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Episode 6: Teaching Learners with Disabilities
Doug:Welcome to Talkingstock, I'm your host Doug Harvey, director of the Institute for Faculty Development at Stockton University. Talking Stock is a space where colleagues can discuss teaching, scholarship and service. Today I'm joined by three colleagues to discuss teaching students with disabilities. And here are my guests now.
Priti:I'm Priti Haria from School of Education and I teach courses in special education and research at graduate and undergraduate level. And, yeah.
Lydia:I'm Lydia Fecteau. I am an adjunct that teaches mostly out of general studies. I teach a lot of pop culture courses and disability studies courses.
Zori:Hi, my name is Zori Kalibatzeva, I'm an assistant professor of psychology in the social media role of sciences. And I teach courses on abnormal psychology personality, cross cultural psychology and culture and mental health.
Doug:Great. Thank you all for coming and talking about this issue. Because it’s a big topic and I think it’s an important one for Stockton and for every faculty member to deal with. So I’ll just start by saying, or asking, when a faculty member finds themselves teaching a course and they’ve got students that have disabilities of any type, what should their first reaction—? I’ve heard from faculty that say, it’s a struggle because they haven’t had experience with it. And so they don’t know what to do. What kind of advice you can give when they first encounter—you know an IEP or something like that that comes with the student [of letter]. What’s the first thing they should probably start doing?
Priti:One of the things is the first thing I would suggest is to access learning—Learning Access program. And they—if they have got the letter from Learning Access program that means the Learning Access program is aware about it. And so they can contact them to find out that—like what are some of the accommodations and everything. And also to set up a meeting with the student and ask the student, along with the Learning Access folks, so that we can better serve the student. Just ask them directly, sometimes may help.
Lydia:Yeah, I would definitely agree with that, that—I think the most important thing most people don’t realize is that the communication’s key. Many faculty members may feel like they need to tread softly around someone with disability. But myself being a lifelong disabled person, I will tell you that most people with disabilities are not shy, or upset or questioning of their condition, so faculty shouldn’t be either. They should directly communicate with the student and realize that, that will not offend the student, if they treat them with respect and just ask directly.
Zori:I couldn’t agree more with everything that you said and to add one small piece to that, is avoid making assumptions about the condition or disability that a person may have and how it may impact their life. I think getting the information directly from the student or at least being able to go into it with an open mind. And not necessarily panic or treat it as something that will impair the student’s learning. And more-so thinking creatively about what are various ways in which you can challenge yourself as an instructor.
Doug:I think that’s a very good point. I want to follow up a bit on that, then. So what are some of the strategies then the faculty can use? I mean, I know not every student’s the same in this case. Not everybody’s going to have the exact same challenge. So it’s really going to depend a little bit on that. But are there any sort of general strategies that people can use? Or ones that you see in the field?
Priti:Yeah, and I think doing, like a multisensory in a sense that using visual, if you can use PowerPoint or give notes to students or study guide kind of a thing. And using a lot of different ways in the classroom in a sense that using visual auditory and also even movement for some folks. Because maybe that’s one of the things. So including all sorts of different modalities within the classroom would be one way of addressing it. And also just taking a step back, like [ask for] our American Disabilities Act and 504, it’s one thing the faculty always has to think about, it’s a reasonable accommodations. So it’s something within your reach as—that you can do it. It’s not something very exceptional out there that you have to provide.
It’s a very simple things. Often it would be something like can the student audio tape the lecture? Or can the student use the notes scribe thing? Or something of that—it could be as simple as that. Or somebody who could be like—you know has a physical disability, maybe sitting upfront. Or making sure the footage of the classroom is accessible, very, very simple, minor things can be done. And of course, then you can also add technology to it, which Lydia you can, yeah—
Lydia:- Yeah and I think one of the keys is also, don’t stress yourself into adapting for individual students. Start to thinking your class is a multi-universal accessible way. So when you go look for a textbook, approach e-learning and try to make sure it’s one that’s available in different modes, digital as well as perhaps, audio. When you do a PowerPoint, include a description. Again e-learning can help you put that right within your PowerPoint and show you how to incorporate that and how to incorporate the narrative into PowerPoints, so people can hear it as well as see it. So if you do that as you’re prepping your class, naturally, then you’re not going to have to worry about individual students that come, instead you’ll be universally accessible, just as natural class preparation. And it’ll become just part of your every day class structure.
