Get Your Students Hired
The Value of accomodation is that enables the student to use class content while completing assignments or assessments in a way that best meets their learning needs.
I myself have a learning disabilty , I don't allow it to discourage me in any way.
From the module on Supporting Students with Learning Disabilities, I’ve learned about the importance of creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment for students with learning disabilities. I’ve also learned about various strategies and accommodations that can help these students succeed in their academic and social development.
I intend to apply this knowledge by being more aware of the needs of students with learning disabilities and by implementing appropriate strategies to support their learning and social integration. This may include providing additional support and accommodations, fostering a positive and inclusive classroom culture, and collaborating with other professionals to ensure the best possible outcomes for these students.
This section talked about three things that I think are particularly valuable for instructors to keep in mind. There is a major difference between accommodations and modifications. Accommodations provide support for a student to access the learning materials without changing the content being taught. Modifications actually amends the content to support a student who may otherwise not have any exposure to the content. Modifications are great for providing some amount of exposure to the content, but they will not provide as thorough an exploration of the content that other students are likely receiving. This is why most institutions do not provide modifications within their classes, to ensure that all students are being held to the same learning standards. Specific inclusive higher education programs may allow modifications for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities, but in general, modifications will not be given to students with learning disabilities. Self-advocacy is a skill that all adults will need to practice and develop within their lifetime. For students with disabilities, it is even more important that students who have a disability diagnosis in primary and secondary school be provided with the training to self-advocate when it comes to receiving accommodations to meet their learning needs. This should be encouraged and practiced through self-directed IEPs and ensuring that accommodations are being provided in the general education setting. Learning how to talk about their disability, accommodations, and how it impacts their learning will be imperative to empower students to make the request in higher education and make the request, if needed, in the workplace. Finally, career exploration was mentioned. Career exploration opportunities should occur through a number of mediums including interest inventories, aptitude assessments, touring, shadowing, internships, etc. This will expand options for students with disabilities and provide them with directly related experience about how they see themselves fitting into a specific working environment.
This helped me better understand the difference between Accommodations and Modifications.
We can not forget that there are lots of examples of people with learning disabilities; Einstein is perhaps the most famous of them. It is true that the school system of the time greatly underestimated him, and he excelled more at math AFTER he came up with the basics of Relativity, because he realized he needed to master mathematics to work out all the implications.
Having lived with LD, I can relate to these students at a level that helps pull the best out of the student. I have had to do much of the self advocacy. I have learned more about the science behind diagnosis and also more about how we can accomodate
I believe that post-secondary institutions should counsel students with learning disabilities as far as the direction they should go with a career. I do not believe that students that struggle in certain areas due to learning disabilities should be given false hope that they may be successful in a career that requires them to do things they are not capable of.
The difference between accommodations and modifications was my biggest takeaway. The statistics on postsecondary teachers and even worse employers who go unaware of students and employees who are in need of accommodations was alarming and sad at an equal level.
All people can be intelligent in their own way. Accommodations and modifications can assist people with disabilities to be success but yet complete tasks.
Students with disabilities, whether they receive accommodations or not, should be learning how to advocate for themselves from a young age. This requires the support, instruction, and feedback from parents and teachers, so that the students can have lifelong success through secondary and post-secondary education.
I think the thing to keep in mind is that being successful in the workforce is a major life step for students with disabilities. And we have to help them discover ways to achieve that success. We have to support the way they learn and help them achieve their career goals while providing the stepping stones they need for true learning.
It is so sad that a lot of people were not aware of accommodations when they were in school. their adult lives would be more fulfilling.
Accommodations and modifications are instructional supports that help students with learning disabilities to be successful in their classes and to move forward in achieving their career goals.
As an instructor, if I am aware that a student has a learning disability, I would try to be accommodating, if time allowed. We still have a class to teach and there are other students that perform at different levels.
I learned that an accommodation doesn't mean giving the student with a disability an advantage because it doesn't change the integrity of the task or learning they have to achieve.