Definitions
Before we begin diving into the content of the course, we want to make sure everyone understands what we are talking about when we use terms such as disabilities, accessibility, and accommodations. If you were to Google the terms, you would find varying definitions. These are the ones that we find the most useful for what we are trying to talk about in this course.
Many faculty and staff are accustomed to providing accommodations and understand the basic procedures in doing so. You may have had students who require additional test time, a note-taker, or special textbooks. However, ensuring learning experiences are accessible from the start, including those that use technology, is often new territory for faculty and staff. Understanding the balance between accessibility and accommodations and the roles of different faculty and staff are important.
Accessibility
In education, accessibility is a proactive approach to ensuring that learning experiences are as free from barriers for students as we can make them. Accessibility is giving forethought to how you design your courses. It is applying pedagogical approaches such as universal design for learning principles and technical standards such as section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. It helps us meet the requirement that our courses are accessible “out of the box” and reduces the time students may have to wait on us to provide accommodations. Accessibility helps the students achieve independence and provide as equal of an experience as possible for them.
Accommodations
Accommodations are things we do during instruction to meet a specific and unique need of a student that we can’t do ahead of time. For example, if the learning objective of an online music course requires a student to listen to a classical piece and identify by ear key aspects of that piece, then an accommodation for a student with a hearing impairment would be more appropriate than altering the assignment as it is being designed. However, if an objective required students to visually identify written lyrics, then during design we may ensure that the blind student can access the content by using a screen reader and no accommodations would be needed.
SCF Memorandum of Accommodations
State College of Florida, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, will provide classroom and academic accommodations to students with documented disabilities. Students must submit application and documentation to the Disability Resource Center (DRC). Once registered, the Memorandum of Accommodations containing all approved accommodations, important information, and links to forms and processes will be emailed to instructors. Students and instructors are encouraged to work collaboratively throughout the semester to facilitate appropriate use of accommodations. DRC Contact Information: Email: drc@scf.edu Phone: 941-752-5295
Disabilities - definition from the American Disability Act
Section 504 and the ADA define disability as (1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; (2) a record of such an impairment; or (3) being regarded as having such an impairment. 29 U.S.C. § 705(9)(B); 42 U.S.C. § 12102(1). The Amendments Act does not alter these three elements of the definition of disability in the ADA and Section 504. But it significantly changes how the term "disability" is to be interpreted. Specifically, Congress directed that the definition of disability shall be construed broadly and that the determination of whether an individual has a disability should not demand extensive analysis. 42 U.S.C. § 12102 note
https://www.ada.gov/ Links to an external site. Links to an external site.
“We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt, June 10, 1936
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