Although some students with disabilities may require significant adaptation and modification in the classroom, more often common sense approaches can be applied to ensure that students have access to course content.

COURSE SYLLABUS

Include a statement on your course syllabus about academic accommodations for example,

“If you have a disability or believe you might benefit from disability related services and may need accommodations, please see me or contact Disabled Student Programs and Services”

Include a statement on your course syllabus about alternate media.

“Students can make requests for alternative media by contacting DSPS.”

BE AWARE OF YOUR LANGUAGE

Using terms such as “students with disabilities” rather than “disabled students” puts the emphasis on the person rather than the disability. (See chart page: 10)

RELAX

Don’t be afraid to approach a person with a disability. Don’t worry about using words like “walk” with a person who uses a wheelchair. Treat all students with respect.

SPEAK DIRECTLY TO THE STUDENT

Don’t consider a companion or personal attendant to be a conversation go between, between you and the student. Even if the student has a Sign Language Interpreter present, speak directly to the student, not to the Sign Language Interpreter.

GIVE YOUR FULL ATTENTION

Be considerate of the extra time it might take for a person with a disability to get things said or done. Refrain from talking for the person who has difficulty speaking, but give help when needed. Keep your manner encouraging rather than correcting.

SPEAK SLOWLY AND DISTINCTLY

When talking to a person who is hearing impaired or has other difficulty understanding speech, speak slowly without exaggerating your lip movement. While some individuals may use lip reading to aid in communication, do not assume that all deaf/ hard of hearing read lips. When in doubt, use pen and paper to aid in communication.

Words with Dignity	Words to Avoid
Person with a disability	Handicapped/crippled/the disabled; physically/mentally challenged
Person who has multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy	Afflicted by MS, victim of CP
Person with epilepsy or seizure disorder	Epileptic
Seizures	Epileptic fits
Person who has muscular dystrophy	Stricken by MD
Person who uses a wheelchair	Restricted/confined to a wheelchair; wheelchair bound (The chair enables mobility. Without the chair the person may be confined to bed.)
Person who is blind	The blind
Person who is deaf or hard of hearing	Suffers a hearing loss, the deaf
Person who is unable to speak or uses synthetic speech	Dumb, mute. Inability to speak does not indicate lowered intelligence.
Person with psychological disability	Crazy, insane, nuts
Successful, productive	Has overcome his/her disability
Says s/he has a disability	Admits s/he has a disability
Person without a disability or non-disabled	Normal (Referring to non-disabled persons as "normal" implies that people with disabilities are abnormal.)
Person with developmental delay	Slow, retarded

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES THAT CAN HELP ALL STUDENTS SUCCEED

You may not be able to implement all of these suggestions, but many are readily achievable.

Detailed Syllabus: Provide a detailed syllabus that includes course objectives, weekly topics, classroom activities, required reading and writing assignments, and dates of tests, quizzes, and vacations.

Rules Clarification: Clarify rules in advance: how students will be graded, whether makeup tests or rewrites of papers are allowed, what the conditions are for withdrawing from a course or getting an incomplete.

Reviews and Previews: Briefly review the major points of the previous lecture or class and highlight main points to be covered that day. Explain what is to be learned and why it is important. Try to present reviews and previews both visually and orally. Emphasize new or technical vocabulary.

Office Hours: Remind students often of your availability during office hours for individual clarification of lectures, reading, and assignments.

Study Aids: Use study aids, such as, study questions for exams or pretests with immediate feedback before the final exam. Teach students memory tricks and acronyms. Periodically offer tips and encourage class discussion of ways to improve studying - organizational ideas, outlining techniques, summarizing strategies, etc.

Testing: In exam questions, avoid unnecessarily intricate sentence structure, double negatives and questions embedded within questions.

Multi-sensory Teaching: Present material in as many modalities as possible (seeing, speaking, touching).

Visualization: Help the student visualize the material. Visual aids can include power points, overhead projectors, films, carousel slides, chalkboards, flip charts, computer graphics, and illustrations of written text.

Color: Use color. For instance, in teaching anatomy highlight the respiratory system in green and the digestive system in orange. In complex mathematical sequences, use color to follow transformations and to highlight relationships.

Tactility: Provide opportunities for touching and handling materials that relate to ideas. Cutting and pasting parts of compositions to achieve logical plotting of thoughts is one possibility.

