What can I do to help students with disabilities in my class? For All Students For Students with Learning Disabilities For Students with Mental Health/Neurological Conditions For Students who are Blind/Sight Impaired For Students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing
What is a learning disability?
What is Asperger's Syndrome?
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A: The following are offered as suggestions when you have a student with a disability in your class. Remember, a student with a disability is first a STUDENT and will have the same motivations and desires as any other student to learn and to be successful. The three guiding concepts of Universal Design are helpful for any student and are highly recommended they be considered in your teaching. Please see Universal Design in Instruction for more information. For more suggestions as to how to help a specific student with a disability be more successful in your class, please contact RDS, 491-6385. For All Students
You may want to include on your syllabus a statement that invites students to talk to you if they have a need for an accommodation due to a disability or other situation. Students are sometimes intimidated with the act of speaking to instructors because of negative experiences they have encountered in the past concerning their needs. Your demonstrated willingness to work with a student can often make it easier for a student to approach you early in the semester rather than in the middle of a crisis. Again, if a student has not yet had contact with RDS, this may be a good time to inform them of university procedures for obtaining accommodations. Sample Statement:
If you are a student who will need accommodations in this class, please make an appointment to see me to discuss your individual needs. Any accommodation must be discussed in a timely manner prior to implementation. A verifying memo from Resources for Disabled Students may be required before any accommodation is provided.
Each student with a disability is an unique individual. A student may approach you appropriately or he/she may not be very adept at self-advocacy. Your understanding of this and your willingness to give appropriate feedback as to the student's interaction with you may help her/him with future encounters with faculty and other representatives of the university. Courses taught from a universal design framework emcompass the following ideas: 1) to support recognition learning by providing multiple, flexible methods of presentation; 2) to support strategic learning by providing multiple, flexible methods of expression and apprenticeship; and 3) to support affective learning by providing multiple, flexible options for engagement. These three concepts share one common recommendation: provide students with a variety of options for accessing, using, and engaging with learning material. While helpful for students with additional learning needs, these principles enhance opportunities for learning for every student. For more information about designing your instruction under universal design concepts, please go to Universal Design in Instruction. Another resource on campus is the Access Project.
For Students with Learning Disabilities
A: Some students with learning disabilities may not realize they are experiencing trouble in a class until they take an exam. More frequent testing throughout the semester or other measures of performance in addition to exams only is often helpful for these students. Study guides can also be helpful for students who have difficulty differentiating the minutia from what is important. Students may also have difficulty with specific types of exams. Often an alternative format will prove to be a better indicator of the student's mastery of the material. Your assistence in identifying potential tutoring support may also benefit students who are struggling with the compatibility of their learning disability and your teaching style. For more information about learning disabilities, go to What is a Learning Disability?
For Students with Mental Health Conditions and Neurological Conditions
A: Since mental health and neurological conditions vary widely in how they affect a student, your understanding and willingness to work with a student is likely the best approach. Some may need flexibility with assignment deadlines; others may need to have exams adjusted to help minimize the stress or maximize their abilities. Often things that assist students with other disabilities (e.g., students with learning disabilities) may be helpful as well.
Some conditions may affect how a student behaves in class. One condition that characteristically manifests in unexpected behavior is Asperger Syndrome. This condition is neurological and often results in difficulty for the student in terms of interpreting social cues. For more information about Asperger, go to Asperger Syndrome.
For Students who are Blind/Sight Impaired A: If you plan to use videos, slides, or other visual media, it might be helpful to have someone in class describe the material orally to students who are blind. Written material may need to be converted to alternative formats and your cooperation in this process may be to provide an extra copy of a book (for someone from RDS to read aloud on tape) or copies of printed handouts prior to distribution to the class so that they may be translated into an appropriate format (i.e., audio or Braille). If you post anything via the Internet (e.g., notes, bulletin boards, assignments, etc.), be sure it is accessible for students who use adaptive devices. Students with visual impairments in particular often use screen readers. These devices DO NOT read pictures; they only read text. An alternative format or adaptive aid may be necessary for a student to have access to your material and information. For more information on how to make your WebPages more accessible to students with visual limitations, or other disabilities, contact the Assistive Technology Resource Center (ATRC), 491-6258.
For Students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing A: If a student is hard of hearing, facing the class while lecturing will be helpful for those students who lip-read. You may also be asked to wear a microphone that is programmed to work with an individual FM system a student will have. This system focuses your voice directly and allows the student to use his/her hearing aid more effectively. (Note: this system has also been used by students with specific types of learning disabilities such as central auditory processing deficit or attention deficit disorder (ADD) to minimize distractions.) If a student is deaf, he/she will be accompanied by a sign language/oral interpreter. You should be contacted prior to the beginning of class by either the interpreter or another representative from RDS who will orient you to working with a sign language/oral interpreter. An oral interpreter is one who 'mouths' what is being said. Students who rely on speech (lip) reading often need this type of accommodation. Students who have more profound hearing losses or who are more proficient in sign language will require an interpreter who not only 'mouths' what is being said but can also translate into pictorial gestures (American Sign Language).
