Providing Instruction to Students with Disabilities
As an instructor, your concern is to make sure that students are able to access your course materials, both physically and mentally. You probably have strategies for teaching certain concepts and for clearing up certain misconceptions.
But what happens when a student with a disability enrolls in your course? What do you need to do to accommodate that student? Or in legal parlance, what do you need to do to ensure that the student with a disability has "equal access" to course material?
By far the most commonly requested academic accommodation is extended time on tests in a distraction reduced environment. Disability Support Services operates a Testing Center for this purpose, or instructors may provide this testing situation. Providing extended time is not difficult and does not involve significant change to a course.
What happens when you do need to make changes in how you deliver course materials? The single best thing you can do for a student, once you have received an accommodation letter from DSS or have been approached by that student, is to talk to the student about the nature of their disability and what needs they may have as a result.
To provide you with more help in this arena, we have assembled the following materials that will provide some general guidelines for instruction to students with various types of disabilities. Please do not hesitate to contact DSS if you have any questions.