Synchronous Lectures (Online Chat)
Synchronous online communication - chat - can be a powerful tool for facilitating courses, and instructors should feel free to use it if desired. However, instructors should be aware that it may become necessary to alter those plans if a student with a disability enrolls in the course.
Chat be difficult for students with the following disabilities:
- Blind or low vision - text chat. Some chat clients do not work with screen reader software.
- Deaf or hard of hearing - audio chat.
- Mobility impairments - all chat forms. Some students may not be able to type fast enough to keep up with the conversation, while others may have speech delays or other difficulties that make audio chat less than effective.
- Aural processing - students with difficulty processing speech may not be able to keep up with audio chat.
- Text processing - students with text processing disorders may not be able to keep up with text-based chat.
Obviously, no one solution will accommodate every student, and thus the only firm advice that can be given about synchronous communication is to be flexible. Unless synchronous chat is essential to course function, perhaps discussion or review sessions could be moved to message boards, which work with screen readers and provide adequate time for users to process what they have read and to compose their responses.
As a last resort, an instructor may create an alternate assignment for the student. This solution should be a last resort because it segregates the student from classmates and creates a different - and perhaps lesser - learning experience from the others.