Disabilities impact a person's ability to write on multiple levels. As a complex activity, writing requires the use and coordination of many skills simultaneously: forming and spacing letters, choosing words, recalling correct spellings, remembering and using the rules of written language, organizing thoughts, and managing time when writing a lengthy piece.
We know from brain research that a weakness in one area of the brain is often compensated by strength in another. In terms of writing, this means that a person with a visual, hearing, or mobility disability can still retain information and compose a well thought-out and articulate essay. Moreover, just as people with disabilities are not all alike, how a certain disability impacts a person's ability to write varies from person to person.
This section divides disabilities into the categories of visible and invisible. Visible disabilities are those that are transparent to the instructor, such as many physical disabilities. Invisible disabilities are those that the instructor may not know exist unless informed by the student; they include, for example, learning disabilities, ADHD, and many psychological disabilities.
A student with a learning, hearing, visual, or physical disability can employ accommodation strategies that allow him or her to produce acceptable, if not exceptional, writing. These accommodations are simply a different way to do a task that builds on a learner's strengths to compensate for a learner's weakness. For the college writer, accommodations can be in the form of assistive technology, classroom adjustments, and/or assignment modifications. Indeed, many of the devices that are considered assistive technology (AT) are often used by all writers. Classroom adjustments and/or assignment modifications make the classroom instruction and assignment designs accessible to all students. The purpose of these accommodations is not to make the writing task—or course, for that matter—less rigorous; rather, these accommodations make the writing task accessible to all students. In fact, employing UDL principles in both overall course and specific assignment design will better serve all students because these accommodations represent best practices in general writing instruction.
The lists of assistive technologies presented in this section that are helpful in the writing process are by no means exhaustive. Assistive technology changes rapidly with new products being developed and existing products being updated readily. Here such technologies are presented based on their function rather than identified by their product name or manufacturer. For a more complete list of assistive technology used by students with disabilities as part of the writing process, see Assistive Technology Checklist developed by UCP and available online at http://www.ucp.org/ucp_channeldoc.cfm/1/12/69/69-69/1027
For a list of companies that produce assistive technology useful in the writing process, see http://www.gatfl.org/ldguide/writeat.htm. Finally, contact your campus' Disability Support Services office or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator for the most up-to-date information about AT and its availability and uses on your campus.
