What is meant by Teaching & Learning Strategies?

The following 10 sections have been copied with kind permission from
“Teaching Strategies & Disability Awareness for Staff Including Students with Disabilities”
A handbook for staff in Higher Education
Alexis Donnelly - October 1996
Revised and updated by Declan Treanor (October 2000)

Students bring a unique set of strengths and experiences to college and students with disabilities are no exception. While many learn in different ways, their differences do not imply inferior capacities. There is no need to dilute curriculum or to reduce course requirements for students with disabilities.

However special accommodations may be needed as well as modifications in the way information is presented and in methods of testing and evaluation. Lecturers can be aided in these efforts by drawing upon the student's own prior learning experiences using available college and department resources.
Determining that a student is disabled may not always be a simple process. Visible and some physical disabilities are noticeable through casual observation. Other students have what are known as hidden disabilities, such as hearing impairments, legal blindness, cardiac conditions, learning disabilities, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease and psychiatric or seizure disorders, all of which are usually not apparent.

Finally, there are students with multiple disabilities, which are caused by such primary conditions such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis. Depending on the nature and progression of the illness or injury, it may be accompanied by a secondary impairment (in mobility, vision, speech or coordination) which may, in fact, pose greater difficulties.

Some students with disabilities may identify themselves as such to their lecturer or tutor early in the academic year. Others, especially those with hidden disabilities, may not because of their fear of disbelief about the legitimacy of their problem or the need for accommodation. Such students, in the absence of instructional adjustment, may run into trouble in their college work. In a panic, they may self identify just before an examination and expect instant attention to their needs.

A short sentence on the course outline handout at the start of the year to the effect that adjustments are routinely made for students with documented disabilities, may give a hesitant student enough confidence to self identify. The sooner the student's circumstances are made known the better.

Specific suggestions for teaching students with disabilities will be offered in the sections devoted to each disability.


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