- Teachers may not initially realize that a student requires accommodations or adaptations because the disability may not be evident. When disabilities appear more visible, people tend to see the accommodations as fair. However, when disabilities appear hidden, such as the case with many students with mild disabilities, what a person sees may be that the student is not trying not that the student cannot organize the information.
- Sometimes a teacher may know what accommodations or adaptations a student requires, but the teacher may still not understand why the student needs them. For instance, a teacher may not realize how or why a student with a learning disability has problems organizing her thoughts.
- Four considerations should surround any type of accommodation or adaptation: (a) specific student characteristics drive the accommodations, not the student label; (b) using an accommodation is dependent on the targeted learning outcome; (c) there are varied forms of the same accommodation; and (d) students should be assuming control over their need for accommodations and areas where they can become more independent.
- Traditionally, teachers have considered accommodations for learners as those accommodations relate to specific tasks or activities within the classroom environment.
- A broader interpretation of accommodations takes into account the depth and breadth of the content selected for instruction, the flexibility and variety with which a teacher plans for, designs, and delivers instruction, as well as the ways in which learners can demonstrate their knowledge and skill of that content.
- Accommodations and adaptations listed on the IEP or Section 504 plan are based on individual student characteristics and needs.
- For some students, presentation accommodations may be necessary.
- Assessment accommodations related to quizzes, midterms, or final exams may also be noted on IEPs or Section 504 plans. If the content and criteria by which the student’s quiz or response is scored remains the same as for the other students in the class, it may be that an accommodation occurs for presentation or response.
- Traditional accommodations and adaptations enable students to compensate in some way for their disability, and are intended to assist students with mild disabilities to attain the same or similar learning outcomes as for other students.
- How students with mild disabilities receive information is considered the input of new content, and often the type of instruction teachers use or the curriculum may drive the way in which new content is presented to students.
- Some students’ needs for accommodations and adaptations can be met through varied and flexible presentation of content, while other students may still require more specialized accommodations or adaptations.
- How students with mild disabilities show information they know and can do is considered the output, and it may be that some students need accommodations and/or adaptations that were once considered nontraditional ways of demonstrating knowledge and skills.
- Because the depth and breadth of the curriculum itself can be perceived as a deterrent in and of itself in whether teachers feel the can develop and use accommodations for students with mild disabilities, it is necessary to examine the curriculum itself in terms of how well-constructed it is.
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