Guidelines for Working with Students With 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).