Summary and checklists

Overarching considerations

We need to ensure that attendance requirements can be justified on academic or accreditation grounds.

We also need to consider which actions need to be carried out as a matter of course and which we can provided on request.

We also need to balance a student’s needs for modified resources/ additional assistance and the students’ right to confidentiality and anonymity. A student may be comfortable disclosing a disability to a member of staff but may not want other students to know.

Course outlines could contain a statement explaining whether or not there is any flexibility in the methods of assessment for students with disabilities.

We need to remember that a student’s condition can change; they may have a degenerate condition or a condition which ‘flares-up’.

It is not uncommon for a student to have multiple disabilities or health conditions. Example: someone with a spinal cord injury is likely to have reoccurring infections and blood pressure problems as a result.

We also need to consider whether an intervention is going to give a disabled student an advantage as well as considering possible disadvantages.

 

Checklist for making teaching material available

  • Provide teaching material 48 hours in advance
  • Provide teaching material in a file type that can be edited so that students can change it to their preferences.
  • Provide teaching material via a means that is accessible such as e-mail.
  • On ELE make the order of the presentation of material logical; numbering the lectures and tutorials would help.

Checklist for formatting and structuring teaching[1]

  • Use simple, clear designs and avoid unnecessary images and animation
  • Use simple clean backgrounds; patterns can be distracting
  • Fonts: Ariel, Calibri or Verdana
  • Avoid using more than two font styles at a time
  • Minimum font size 30 for presentations, although, this depends upon the magnification in specific lecture theatres
  • Avoid paper which is shiny or has a sheen, matt paper should be used instead.
  • Do not use colour alone to convey information.
  • Use bold for emphasis rather than underlining or italics
  • Use left hand justified text
  • Use mixed case rather than upper case
  • Videos may require subtitling and/ or audio descriptions. A transcript of a video might also be required.
  • Ideally, we should be able to provide all written course material in advance, in digital format. Lecturers must decide whether to do this as a matter of course or, at least, upon request.

 

Checklist for presentations and delivering teaching[2]

  • Be aware that some students may need to lip-read during lecturers and tutorials, because of this lecturers should; face the front, not speak too fast, repeat questions from the audience, ensure that your face is not silhouetted against background light, remain relatively static and use microphones where available.
  • Lecturers should state at the beginning of a course whether they allow audio or video taping of lectures and tutorials if lecture capture is not available.
  • Lecturers should explicitly differentiate between times when students are supposed to be taking notes and if/ when they are dictating.
  • When directing students towards further reading or resources, lecturers should ensure that these resources are also accessible.
  • For visually impaired students, lecturers should also; read out the content of overheads, describe diagrammatic material.
  • To help students with specific learning difficulties, you should write down new terminology, proper nouns and foreign words (and spell them out) and provide lecture handouts and/ or lecture outlines.
  • Announcements made in class should also be e-mailed, as students with hearing impairments may miss something said in class.
  • Students must be able to access any material that they may need to consult either before or during a tutorial. If the material provided to students is intended for immediate use students must be able to both access the material and work on that material. In most cases this will simply mean that lecturers should be able to provide material in advance, in digital form, but it may mean providing material in Braille, for example.
  • Some students may not be able to absorb large amount of text quickly. Again, providing material in advance may be a solution to this issue.
  • If giving demonstrations during computer labs consideration should be made to factors like the size of the cursor i.e. can it be seen by visually impaired students? Also consider the screen contrast or background colour of the display screen.
  • Most of the issues that might arise in small group teaching can be resolved by providing digital material in advance, ensuring topic areas are known in advance and by discussion with the students who may require additional consideration.

Students with hearing impairments

  • If a group discussion is taking place, it may be difficult for a student to follow what is said. A student will be able to lip read if it is made clear who is speaking and if the student can see each speaker’s face.
  • If an interpreter is required, extra time may be required for the interpreter to sign each contribution to the student. Additionally, it may be useful to explain to the group the role and purpose of the interpreter and the beginning of the tutorial.

Students with mental health difficulties

  • Speaking in public may exacerbate a student’s anxiety. A lecturer could consider allowing such a student to prepare a discussion paper in advance instead of speaking in class.

Students with speech impediments

  • It should not be assumed that students with speech impediments are uncomfortable speaking in class.
  • A student’s speech may not be accessible to the rest of the class. If this is the case, a student may wish to use an assistant, who is used to the student’s speech patterns, to articulate the student’s contribution. Alternatively, a student may wish to write down what they wish to say and have the tutor or another student read this to the class. Students who use a speech synthesiser will need to know the tutorial topic in advance so that they can prepare their response.

Students with visual impairments

  • Students with visual impairments will be helped if they are told: who is speaking at any one time, when a question is directed at them and when the lecturer has moved on to another member of the class.

 

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References

[1] Adapted from ‘Teachability’ project, undertaken by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council

[2] Adapted from ‘Teachability’ project, undertaken by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council