5 Access strategies for students with disabilities
5 Access strategies for students with disabilities
Student Voice
These three videos share the stories of three students, including the barriers they face, and what helps make teaching and learning more accessible. When you click on each video, it will open in a new tab.
Tomi (6:12)
Dawson (3:54)
Michelle (6:53)
Reflect:
- What key messages will you take away from these videos?
- What supports or enablers helped to make learning environments more accessible and inclusive?
Each student is an individual, and some will need individual accommodations and considerations — even in a classroom where UDL is implemented. It’s important to work with accessibility services and with the student to determine what they need at this specific time.
Students’ needs can also change, depending on the course, their health, or even the time of year. Students can be experts on their own disabilities — remember that you might not know the whole story. Trust students to know what they need. Alternatively, some students need support to learn how to articulate their needs, based on their own experiences and documentation. The postsecondary environment is a great place for them practice self-advocacy skills.
Listen to and learn from your students. Be creative and flexible. Know that what works for one student with ADHD, for example, may not work for another. Some students live with more than one disability, and you may not even know what disability a student has or even which students in your class need accommodations.
In the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability [1](CSD), Statistics Canada describes 10 disability types:
- Seeing
- Hearing
- Mobility
- Flexibility
- Dexterity
- Pain-related
- Learning
- Developmental
- Mental health-related
- Memory
No list can cover the many different experiences of disability, and no inventory of accommodations will cover every student need.
How is this section organized?
In this section, we use personas to introduce you to some barriers students with disabilities experience in higher education. Each persona is based on actual students, but is not about one particular student. [2]
First, strategies that support all students are listed. These strategies can make learning more accessible to students with a wide range of disabilities, as well as students who may not identify as having a disability but still benefit from increased access. Second, strategies that support students with some specific disabilities — including physical disabilities that limit mobility, as well as hearing and vision loss — are listed.
Persona: Bella
Bella is an 18-year-old woman in her first year at community college. She is very artistically talented and creates art using both traditional and digital tools. Bella was diagnosed as autistic at 16 and is still learning to advocate for herself. She needs more time to process information and contribute to a discussion, and does not make social connections easily. She lives at home with her parents.
Ability: Autistic with