Announcements: Whenever possible, provide announcements in oral and written form. This is especially true of changes in assignments or exams.

Distinct Speech: Speak at an even speed, emphasizing important points with pauses, gestures, and other body language. This can help students follow classroom presentations. Try not to lecture while facing the chalkboard.

Eye Contact: Establish eye contact to assist students in maintaining attention and to encourage participation.

Demonstration and Role Play: These activities can make ideas come alive and are particularly helpful to the student who have to move around in order to learn.

Write Inclusive Curricula:

• Post course-related material on the Web to allow students to have repeated access to it.
• At the beginning of the semester, ask students to complete an optional brief information sheet that includes areas such as, "Tell me anything that you think I should know about you that might affect your performance in this class." All students are writing at the same time, so there is no obvious disability disclosure.
• Require group projects, but create a division of labor within the project so that students have choices about what or how they contribute. Not all have to stand up and present, for example.
• Allow students to develop and bring a "crib sheet" of limited size to exams. Preparation of it results in improved performance as well as reduced anxiety. It also serves as an accommodation for students with short-term memory struggles.
• Hand out vocabulary sheets two weeks in advance of exam dates to allow for study and review over time. This allows time for students to prepare a variety of study helps such as note cards and computerized study sheets.
• Allow access to PowerPoint notes for all students.
• Make specific reference to the disability statement on the course syllabus at the beginning of the semester.
• Add a few bonus points to all exams to reduce stress of questions missed.
• Distribute lecture outlines to promote thorough notetaking and reference points for study.
• Develop exams with a percentage of questions that can be omitted. For example, a 100-point exam will have 110 points worth of questions on it, 10 points of which can be selected by the student as "omits."
• Require progress reports at regular intervals on team projects that become part of the total grade for the project. Progress notes result in overall improved team project progress and higher levels of participation by all members of the team.
• Frequently use "one minute papers" at the end of class to allow for questions to be asked, points clarified or materials summarized.
• Include peer reviews with team assignments. Reviews include descriptions of what work has been completed, an explanation of how it was done, why it was done, and who did it. This activity fosters greater levels of involvement earlier by most students.

STRATEGIES TO SUGGEST TO STUDENTS WHO HAVE SPECIFIC DIFFICULITES

Problems with Visual Perceptual Skills

• Reduce the amount of print on a page… larger spaces between questions.
• Have student use graph paper to complete math problems if they are having trouble with discrimination of the sign.
• Have students color code the operational signs in math if they are having trouble with discrimination of the sign.
• Encourage the student to “talk themselves through” a math problem, having a verbal script for different types of questions.
• Encourage distractible students to use a ruler to cover all other material on a page other than what they are concentrating on, so that they don’t lose their place.
• Encourage students to color code important parts of stories…green for the characters in a story, red for the conflict, blue for the setting etc. That way one can reduce the amount of rereading and enhance visual scanning of the material.
• On handouts, try to keep the font constant. Bolding is fine but italics are often difficult for students with visual perceptual problems.
• Encourage the use of word processors with spell and grammar check.
• Verbalize any pertinent instructions from the text. Give the student some auditory information to assist with following the written instructions.
• Encourage the use of verbal study strategies rather than notes.
• Have student enlarge graphs, charts etc. to reduce visual problems.

STRATEGIES TO SUGGEST TO STUDENTS WHO HAVE SPECIFIC DIFFICULTIES

Problems with Auditory Perceptual Skills

• Provide written instructions to enhance verbal ones.
• Provide written outline on board or handout for each lecture.
• Encourage the use of templates for notes, including time lines for subjects like history, webs for literature topics, graphs and charts for the math and sciences that can assist the student follow along with lectures.
• Encourage the use of flash cards and other visual aids for organization of material.
• Try to keep the noise level in the room reduced.
• If students ask questions, repeat the question out loud for all students to hear.
• Build redundancy into lectures.
• Provide students with a list of important vocabulary or concepts.
• Break down complex tasks, concepts, or processes into manageable steps.
• Face the students when lecturing. Don’t lecture to the board or computer.
• Encourage student to tape record lectures to allow for later review.
• Do a quick intro and overview at the beginning and the end of class.
• As a lecturer, the more animated one can be, the better.