Disabled Population

According to Ms. Huckabee, who is the Coordinator for Disability Student Services, there are numerous students with disabilities enrolled on our campus and online who never contact the Student Services office. For admissions purposes, by law, students are not required to disclose any type of disability if they so choose. Therefore, catering to their needs can be challenging.

At Indiana State University, about 150 students contact the Student Services office and register each year. Disabilities include learning (dyslexia, dysgraphia, reading, other various types), physical (wheelchair-bound, CP that involves hands, fingers, mobility issues as well as permanent injuries) hearing, visual, various chronic medical conditions (migraines, diabetes, congenital heart failure, IBS, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, and some very specialized that involve fatigue, seizures, asthma, etc.) eating disorders, neurological, PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, psychological (depression, anxiety), concussions, Autism, Asperger's, ADHD, and ADD.

Not all students who identify and register with Student Services use the accommodation(s) for which they qualify during their academic career at ISU. The fall and spring semesters of a student's freshman year are the times when they mostly use ISU's services. After that, many of them may adjust and feel more confident, and therefore they tend to stop using disability services on a regular basis. 

Some only have very mild disabilities; others have multiple serious impairments that affect many aspects of their lives. Some spend just minutes with a specially-trained teacher each week, others the whole day. Some high school graduates with a full academic course load may pursue highly competitive colleges; some may drop out of college, and others receive special diplomas or certificates.¹

Accommodations

Depending on the student disability, they may need diversified accommodation to fit their individual situations. Accommodations vary depending on the provided documentation and the requested accommodation. The most popular accommodation is extended test time and a quiet place. We also encounter requests for note-taking assistance, readers and scribes for exams, interpreters, text enlargement, book scanning for reading disabilities, and special requests for desks and tables for students in wheelchairs and other students who cannot fit in a standard size desk. The Student Services office verifies and reports medical conditions to pertinent faculty for flexibility in attendance policies and absences for illness and/or doctor appointments.

In order to create an inclusive environment for prospering professor-student relationships, certain understanding of capability and confidence from both parties is needed. Below is a video which explains more about the trust that can support the learning process of the disabled students.

 

 

Practical Tips

• Encourage students to disclose their disabilities at the student disability services to receive appropriate accommodation
• Remove negative portrayals of the members of the disabled population
• Connect with disabled students enrolled in your courses and ask them about their preferred instructional/learning strategies
• Post course materials, assignments, and deadlines with advanced notice because it allows students time to plan for accommodations and workload
• Follow universal design principles and create assessments that offer options for demonstrating relevant knowledge and skills. Let students choose the method to deliver their representative project.
• Make disabled students feel like any other student by using positive reinforcement and giving them personalized attention during the learning process ²
• Prepare alternative assignments because some students may have difficulties with the requested method of delivery such as presentation and public speaking
• Use multiple formats for instruction for delivering content because students learn different ways. You can make outlines or recordings available online or explain in a video all printed assignments.
• Regarding course materials, consider colors, fonts, and formats that are easily viewed by students with low vision or a form of color blindness ³
• Think of multiple ways students may be able to participate without feeling excluded instead of assuming what activities they can or cannot do ³

 Here is the next activity to check your understanding.

  

1 McDonnell, L., McLaughlin, M. J., Morison, P. (2000). Educating one & all: Students with disabilities and standards-based reform. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.
2 Moriña, A. (2019). The keys to learning for university students with disabilities: Motivation, emotion and faculty-student relationships. PloS One, 14(5), e0215249.
3 Picard, Danielle. (2015). Teaching students with disabilities. Vanderbilt University. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/disabilities.
Image: "Various Disabilities" is by Katie Reed