Part II: Guidelines for Working with Students With Specific Disabilities
Understanding Disabilities
Definition of Disability
A disability is not necessarily the presence of an impairment or
condition that interferes with or disturbs the normal structure and
function of the body. A disability exists when the condition permanently
or temporarily affects a person's ability to perform normal daily
activities.
The preceding distinction, made by the
World Health Organization (1988),
was the basis for following definition:
Persons with disabilities are
persons who:
- a) have a significant and persistent mobility, sensory, learning, or
other physical or mental health impairment which may be permanent or
temporary in nature; AND
- b) experience functional restrictions or limitations of their ability
to perform the range of life's activities; AND
- c) may experience attitudinal and/or environmental barriers which
hamper their full and self-directed participation.
At Brock University, a student with special needs is any student who is
academically inconvenienced because of a physical, medical,
mental-health, or learning disability.
Categories of Disabilities
There is no one universally accepted approach to describing the
categories of disabilities. Those used in this section cover the major
categories which are likely to occur among the university student
population. Within each category of disability, there are differences
between individuals in the type of disability, its degree and its
impact. A person may have more than one disability, so more than one
section's strategies may apply.
Learning Disabilities
Learning disabilities are presented first in this section, for good
reason. Estimates are that 10 percent of our university population may
experience some form of learning disability. It is an invisible and
individualized disability, which may be difficult for both the student
and faculty member to understand. Often students feel as if others see
them using their disability as an excuse for doing things differently
(MacIntyre et al., 1980).
- Definition
-
A learning disability is a group of disorders which lead to the
ineffective processing of information and which are manifested by
significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening,
speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities. The
disorder is intrinsic to the individual and results in a significant
discrepancy between academic achievement and potential, with deficits in
at least one of the following areas: receptive language (listening,
reading); language processing (thinking, conceptualizing, integrating
information); expressive language (speaking, writing, spelling); or
mathematical computations
(Hammill, et al..,
1987; Learning Disability
Association of Canada, 1981).
Even though a learning disability may occur together with other
handicapping conditions (sensory impairments, physical or medical
problems, mental-health disabilities), or environmental influences
(cultural differences, economic disadvantage, insufficient instruction),
it is not the direct result of these conditions and influences
(Learning Disability Association
of Canada, 1981).
All learning disabilities and the impact they have on a student's
academic performance and learning are individual. Using information
from assessment with a battery of psychological and educational tests,
it is possible to determine a student's areas of strength and weakness,
his/her learning style and the impact of the learning disability. This
information is used to determine the needs of the student and what types
of accommodations are required. Students are often the best expert on
what types of strategies and accommodations work for them.
Instructional Strategies
- Provide a course outline and reading list in advance to assist those
students who require more time for organizing their work or who need
to make arrangements for accommodations such as taping a text. This
also helps students make a more realistic estimate of what
difficulties they may face throughout the course. Make sure that all
expectations and due dates are clearly stated.
- Present information using a variety of methods such as lecture,
hand-outs, overheads, demonstrations and discussion. When possible,
provide concrete examples or personal anecdotes to present ideas and
theories. Material should be presented using all modalities as much
as possible, since many students with learning disabilities are
visual, auditory or "hands-on" learners and have difficulty learning
information that is presented in another modality.
- Some students benefit from receiving a general overview of the
material/theory being presented. Other students need information to
be organized in a sequential manner to ease their comprehension.
Discuss with the student how she or he learns best.
- Recognize that some students may need to tape-record lectures or may
require the services of a note-taker due to writing or language-
processing problems.
- Review key concepts periodically to ensure that they are understood.
- Highlight important information by telling students that it is
important or that it is a major point.
- Understand that students with learning disabilities have to process
information their own way and that they may have unconventional
methods of learning. Allow students to use the methods that work
best for them.
- Minimize room distractions.
- When possible, allow students some extra time to process questions
in a discussion. They may know the information but need extra time
to retrieve it.
