Learning Disabilities? These Apps May Help

The Assistive Technology Project (ATP) trainers are a tremendous resource when it comes to recommending and thinking creatively about technology (both low and high tech) that may be useful and helpful for an individual with a disability.  If you’re working with students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), consider  working with the student to see if any  of the apps in the chart below, would be effective for them. (Click on the image below to open the document in a new window.)

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Access to Success: Free Online Course for College Students with Disabilities

Access to Success is a free online course from the Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL) at the University of Kansas. The course is designed to help students learn about their rights and responsibilities in the post-secondary environment, and to develop self-advocacy skills.

For students who are transitioning from high school to college, this program would be useful as a component of the planning process

The course syllabus is below:

WARM-UP –  a short multiple chose quiz for students to discover what they already know

LESSON 1: – Content covers your rights and knowing yourself

• The names and requirements in the federal laws that give you the right to reasonable accommodations in higher education
• The support services that are available in your higher education program to help you get the accommodations you need
• The definitions of accommodations and kinds of accommodation that students with disabilities may use, including technological and non-technological accommodations
• The difference between reasonable and unreasonable accommodations
• Your own strengths and needs related to being successful in a higher education program
• How to think about the environment and expectations of your higher education program and consider the accommodations that would best enable you to be successful

LESSON 2 – A skills-base lesson that gives participants an opportunity to practice advocating for themselves.

COOL DOWN – a post-quiz that allows the participant to assess what he/she has learned.

 

Accessibility as a Civil Right

As disability services providers, we’re skilled in working with students and faculty (and in documenting the process) to ensure that courses and campus resources are accessible. What we may not have the time to do or know how to do effectively, is figure out to mount an institution-wide campaign to get buy-in from faculty, staff, and students, especially in the area of electronic information technology (EIT).

While it is possible to get the attention of campus leaders and others by pointing out the increasing number of OCR investigations and lawsuits, it is far more effective to  frame the discussion about accessibility and why it is critical to put more resources into accessibility in the context of civil rights.

In this article for Educause Review, Art Morgan states,

In my opinion, the most successful campaigns have a common thread: they promote accessibility as a civil right and explain how accessibility fosters diversity and inclusiveness.

The complete article may be found at  Accessibility as a Civil Right.

 

Art Morgan is vice president for partner development at Automatic Sync Technologies, a leading provider of closed captioning services for education and educational publishers.

2017 Member Directory

Updated July 1, 2017

Supporting STEM Students with Dyslexia

Accommodating students in STEM fields can often be challenging. Resources to support STEM faculty have not always been available.

Produced by the Institute of  Physics, the guide, Supporting STEM Students with Dyslexia  contains good practice examples and case studies to help those teaching STEM subjects to make simple adjustments to their practice, benefiting all students and not just those with dyslexia.  A Word version can be found here: Supporting STEM Students with Dyslexia

 

The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific membership society working to advance physics for the benefit of all. Membership is worldwide enthusiastic amateurs to those at the top of their fields in academia, business, education and government.