University of New Mexico - Valencia Campus
Teaching & Learning Center
Disabilities
Students who have a disability, particularly a learning disability, are a rapidly growing population on college campuses. Though it is difficult to obtain accurate figures, between 3 and 10 percent of college students report having physical or learning disabilities that require compensatory classroom teaching accommodations. Such accommodations are neither difficult to provide nor distracting to the rest of the class. In fact, many of these accommodations may make learning easier for all your students. There are Strategies.
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/disabilities.html
Educational access is the provision of classroom accommodations, auxiliary aids and services to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students regardless of disability. Creating equal educational opportunities is a collaborative effort between the student, the faculty member, and the Office for Disability Services (ODS). http://www.osu.edu/grants/dpg/fastfact/rights.html
A statement placed on course syllabi indicating a faculty member's willingness to provide reasonable accommodations to a student with a disability. An example disability statement that can be used/adapted for course syllabi http://www.osu.edu/grants/dpg/fastfact/syllabus.html
There are numerous other hidden or invisible disabilities such as heart condition, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Seizure Disorder. It is also important to remember that the severity of functional limitations do not depend on your ability to see the disability. http://www.osu.edu/grants/dpg/fastfact/invis.html
The first step in teaching students with disabilities seems obvious: treat them, simply, as you would all students. After all, they come to college for the same reasons others do and they bring with them the same range of backgrounds, intelligence and scholastic skills. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.dispelling
Included in this category are disorders in the structure and functions of the eye as manifested by at least one of the following.http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.categories
Other students have what are known as hidden disabilities, which may include hearing impairments, legal blindness, cardiac conditions, learning disabilities, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease and psychiatric or seizure disorders. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.indentifying
Providing accommodations necessary for ensuring complete access to and full participation in the educational process is not intended to require the instructor to compromise academic standards when evaluating academic performance. Rather, the accommodations make it possible for a student with a disability to truly learn the material presented and for an instructor to fairly evaluate the student's understanding of the material without inference from the disability. Accommodations may include one or more of the following.http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.accommodating
Documentation of the disability is required not only to establish the need for special services but to determine the individual nature of necessary services. Students who are believed to have a learning disability that has not been previously, or reliably, identified should be referred to the Office of Disability Services for consultation. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.learning
Whatever the degree of impairment, students who are visually impaired can participate fully in such classroom activities, discussions and group work. To record notes, some use lap-top computers or computerized Braillers. Students who are visually impaired may encounter difficulties in laboratory classes, field trips and internships. With planning and adaptive equipment, these difficulties can be minimized. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.visual
Be prepared to arrange for a change of classroom or building if the classroom or building is not accessible to students with mobility impairments. Also be prepared to move class temporarily if an elevator is out of service. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.physical
Students with emotional and social disabilities present some of the most difficult challenges to a professor. Like some disabilities, these impairments may be hidden or latent, with little or no effect on learning. Unlike students with other kinds of disabilities, emotional disabilities may manifest themselves in behavior ranging from indifference to disruptiveness. Such conduct may make it difficult to remember that students with emotional and social impairments have little control over their disabilities.
http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.emotional
There are a variety of services available to students who are hard of hearing. Students may use Signed English, American Sign Language, Cued Speech, or oral transliterators in the classroom. These are visual systems and enhance the reception and expression of spoken English. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.hearing
Some of these difficulties can be managed by such mechanical devices as electronic "speaking" machines or computerized voice synthesizers. Others may be treated through speech therapy. Speech impairments can be aggravated by the anxiety inherent in oral communications. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.speech
The general principles set forth in the Overview section apply, particularly the need to identify the disability and to discuss with the student both its manifestations and the required accommodations. Below are brief descriptions of some of the more prevalent disabilities among students as well as recommended accommodations. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.other
Specific suggestions for teaching students with disabilities will be offered in the sections devoted to each disability. Here are some general considerations to keep in mind. http://codi.buffalo.edu/archives/colleges/.gasouth/.overview
Creating Accessible Meetings, General Tips, Labels, and Meeting and Greeting http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/accomtip.htm
Faculty play a critical role in helping students who may have disabilities by referring them to a trained specialist. Once identified faculty can develop "academic adjustments" that will permit students with disabilities to fully access lecture and course materials.
http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/initstep.htm
Classroom Accommodations and Suggestions & Testing Accommodations and Suggestions: Your student with a hearing impairment may have a great difficulty understanding questions on a written exam due to English syntax, idiomatic language, or vocabulary used. Allow the interpreter to sign each question so that your student may fully comprehend the question being asked.
http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/hiclas.htm
Classroom and Testing Accommodations for Students with Learning Disabilities http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/ldclas.htm
Accommodation Tips, Challenges faced by people with learning disabilities http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/ldinfo.htm
What you have to do when you have a student with disabilities & Testing Accommodations http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/mobclas.htm
Testing Accommodations for Students with Psychiatric Disorders http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/psycclas.htm
Psychiatric Disorders" refers to a group of significant behavioral or psychological problems that can be disabilities in themselves or in response to some other occurrence. These behaviors must not be an expectable response to a particular event (such a s the death of a loved one) and continue over a long period of time. These disorders may be characterized by anxiety, mood swings, depression, or loss of contact with reality. http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/psycinfo.htm
Classroom Accommodations and Testing Accommodations http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/visclas.htm
Occasionally, students with certain types of disabilities become extremely agitated and disruptive. They could have a severe head trauma that makes them unable to control their anger under stress, or they may have a mental illness which causes them to have psychotic episodes. If you find yourself in this situation, consider these suggestions http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/dealangr.htm
An Introduction To Mobility Impairments & Accommodation Tips & Challenges Faced by People with Mobility Impairments http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/mobinfo.htm
Faculty Responsibilities To Students With Disabilities http://spot.pcc.edu/osd/quikref.htm
Advances in technology have had a direct impact on the individual student's educational process. Schools report that technology is having a positive effect on children's learning and their perception of themselves as learners, which is why children with disabilities benefit from the use of assistive technology. http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A4321.cfm
Technology-based assessment in special education has made advances during the last two decades. Whereas the first applications of computer technology for assessment were for scoring student test forms, contemporary uses support many other features and functions. http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A911.cfm
The meaning of disability is analyzed from a conventional and an alternative perspective. Results of this analysis are applied to such higher education issues as institutional role, pedagogical expectations, and program quality. The article advances a view of disability as interaction-specific rather than person-specific, as arising when the nature of the academic task or instructional environment fails to support adequately the learning characteristics of the student. Within this view, learning environments (including teachers) have a primary influence in creating or preventing educational disability. Implications of this position for all students in higher education, not only those conventionally designated as disabled, are explored. http://ject.lib.muohio.edu/sample/article.php?article=52
This article chronicles the experience of a faculty member who, without prior training in teaching methodology or special education, taught a deaf graduate student in four courses. Writing from a practical perspective, the author discusses her expectations and reactions, what she learned about the Deaf culture, and what the student and the interpreters taught her about working with students who have disabilities. http://ject.lib.muohio.edu/sample/article.php?article=51