Teaching Students with Disabilities: A How-To Guide for Part-Time Faculty

by Elizabeth J. Carter

Professor Judy Juanita knew right away she was teaching a student with a disability when he showed up in her introductory English class with a computer “as big as a piece of luggage.” Recalled Juanita: “[He] made a big deal of using and hooking it up. It couldn’t help but grab our attention since he did it every class, and sometimes during class, he’d ask me to stop so he could record [or] change discs [and] plug it up again.” Although the student’s accommodation disrupted the class, it also became, in Juanita’s words, a “comic diversion.”

Juanita, who has taught part-time at California colleges for almost twenty years, has built an impressive foundation of experience teaching students with disabilities (SWDs). During her career, she has taught as many as fifteen SWDs—and these are only those whose disabilities were known to her. Although Juanita acknowledges that teaching SWDs can be more time-consuming than teaching students without, she finds reward in seeing them “become an organic part of the classroom.”
Is Juanita’s experience typical? Do part-timers, with their typically frenetic schedules, dearth of office space, and transient presence on campus, face special challenges in teaching SWDs? If so, what can they do to meet those challenges?

The Part-Time Challenge

As part of their research for their paper, “Preliminary Findings: Faculty, Teaching Assistant, and Student Perceptions Regarding Accommodating Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Environments,” disability expert Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler and her colleagues, Rachel Duclos, M.Ed. and Michelle Turcotte, led focus groups at 23 postsecondary institutions, and found that “Part-time faculty feel at a particular disadvantage [in teaching SWDs] because of their reduced participation in the schools’ professional development and lack of knowledge about resources.”

Part-time faculty interviewed for this article confirmed that their contingent status creates unique difficulties in teaching SWDs. Rachel Rigolino, a professor of composition and literature at SUNY New Paltz, has been a full- and part-time professor for more than ten years, and has taught an upwards of 60 SWDs. “Part-time faculty,” she remarked, “often do not have access to technological resources that can improve their work with disabled students. For example, many part-time faculty do not have computers in their offices and cannot readily access campus or educational resources via the web. This sounds like a minor point, but I spend a substantial amount of time looking for educational resources for all my students during office hours.”

Cynthia Cooper, who has taught English literature and composition part-time for more than 25 years, agreed: “Part-time teachers are not paid for the additional hours they spend with students. In my current position, I am required to have two office hours a week for which I am not paid. This is a serious concern.”

Lack of training is also a problem for part-timers. Dr. Colin Byfleet, a British native and part-time chemistry professor with 30 years of teaching experience, recalled that his introduction to teaching students with disabilities was as abrupt and unaided by formal training as his introduction to part-time teaching itself: “I was dumped straight in and [it was]: ‘You swim, champ.’”
Who should assume the onus of training—part-timers or DSS (disabled student services)—is a question that appears to divide the two groups. Of the half dozen part-time faculty who discussed with the Adjunct Advocate their experiences teaching SWDs, not one reported having received more than minimal training from their institution’s office of disabled student services. Observed Cynthia Cooper: “I have never received any offers for training; I have never had any specific instructions for dealing with [learning disabled] students. Fortunately, my former husband was a learning disabilities specialist, and he often gave me advice.” Part-time faculty member at the College of Alameda, David Romaine, agreed that more training should be available for all faculty. He would like to see, for example, the establishment of a roundtable discussion forum for part-time faculty who have taught SWDs, so that they could discuss teaching strategies and experiences.

DSS counselors and directors confirmed that training is generally limited to an overview of accommodation procedures during new-faculty orientation sessions, which are usually held at the same time for both full- and part-time faculty. The reason for this may be as simple as understaffed DSS offices. Said Martha Jacques, Director of Indiana University’s Office of Disabled Student Services, “[W]e don’t have a whole lot of time for [training]….We’re doing a lot, but you can always do more.” Jacques also noted that part-time faculty are “sometimes out of the mainstream.” If bulletins or announcements are made, for example, part-timers might not get them; further, they might lack the benefit of regular professional association with other faculty—participation in those between-class “bull sessions” that can include an exchange of tips on how to teach SWDs.

Whereas part-time faculty expressed frustration with the lack of training opportunities, DSS counselors who talked to the Adjunct Advocate stressed the need for faculty to initiate contact with DSS to learn about the services and resources offered.

