College Syllabi: Providing Support for Students with Disabilities

Educational Forum, The, Fall 2006 by Broadbent, Gloria, Dorow, Laura G, Fisch, Lois A

Abstract

Syllabi from undergraduate and graduate courses offered at a small, private liberal arts college in central New York were examined to determine what percentage contained information that would make it easier for students with disabilities to access supports or accommodations to improve their success in the course. A total of 111 syllabi were examined for the presence or absence of information relevant to students with disabilities. Given that a significant percentage of the course syllabi lacked information that would enable students with disabilities to be self-sufficient, the authors recommend that course syllabi be standardized to ensure that all students, particularly those with disabilities, have the knowledge they need regarding assistive support.

Students with disabilities are entering college at a greater number than ever before due to the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Kerka 1998; Thomas 2000; Westby 2000). However, when these students enter college, much of the mandated accommodative and assistive support they received in elementary and secondary schools disappears-despite the reality of their continued need for accommodations that will enable their success at the postsecondary level.

By law, academic institutions are required to provide appropriate accommodations, defined as "adjustment to an activity or setting that removes a barrier presented by a disability so a person can have access equal to that of a person without a disability" (Byrnes 2000, 21). There is, however, a difference in scope, sequence, intensity, and duration at the college level because, unlike the free appropriate education for individuals from birth through grade 12 mandated by federal legislation, a college education is considered a privilege, not a right.

Though colleges are required to provide accommodations to those students who disclose their documented disabilities (Westby 2000), many students do not reveal their limitations. Many students enter college with the hope that they will be successful without disclosing their disabilities and do not request accommodations or special services as they begin their college course work. By the time these students realize that they are in trouble and disclose their special needs, the accommodations may be too little and too late to make passing their courses possible.

College faculty members form their own perspectives regarding students with disabilities. Many educators expect students to assume responsibility for ensuring their needs for accommodations are met; whereas, in high school, accommodations were provided without such advocacy (Kann 2001). Other college faculty members perceive that accommodations provide inequitable help to students with disabilities, even though research has shown that accommodations at the postsecondary level do not give students with disabilities an unfair advantage (Johnson et al. 2001). The literature has suggested that accommodations provide opportunity, rather than guarantee success, by removing barriers that may interfere with students' learning and performance (Byrnes 2000; Elliott, Kratochwill, and McKevitt 2001).

Recommended Accommodations

A variety of accommodations have been identified as helpful to most college students with disabilities regardless of their specific disability. These include:

* providing extended time (Elliott, Kratochwill, and Schulte 1998; Kalivoda and Higbee 1998; White and Poison 1999; Westby 2000; Bielinski 2001; Simon 2001; Papalia-Berardi, Hughes, and Papalia 2002; Treise and Wagner 2002);

* audiotaping lectures (Kalivoda and Higbee 1998; Simon 2001; Treise and Wagner 2002);

* providing a note taker or making instructors' notes available to students (Westby 2000; Simon 2001; Treise and Wagner 2002);

* allowing exams to be typed, read aloud, or dictated (Westby 2000);

* adapting text material (Dyck and Pemberton 2002);

* permitting multiple methods of assessment (Treise and Wagner 2002); and

* allowing course substitutions (Shaw 1999; Westby 2000; Simon 2001; Papalia-Berardi et al. 2002).

Teaching strategies that have been found to influence the success of college students who have disabilities include cooperative learning, peer tutoring, and collaborative learning (Rupley and Nichols 1998). Modifications to the classroom environment, such as shielding students from distracting stimuli and minimizing transitions (Rupley and Nichols 1998), avoiding lengthy periods of desk work and offering quiet seating (White and Poison 1999), and providing materials that are clearly formatted and free from distractions (Dyck and Pemberton 2002) also have been identified as beneficial.

Accommodations specific to different disabilities have been identified in the research literature. For college students with writing difficulties, examples of accommodations include an assigned editor, permission to use spell/grammar check software to complete written work, an assigned note taker, permission to tape record classroom lectures, and permission to answer questions orally on exams (Hunsicker 1998).