Doug:Right. That’s the universal design idea.
Lydia:Yes and it makes it so much easier, because instead of being reactive, you’re being proactive.
Doug:Yeah, I remember when I had a—two students in a class who had hearing disabilities. And I got a letter and it told me what the accommodation will—which was basically that when I spoke, I needed to look at them, so they could see me. That was a little strange at first, because I hadn’t—I’d gotten so used to not doing that. Just because it just—it was something I’d started not doing. So then I'm like—then I became intentional about it; I think that was the key. It was—you know it reminded me, you know what it’s really important that you make eye contact with your students.
Lydia:And think about how that just reaches students, aside from hearing impairments, because if the student sees that the teacher is making eye contact, they may be suddenly getting a connection to the work. And they may actually remember your lectures more. So it’s not necessarily [to get] something for an individual student, but it’s something that could benefit all the students. And you see that in a lot of issues where you’re doing universal design.
Doug:Zori, did you have any—?
Zori:I think you’ve already mentioned the main, most common accommodations and the—I guess related to that was the Learning Access program. They typically know what—also be able to talk you through what each of those accommodations are. And I think that’s where you can really start, if you didn’t know much about what accommodations may be most common or most helpful for the students in particular. That’s where—that can be your starting point.
Doug:Now, I know another piece of this is that sometimes you don’t always see what the challenges are. So what are some ways the faculty can deal, but they may not have all the detail—some faculty feel not threatened, but the idea of they’re a little uncertain about what to do. But they don’t need to know, right, I mean, it’s not their right to know.
Lydia:Yeah, and that’s always the hard place to go. I mean when I was a student here, even though I helped develop some of the Learning Access programs criteria, I never actually utilized it. I never neededaccommodations when I was a student. So a lot of times faculty would approach me thinking I needed more than what I needed. And that is kind of a assumption that can sometimes make students feel like they’re not able to do the work, feel like they’re underdeveloped. When in fact, it’s just that they don’t need the extra help. So, again, I think respect is a big element within it. Zori mentioned about not assuming. I can give you an anecdote from my own life, when I was—I used the university doctors for many of my doctors. And one of the four-year residents was filling out paperwork and rather than talking to me, and asking me because he assumed that I was [unintelligible 00;10:23]
[00:10:26 - 00:10:40 Audio problem]
Lydia:-So just because someone may be a wheelchair user, doesn’t mean that they necessarily need some of the accommodations. Whereas somebody with a mental health issue or [nor a diverse] spectrum, may need a lot more, but yet appear perfectly fine.
Priti:So to add to that, like even in your classrooms often what I do in my syllabus is that many of our students who feel a lot of anxiety with the projects, I give them a timeline. I give them benchmark that this is the week you should start thinking about your topic, this is the week you should develop your, if it’s a research, a paper, develop your research question. So giving them benchmark within the calendar, course calendar, that this week you do need to. And then, because it’s on the calendar, even you remember to ask and touch base with the students in the classroom. So that the anxiety and the conciliating and oh my god, my assignment will be due in a couple of weeks or something we were kind of preparing them ahead of time.
And I always tell them that I would be happy to look at your draft. So then that allows them to sort of go ahead and look a little further then beforehand. Because I think the biggest issue with some of the students who have invisible disabilities is anxiety, one of the things. And some of the things we can do in classrooms is by doing—this is one simple tool, so— Did you have to—?
Zori:Yeah, I think with the psychological disorders in particular making sure that if you’ve explained everything thoroughly, that can help with lowering the anxiety. And I think a number of these things are just, again, going back to the universal design, things that any instructor would want to do explaining in detail all of the parts of the assignment. And certainly it helps to start planning early or in advance. But going back to some of the earlier points. I was also thinking with students who may approach you in the beginning of class saying “I may need to step outside” or “I may need to take frequent breaks.”That is something to make sure that you’re thinking about. And not necessarily perceiving it as this student is being disrespectful, if they haven’t communicated that earlier with you.
Or if they needed to sit in a particular space in the room, so keeping those things in mind is facilitating the learning for everyone in the classroom.
Doug:You’ve shared some really great idea here. And I think the thing that I ,keep coming back to is that respect and I think it’s important that we don’t make assumptions. I mean, and that we treat these students like any other student. They may have some different challenges, but in the end, they’re still your student and you still have to teach them and they deserve that.