“Don’t hesitate to call [us],” advised Caity McCandless, a disability counselor at The Ohio State University’s Office for Disability Services. Sam Goodin, Director of Services for Students with Disabilities at the University of Michigan, concurred, noting the need for faculty to read the handbooks and other instructional materials available on almost all universities’ DSS websites. (Michigan’s faculty handbook may be accessed at: http://www.umich.edu/~sswd/ssd/fhb.html.)

Who Are Students with Disabilities?

SWDs are an eclectic group. For starters, they tend to be older than non-disabled students, with an average undergraduate age of 30, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000092.pdf). Their disabilities may range from cognitive (e.g., information-processing deficits) to sensory (blindness or deafness), to psychological (schizophrenia) and physical (impaired mobility). As reported by the NCES, in 1999-2000, nine percent of all undergraduates at American colleges and universities claimed a disability. (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2003/section5/indicator34.asp)

Of all disabilities reported, NCES statistics show that mobility impairments are the most common, constituting 29 percent of all reported disabilities, with mental illness and depression (17 percent) trailing close behind. Data from the International Center for Disability Information (ICDI) further show that, at four-year institutions, one-third or more of reported disabilities may not be visible—for example, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and mental illness—suggesting the need for faculty to be alert to subtle signs of difficulty, such as poor concentration and attendance, mood disturbances, or trouble reading and using numbers.

Understanding Disability Law and Responding to a Letter of Request for Accommodations

Since the passage of the federal Rehabilitation Act in 1973, and, in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), disability law has evolved into a multilayered complex of requirements that, for both public and private higher-education faculty, boils down to this simple imperative: If a student has a documented disability, has timely disclosed that disability to his or her institution’s office of disabled student services, and has requested a reasonable accommodation (i.e., one that does not create undue hardship or require the dilution of course material), then faculty must make the accommodation. A faculty member who wants to contest the reasonableness of a requested accommodation, or even the existence of a claimed disability, may do so, but through an appeal process. (For an overview of basic ADA law, go to the ADA Home Page at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/. This invaluable resource includes an extensive but easy-to-understand summary of the law’s salient points and applications. It also contains information on new and proposed regulations.)

To be protected by the ADA, students with disabilities must document that their impairment “substantially limits a major life activity.” The threshold for determining what constitutes a substantial limitation of a major life activity (particularly when the disability is ameliorated by corrective devices such as glasses or prescription medication) has been debated at great length in caselaw that is beyond the scope of this article. Examples of impairments the courts have found substantially limiting include dyslexia, epilepsy, and blindness.

An important point to remember is that, although faculty bear the burden of providing requested accommodations, they do not have any duty to discover or diagnose disabilities. Under the ADA, disclosure is the sole responsibility of the student. (Although, as explained later, it’s always best to establish a classroom environment that encourages disclosure.)

Part-time faculty who receive a letter of request for accommodations should do the following:

• File the letter in a place where others will not have access to it;
• Understand that, although you are required to provide the requested accommodations, you are not required to “water down” your course material;
• Provide the accommodations requested in the letter, unless you believe they are not reasonable, in which case you should contact the person who signed the letter.
(From the handbook, “Teaching Students with Disabilities,” University of California Berkeley, Disabled Students’ Program; https://dsp.berkeley.edu/sbin dspACCESS.php?_page=TeachStudentsWithDisab)

What if a student does not disclose the nature of his disability, but simply requests accommodations? Faculty should be aware that, under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and the guidelines promulgated by the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), faculty are not entitled either to unlimited access to the medical and testing records of SWDs, or to verification of the student’s diagnosis. Rather, they are limited only to information that will help them provide reasonable accommodations. Nonetheless, as Jane E. Jarrow, Ph.D. explains in her article, “Confidentiality of Disability Documentation,” “This does not mean that faculty are prohibited from asking the student for additional information….Faculty have the right to ask students directly about their disability and their need for accommodation, they just don’t have the right to access such information from the service provider.”

The Requirement of Reasonable Accommodations

Reasonable accommodations can encompass everything from the use of signers or interpreters; assistive devices such as tele-text machines for the hearing-impaired; open- and close-captioned videos for those with visual impairments; and ergo pods for students with mobility and visual impairments. Reasonable accommodations can also involve strategies as simple as allowing extra time for tests, implementing techniques that appeal to a broad range of learning styles (e.g., tactile, visual, auditory), and taking care to speak clearly in the classroom.