A classroom interpreter will position him/herself in view of the student as well as within hearing distance of you. The interpreter is also available to reverse interpret - or voice what the student wants to say. It is important to remember to speak to the student and not the interpreter when conversing with the student since the interpreter is there to simply translate words into and from signed gestures. If your pace of lecturing is too fast for the interpreter to follow you may be asked to repeat or to slow down so that the student does not lose important information. Remember, too, whatever the interpreter voices will be the words of the student and not the interpreter. For those students who are not familiar with sign language, another effective accommodation is real-time captioning (RTC). When resources are available, RDS may provide RTC for a student, especially those who are not proficient in sign language.
RTC is similar to a court recording in that a transcriber translate what is being said in "real time" to the student via a computer screen.
DVD's and videos often have sub-titles (or open captioning). Showing these during viewing can be helpful for students who may have difficulty hearing. If a particular DVD or video is closed-captioned, please check with Instruction Services to see if your equipment can access the closed captioning option. If a DVD or video is not captioned (open or closed), you might need to provide a copy of the text. If a student uses an interpreter, proper lighting may need to be provided for the interpreter if the lighting in class is altered for visual displays.
A: As "invisible" disabilities, learning disabilities are one of the most challenging for an academic environment. A "learning disability" can manifest itself in a variety of ways. However, it does not mean a student with one has a lower intelligence (mental retardation) nor does it mean a student cannot learn. In fact, CSU students with diagnosed learning disabilities have at least average, and some above average, intelligence. There are various causes attributed to learning disabilities, many of which are considered genetic. What is recognized about them is that they are neurologically based and are related to how the brain deals with the activity of learning.
A student who has been diagnosed as having a learning disability experiences difficulty in one or several processes associated with learning. These processes often involve encoding and decoding information. In other words, a student may have difficulty taking in information (e.g. in reading or in hearing correct words), in processing information (e.g. understanding the meaning of a question), and/or in showing what they know and understand (e.g. through written work, through speaking, etc.). These processes can also affect a student's ability to perform common behavioral tasks such as focusing and filtering out distractions, understanding abstract concepts, spelling, listening and taking notes, manipulating numbers and symbols, or interpreting body language and other social cues correctly.
The educational system has been designed for the "average" student with the expectations he/she can and will learn through a standard process. Therefore, students with learning disabilities can find it very FRUSTRATING in such an environment. They often know and understand material but are unable to demonstrate their knowledge through methods that are considered "ordinary" means of measuring mastery. Sometimes they may have difficulty knowing what to study, whether to focus on details or general concepts, or how to apply theory. While these difficulties may be experienced by any student occasionally, a student with a learning disability experiences these difficulties as part of daily life, sometimes not realizing when something is amiss until given feedback (i.e. a failing grade on an exam).
Asperger Syndrome (AS) is a neurobiological disorder named for a Viennese physician, Hans Asperger, who identified a pattern of behaviors in boys with normal intelligence and language development. This pattern of behaviors exhibited marked deficiencies in social and communication skills (autistic-like behavior). Although first noticed by Asperger in 1944, this diagnosis did not have much recognition until 1994 when it was added to the DSM IV.
Individuals with AS can present a variety of characteristics that range from mild to severe. In particular, they show deficiencies in social skills, have problems with transitions or changes with a strong preference for sameness. They may have obsessive routines and be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. Many have difficulty reading nonverbal cues (body language) and often may find it hard to determine proper body space. A person with AS may prefer things such as soft clothing, certain food, or be bothered by sounds or lights that others may not hear or see since over-sensitivity to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights may be one of the manifestations of AS.
Students with AS have gained admittance to CSU based on the same credentials as other students. They usually have a high degree of functionality and may exhibit exceptional skill or talent in an area. But they may also appear to be very naive. Often they are viewed as eccentric or odd and therefore, become victimes of teasing and bullying. Language development may seem normal but many students may have deficits in pragmatics and prosody. While a student's vocabulary may be rich, some may interpret words literally and have problems using language in a social context.
It is important to remember that a student with AS perceives the world differently. Many of the behaviors that seem odd or unusual are the manifestations of neurological differences and not the result of intentional rudeness, bad behavior, or poor upbringing. A student exhibiting behavior that seems out of place may need to be given explicit parameters and directions in order to modify that behavior. Talking one on one with the student and explaining expectations of behavior can help the student adjust accordingly.