While these practices can be particularly useful for students with learning disabilities, they can also enhance learning for all students.
Assignment Design and Delivery
- Employ UDL principles in assignment design and delivery.
- In developing an assignment, recognize that the assignment's goal can be accomplished through a variety of means. Offer flexibility in assignment tasks to make the overall learning goal accessible to all students.
- Clearly present the goal(s) of assignment to students on an instruction sheet and during in-class assignment review.
- Provide assignments in alternate formats (print, online, audiotape) for greater accessibility.
- Review assignment instructions in class.
- Emphasize drafting and revision.
- Teach mnemonic devices (the use of associative links to aid memory such as TOWER* (Think, Organize, Write, Edit, Rewrite) for remembering the steps involved in the writing process or COPS* (Capitalization, Overall appearance, Punctuation, Spelling) for proofreading.
- *TOWER and COPS are adapted from Deshler, 1983 and cited in Destination Literacy: Identifying and Teaching Adults With Learning Disabilities, Learning Disabilities Association of Canada)
Classroom Accommodations
- Have students sit in the most distraction free area of the classroom (away from doors, air conditioners, windows, or other possible distractions). For example, invite student to sit in the front of the room for greater focusing.
- Have students take exams in a distraction reduced environment.
- Encourage students to write papers in a distraction reduced environment.
- Provide extended time on exams, in-class writing, and/or lengthy writing assignments.
- Suggest using a note taker to compensate for difficulty focusing and concentrating during class.
- Provide multi-modal options for test taking, such as administering test orally rather than in written format.
- Provide study questions, study guides and other study aids in multiple formats.
Assistive Technology (AT)
Assistive technology used for students with learning disabilities moves along a continuum from low tech writing aids that assist with the physical act of writing such as pen grippers and slant boards, to hand held tools that help with spelling, vocabulary, and on-the-go composing, to sophisticated software that assists in every aspect of the writing process from portable word processors, auditory word processing software, graphical word processors, on-screen keyboards, scanning software with form filling, voice recognition software, and organizing and outlining software. Some of the common and highly effective devices college writers may use include:
- Laptop or portable word processor to take notes in class and to do in-class writing assignments or essay exams;
- Textbooks on tape;
- Scanners for digitizing articles and handout material to be used with text to speech software;
- Audio recorders to record lectures;
- Audio recorders to compose compose papers orally and then transfer them to text through voice recognition software;
- Word prediction software to assist with poor keyboarding skills or word-retrieval difficulties;
- Portable electronic spell checker/ dictionary;
- Discipline specific dictionary software that integrates with Microsoft Word such as medical, legal, science, and technology dictionaries;
- Bibliographic citation software to compile a bibliography that follows a specific citation style such as MLA, APA, CBE, or Chicago.