Priti:Yes, absolutely. And for the most part, it will be academic, social or some kind of emotional, which will be, as a faculty, you are affected by that. So I think it is sort of our responsibility to provide that academic, and social and emotional wellbeing within our classrooms so that everybody can access our instruction. So part of it is—it’s, I think, our responsibility; it does not—as much as because the student needs that accommodation. But I think it is to make sure that everybody is kind of understanding and being able to reach your instruction and so that accessibility is there. One thing I want to point out with the technology, there are such neat tools out there and right now I just with PDF’s, like so many different things you can do.
They can talk to you and [but then] you don’t have to do anything with it. It’s just like within that you can—so there are a lot of technology out there. And a lot of apps out there that you can use within your classroom to facilitate learning.
Lydia:And definitely, Stockton has the advantage of the e-learning program and Learning Access. Putting a lot of effort into making sure the technology is there for the faculty and willing to instruct the faculty in how to use it. So definitely faculty should take advantage of the e-learning’s programs. They have a list, Linda has it divided based on disabilities, so that you can see how different applications and programs work better for different types of disabilities. It’s certainly a great help, not just for the disabled student, but also for students that may have just different learning capabilities. We always hear about the different types of learners.
Well there—I have a student in my one class who isn’t disabled, but has discovered that, because most of my books are available in multiple ways, she’s discovered that the audio books are much better for her, than the reading books. She just maintains the knowledge better, so she’s not visually impaired, but she is using the audio book versions because it’s just a more convenient.
Doug:Great, well I think you’ve shared some really great resources. Are there any other resources that people could go to? Are there any websites, books, organizations that maybe they can be part of that would be useful for learning more about this?
Priti:Booksource is a great way, where if you have a textbook, and you—there’s no audio available, Booksource can provide you. And Learning Access, I think has a license or—I don’t know if they have to be a member or something, and Learning Access has the membership, so we can use that. So one of my textbooks, I—there was no digital or audio and the Booksource could do it and they—
Doug:- Booksource.
Priti:Yeah. So I think it’s Booksource, S-O-U-R-C-E dot com. I'm not sure if it’s dot com or org, but—
Doug:I’ll make sure I get the right link in the show notes, that everybody can go there.
Lydia:Yeah and you know personally I use Kindle style books a lot. Because Kindle not only appears as an electronic book that students can read free off of an app, but they also—all Kindle books have an audio way of utilizing the book, as well. So—and many of the programs, I know that arts and humanities has a Kindle that they use. I think the library has one students can borrow, so that’s an interesting way also of utilizing the material. And YouTube now does a captioning program for you, as well as Learning Access. I mean, e-learning will capture videos for you so that’s something to also, for faculty to think about. Video captioning, I know even myself, I don’t have a real hearing impairment, but I find when I—because I'm such a visual learner, when I watch a video, if I can read captioning at the same time, I retain the knowledge better.
So again, it’s reaching students different learning abilities, not just those with disabilities. But our students that are not disadvantage—disabled, but may learn in different modes, it’s a good way of reaching them.
Doug:Okay. Zori?
Zori:And I think there was a great article too, recently. So talking about resources where you can also get more information about specific resource—specific ways in which you can have a—not be, I guess, intolerant. And be rigor—and not be rigorous, right. So sorry, the article that I'm thinking about was called, in the Chronicle, Are You Being Rigorous, or Just Intolerant. Looking at how sometimes and us trying to be really rigorous as instructors we may actually be hurting students without realizing it. So I thought that was a great resource by somebody that a number of colleagues had shared and I had used for one of the presentations. And I guess another book that I found really helpful is called, the Strategic Primer for College Mental Health.
Which just gives you general information about how various mental health conditions in college students may affect their learning. What kind of environment you need to be looking for in the classroom. And with the resources that we have here on campus, also making sure that faculty are aware of the counseling center as a resource, that is free and confidential, that you can refer any student. And even better, walk the student to the counseling center if you think that they would—that especially if they’re experiencing levels of anxiety that may be making it difficult for them to retain information or any mood related difficulty. Or difficulties with attention, it may be a good place to start for them to get accessed and see if there is anything else that then can be provided, there’s resources for them through the Learning Access program.