your DSS coordinator.

Notetaker Announcement

BECOME A NOTE TAKER

Starting Fall 2020, students can sign up via our online portal to register as a note taker. 

Step 1: Register Online 

The first step to becoming a note taker is to register online through the DSS Note Taker Portal. Select "Sign Up as a Note Taker." You will be prompted to enter in your SIU ID and password (the same credentials you use for your SIU email and SalukiNet).

Step 2: Enter schedule

You will need to have your complete schedule printed or open in another window with course information and the course CRNs. 

Step 3: Review note taker contract

Please read your note taker contract carefully, as it outlines important information and your payment information. 

Step 4: Submit registration and wait for matching confirmation email

If you are identified as a "match" for a class, you will receive an email from Disability Support Services to confirm the assignment. 

Step 5: Upload notes to online portal

Once you have received assignments, you may then upload your notes into the DSS Online Note Taker Portal. Instructions on uploading notes to the portal.

HOW TO LOAD NOTES TO THE DSS NOTE TAKER PORTAL   

File Upload Instructions

File formats can be in either a PDF format file or a word document file. Handwritten notes (must be clearly legible) can be scanned and saved as a PDF file. Please note you should upload one file per lecture. If you have multiple scanned pages for a lecture, combine them into a single file.

The format for the name of the file should be the course name (e.g. MATH 101) and Date (e.g. Sept 1).

If there are no notes for a class meeting, please load a file stating the reason “no notes for today” and the reason why (e.g. test day, professor canceled class).

Loading Notes to the DSS Note Taker Portal  

• Login to DSS Note Taker Portal
• Select the Note Taker Portal Icon
• Use your SIU ID and password to login.
• Select the Note Taker Tab on the top left
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the details of the classes that you are assigned as the note taker.
• Under file information select the class you want to upload notes for, select the week and the day the notes are for and click on “Choose File” to select the file to upload, then click upload notes.

Scanner Locations on Campus

Disability Support Services

• The DSS Front Office staff can Scan notes for note takers.

Morris Library:

• Scanners are located on the first floor near the Information Desk.

Smartphone Apps

There are a variety of free apps that can use the camera on your phone to create pdf files.

• iFiles Converter Lite
• PDF Converter
• DocAs Lite
• Image to PDF converter
• iPhone Scanner App
• Genius Scan 

Please be considerate of the quality of the scanned document and remember that you should upload one file per lecture. If you have multiple scanned pages for a lecture, combine them in a single file.