Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Distance Learning Course
SUBJECT: Accommodations 1: INTRODUCTION
In this course you will learn strategies for fully including students with disabilities in academic activities. You will also discuss case studies and read answers to questions faculty members frequently ask about accommodating students with disabilities in their classes. Please select at least one of your existing courses as your own case to review in light of the issues presented during this course. For your selected course(s) you will examine access issues for students with disabilities, explore accommodation strategies, and consider modifications that would make it more accessible to students with a variety of disabilities.
The best accommodations for students with disabilities in higher education are unique to the individual and develop from a cooperative relationship between the faculty member and the student, with the assistance of the campus disabled student services office.
This course will consist of fourteen email messages from me, the course facilitator.
Each lesson will include:
This course will be conducted via email. There are no face-to-face meetings scheduled for this course. I will send one or two email "lessons" each week to the participants as indicated on the TO: line of this message.
YOU are expected to read and discuss (via email) issues raised in the lessons, as well as respond to comments made by other participants. Please try to send responses to specific email messages within 24 hours to the group in order to maintain cohesive discussions within the short time period between lessons.
Netiquette Note: The lessons will contain words in UPPER CASE LETTERS. In normal email messages, this is considered SHOUTING. However, for the purposes of this course, I am using upper case for emphasis only, not for SHOUTING.
To initiate a NEW TOPIC to the participants:
To REPLY to a message directed to course participants:
Depending on the settings of your electronic mail software, the software may automatically copy the text of the original message into the message area of the new message. It is useful to have the original message included in the reply because it lets the participants know the context of your reply. You may wish to cut out some parts of the original message to help reduce the total size of the message you are sending, but be sure to leave intact the essential portions to which you are replying.
Send a general question to the entire GROUP; another participant may have the same question, or may have experience dealing with the issue raised. One of the benefits of this course is developing a network of people, including me, with whom to share questions and knowledge. Direct messages that you wish to go to INDIVIDUALS to their email address only. Send messages to me at my email address on the "FROM" line of this message.
This email-based course provides an overview of accommodations for students with disabilities in postsecondary education. For comprehensive information consult The Faculty Room website at https://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/accesscollege/faculty-room/overview
In a recent study, the number of postsecondary undergraduate students identified as having disabilities in the United States was 428,280, representing 6% of the nation's total student body. The types of disabilities reported by these students were:
45.7% Learning disabilities
13.9% Mobility or orthopedic impairments
11.6% Health impairments
7.8% Mental illness or emotional disturbance
5.6% Hearing impairments
4.4% Blindness and visual impairments
0.9% Speech or language impairments
9.1% Other impairments
(Source: An Institutional Perspective on Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, Postsecondary Education Quick Information System, August 1999).
In this course we will discuss issues and strategies related to students with the following disabilities:
LEARNING DISABILITIES are documented disabilities that may affect reading, processing information, remembering, calculating, and spatial abilities.
MOBILITY IMPAIRMENTS may make walking, sitting, bending, carrying, or using fingers, hands or arms difficult or impossible. Mobility impairments result from many causes, including amputation, Polio, clubfoot, Scoliosis, spinal cord injury, and Cerebral Palsy.
HEALTH IMPAIRMENTS affect daily living and involve the lungs, kidneys, heart, muscles, liver, intestines, immune systems, and/or other body parts (e.g., cancer, kidney failure, AIDS).
MENTAL ILLNESS includes mental health and psychiatric disorders that affect daily living.
HEARING IMPAIRMENTS make it difficult or impossible to hear lecturers, access multimedia materials, and participate in discussions.
BLINDNESS refers to the disability of students who cannot read printed text, even when enlarged. LOW VISION refers to students who have some usable vision, but cannot read standard-size text, have field deficits (for example, cannot see peripherally or centrally but can see well in other ranges), or other visual impairments.
A disability may or may not AFFECT the participation of a student in your class. In postsecondary settings, students are the best source of information regarding their special needs. They are responsible for disclosing their disabilities and requesting accommodations. To create a welcome environment, include a statement on your class syllabus inviting students who require accommodations to meet with you. For example, "If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible."
Flexibility and effective communication between student and instructor are key in approaching accommodations. Although students with similar disabilities may require different accommodations, it is useful for you to be aware of typical strategies for working with students who have various types of impairments. With this basic knowledge you will be better prepared to ask students to clarify their needs and to discuss accommodation requests.
Throughout this course, you will be asked to consider access issues and accommodation strategies presented in this course, in relation to modifications you might make in your own course. You are not alone in this venture; you are part of the team.
Note: The answers to these exercises are: 1. F, 2. T, 3. T.
Please send an email message to the group, sharing the name and a brief description of the COURSE you will use as your case study during this distance learning course. In addition, give a short BIOGRAPHY about yourself including your name, college, department and (optional) experience in working with students with disabilities.
Your email SUBJECT line should read: Accommodations 1: INTRODUCTION.
This course was created as part of the DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology) Prof Model Demonstration Project. DO-IT Prof applies lessons learned by DO-IT and other programs and researchers nationwide to implement a comprehensive professional development program for college faculty and administrators. It is funded by a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education (grant #P33A990042). Any opinions or recommendations expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Education.
To be placed on the DO-IT mailing list, or to request materials in an alternative format, contact:
DO-IT
University of Washington
Box 354842
Seattle, WA 98195-4842
doit@u.washington.edu
http://www.washington.edu/doit/
206-685-DOIT (3648) -- voice/TTY
888-972-DOIT (3648) -- voice/TTY
206-221-4171 (FAX)
509-328-9331 -- voice/TTY, Spokane office
Director: Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D.
(c) 2001 DO-IT. Permission is granted to copy material in this email for educational, non-commercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged.