The StAAR Center values the diverse educational and cultural experiences of every student and promotes access to an inclusive and collaborative learning environment. As a team and as individuals, we foster students’ educational growth and awareness, self-advocacy and resiliency as it relates to their Tufts academic experience and beyond. Our initiatives engage students, faculty and staff to proactively support the learning needs of the Tufts community.
Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities
The Fletcher School at Tufts provides reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities such as impaired hearing, speech, mobility, or vision and students with learning disabilities, students on the autism spectrum, attention differences, and chronic health disabilities. We also assist students with serious medical and mental health conditions. The StAAR Center coordinates academic and other accommodations as needed and is committed to supporting students with disabilities remotely.
- Accessibility Services for Prospective, New, and Current Students with Disabilities
- Schedule a Virtual Accessibility Meeting
- Report a Physical or Online Barrier
Academic Coaching for All Fletcher Students
- Virtual workshops to help adjust to the demands of graduate school (link to workshop calendar will be forthcoming)
- Schedule a Virtual Coaching Appointment for support with time management or study skills
- The Ginn Library Writing Center tutors are available to provide online assistance with strategies for composing and organizing papers and other written documents.
Faculty Partnerships
The StAAR Center recognizes the pivotal role faculty play in supporting students with disabilities and we want to partner with you as we jointly support our students. Accommodations are designed to eliminate barriers that students experience in the learning environment. Please reach out to Mary Ellen Vigeant (Mary_Ellen.Vigeant@tufts.edu) at any time to discuss specific accommodations or for clarification of your responsibilities. Students who provide faculty with accommodation letters are entitled to those accommodations in the online environment. If you have any questions or concerns, please connect with the StAAR center.
Additional Resources
We have compiled a list of helpful resources and tools for students to assist them with studying, time management, writing, and stress mitigation. Please review the below self-help tools and resources. As always though, if you are struggling in a class, you should contact the faculty member directly for assistance. Your student success advisor is also always available as a resource.
| Tool (linked) | Description |
| Daily Schedule Template | Break down your day into manageable chunks. It is helpful to limit time blocks to 2 hours or less to avoid losing focus. |
| Major Assignment Course Planner | Take a look at the syllabus and break down the major assignments (this is called “chunking”). Define what is needed for each large task and then break them out into the calendar so that you accomplish a bit each week. This will allow you to stay on top of assignments and plan ahead. |
| Syllabus Outline Template | Similar to the major assignment course planner, look at the syllabus and break down the assignments for each week (change the dates on the template). |
| 10 Tips for Reading in Grad School | Ten tips for tackling a substantial reading course load in graduate school. |
| Critical Reading Toward Critical Writing | Document provides information on what is critical reading and how to read documents to support critical thinking and writing. |
| 12 Tips for Surviving and Thriving Grad. School | 12 tips for acing academics and balancing your workload and other demands. |
| 9 Simple Steps to Boost Productivity | An article outlining 9 simple steps for getting out of a rut. |
| How to Stop Procrastinating | An article about the science behind procrastination and how to stop it. |
| Skimming | From the American Psychological Association, an article about how to tackle the ever-growing amount of readings required in grad school. |
| Covey’s Time Management Grid | An article about the Covey time management grid and how to effectively organize your priorities. |
| CMHS Self-Help Tools | Tufts Counseling and Mental Health Services (CMHS) has provided a list of helpful information about common mental health topics and self-help tools. |
| Read and Write | Read and Write is a literacy software that helps students with studying, writing, reading, and research skills. Some of the features include text-to-speech, a dictionary, a translator, speech input, and highlighting. The software has many built-in videos to help users review the functionalities available. |
| SensusAccess | SensusAccess is a service that allows students to change the format of files (such as scanned PDFs into accessible PDFs) to enable text to speech. |