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It makes sense to provide a ¡°reasonable accommodation¡± for?any?student who cannot participate in an activity because of a temporary or permanent condition, such as the chemistry student who chose not to complete her chromatography course because of the risks to her unborn child (¡°A woman¡¯s place is in the lab ¨C even if she is pregnant¡±, Opinion, 31 May).

In my time, I have served as an amanuensis for someone who injured their writing hand just before an exam (poor examiners; my handwriting is dire), taken exam papers to students¡¯ homes when broken legs or, indeed, advanced pregnancy made it difficult to get in to sit them, and had students direct someone else (or me) in doing physical work in a computing laboratory when teaching networking ¨C the class had to demonstrate that they could hook up a network physically, and that can be difficult to do if you have limited mobility, for whatever reason.

But that was me, as the relevant tutor. I would always make suitable arrangements and tell the institution how I was handling it. Surely whoever was running the chromatography class in question could have provided a solution ¨C perhaps draft in a graduate student to help, or pair the pregnant woman with another student who could handle chemicals safely.

m.robertson8_291084
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