Assignment Accommodations
- Consider accommodations for assignments (extended deadlines for
completion, alternative assignments such as oral or taped
presentations rather than a written assignment). Some students, due
to language-retrieval problems or problems with memory, may have
difficulty with oral class presentations; consider alternate
assignments such as taped or written assignments. Requirements of an
assignment should be given in writing as well as orally to ensure
that students know what is expected.
- Recognize that proofreaders, if used, are simply assisting the
student in producing a more readable, satisfactory copy, not in
completing the assignment.
- When possible, give advance warning of assignments so that the
students can budget their time appropriately. If possible, remind
students of upcoming assignment deadlines.
Examination Accommodations
- Allow extended time to accommodate for the student's decreased speed
of information processing, language retrieval, thought organization
or reading comprehension. Extra time can improve the results of
students with disabilities.
- Try to use the same vocabulary or phrases as used in class, to help
the student retrieve information. Avoid using double negatives and
complex sentences.
- Consider the construction of test items in written examinations
(e.g., could an essay examination be substituted for a multiple-
choice examination if this would accommodate the student?).
- Computer-scored answer sheets (Scantron) are extremely difficult for
many students who have learning disabilities to complete correctly,
due to visual-perceptual or visual-motor integration problems.
Consider allowing the student to circle the correct answers directly
on the examination paper and having it hand-scored. If this is not
possible, enlarged computer score sheets may benefit students with
poor eye-hand co-ordination. Computer sheets with numbered answer
choices, rather than alphabetical choices, may benefit students with
visual-perceptual difficulties, as they eliminate the possibility of
(e.g.b/d) letter reversals.
- Students may need to use a word processor with spelling- and
grammar-check features to complete examinations.
- It is beneficial for students to have the opportunity to ask
questions during tests/examinations regarding the interpretation of
test questions. Due to information or language-processing
difficulties, the student's perception of what is being asked may not
be correct.
- Some students may benefit from frequent tests or examinations rather
than a major test at the end of term.
Mental Health, Psychiatric and Psychological Disabilities
Because mental illness often develops between the ages of 18 and 25
(Unger, 1992),
university students are at a particularly vulnerable
time in their lives. The impact of mental illness often means that
educational plans are interrupted and disrupted; students may have to
withdraw from a term at the onset of the illness, or take a reduced
course load; course work may be interrupted. Because of the cyclic
nature of many mental illnesses, these students may function very well
for months or years and then suddenly run into difficulty. Medications
used for treatment can also reduce concentration, blur vision and induce
physical problems like dry mouth, nausea, tremors and insomnia; all of
these have a negative effect on the speed of learning.
Some of the students within this "disability" grouping have a history of
mental illness, which could include such illnesses as depression,
schizophrenia, etc. They may have been hospitalized, may be receiving
medication and psychotherapy. Others, because of the age of many of our
students, may have recently experienced or be experiencing their first
episode of a mental illness.
Other students may be experiencing on-going psychological distress for
which they are seeking treatment (often psychotherapy), but which is of
a shorter duration than for those students previously described. Short-
term accommodations (typically for one term or one year), such as
isolation when writing examinations or increased flexibility about
assignment deadlines, may be extremely useful to these students as they
complete a specific course of treatment in which they learn new skills
for managing their feelings and/or behaviour. It is assumed that once
treatment is completed, accommodations will no longer be necessary.
Professional documentation and student participation in treatment are
required in order for accommodations to be granted; accommodations are
negotiated only for a short period of time and then renegotiated with
student and mental-health-care professional involvement.
A third group of students may experience an emotionally distressing
situation which has an impact on their academic performance; for
example, the death of a parent, a sexual assault or serious difficulty
adjusting to university, which will create disruption for the student's
academic functioning. This is short-term and situational; i.e., in
response to an external situation. Faculty members often make
accommodations for this group of students on compassionate grounds in
response to the student's request (for example, when an assignment is
not ready).
Up to Contents
Continue to Part III: Resources
URL of this document:
http://www.cosc.brocku.ca/Faculty/Radue/disabilities/guidelines.html
Revised: 27 September 1995
Responsible for the HTML conversion: Jon Radue
(c) copyright 1995 Brock University