Specific accommodations of SWDs are only part of the picture, however. In the foreground is the more general question of how faculty can create a classroom that encourages disclosure, welcomes students with disabilities, and puts in place strategies that allow students with disabilities to achieve their full potential. Although the prospect of teaching SWDs might initially intimidate, it does not need to. Part-time faculty and DSS counselors who talked with the Adjunct Advocate agreed that teaching SWDs is not always more time-consuming than teaching those without, and that, even when it is, the rewards of helping these students learn can be incomparably satisfying.

A basic but effective way to encourage voluntary disclosure of a disability is to include a note on your course syllabus explaining your interest in, and willingness to accommodate, documented disabilities. The Ohio State University’s Office for Disability Services recommends this short statement: “If you are a student with a disability and need accommodations, you are welcome to meet with me to discuss the arrangements for the accommodations.” (http://www.ods.ohio-state.edu/faculty/handbook/index.htm)

For part-timers who don’t have offices, however, the need to discuss accommodations and still maintain privacy can be tricky. One possibility is to arrange a meeting in a conference room at the DSS office, where privacy can be maintained. Another option is to meet with students in the classroom, either during a break in the class period or shortly afterward. Part-time faculty member Judy Juanita recommends the latter method, and also taking advantage of email. Meeting in the library is also a possibility, said Caity McCandless of Ohio State. McCandless also noted that, when students are motivated to meet outside class, they will work to make it happen.

Common Challenges in Teaching Students with Disabilities and How to Meet Them

Some of the challenges that part-time faculty face in teaching SWDs, such as limited office space for private conferences, are tied specifically to their part-time status; others, however, are common to all faculty. Two-thirds of the faculty interviewed for this article reported encountering some kind of difficulty in their teaching of SWDs. Among the most frequently cited challenges were: 1) students whose frustration impeded their own and other students’ learning; 2) students who disrupted the class with outbursts; 3) students who did not attend class regularly or dropped out altogether; 4) students who did not disclose their disability until late in the semester.

These problems were often cited as stemming from emotional and learning, rather than physical, disabilities. Faculty agreed that the less clearly defined nature of non-physical disabilities can make them more difficult to accommodate. Observed Rachel Rigolino, of SUNY: “Physical disabilities are often easier to accommodate because [their] boundaries are usually very clear.” Judy Juanita echoed this thought: “[Students] with physical disabilities…are on a par with the other students. Perhaps this is because their disability is in plain sight, if not to us, to them. So they might not have to belabor concealment.”
For all students, frustration is a natural result of trying to handle demanding college coursework. For disabled students, it can be the result of not receiving effective accommodations. In her essay, “Textbook Marking: An Aid to Concentration, Comprehension, and Retention,” (in Accommodations—Or Just Good Teaching? Strategies for Teaching College Students with Disabilities, eds. Bonnie M. Hodge and Jennie Preston-Sabin, Praeger Publishers, 1997), Verdery B. Kennedy describes her first encounter with a bright but frustrated student challenged by attention deficit disorder:
“Sara sat in the back row of my third-quarter developmental reading class. She looked angry, defiant and thoroughly miserable. She glared at me throughout that first class session—an open invitation for someone to do something about her plight.”

Instead of becoming frustrated herself, Kennedy met with Sara privately and learned more about her history of learning difficulties. By doing so, she was able to isolate areas of particular strength and weakness and adjust her teaching methods accordingly. Identifying Sara as a kinesthetic learner, for example, prompted Kennedy to show her how to annotate her course texts, thereby encouraging active learning and better retention of material.

“For the first time in her school career [Sara could] concentrate for extended periods of reading, comprehend what she was reading, and to her great delight, remember what she had read,” said Kennedy.

Sometimes, encouraging a student to express frustration or anger can have the unexpected effect of mitigating it. As Paula A. Gills describes in her essay, “Helping Students with Attention Deficit Disorder” (also in Accommodations—Or Just Good Teaching?), letting a frustrated student “vent” can establish trust and, in the long term, encourage learning:

“One day I decided to press on with tutoring when [Rick, my student] was frustrated and wanted to leave; I ‘fed the flames,’ so to speak, to see if I could bring things to a head. Once he had displayed an actual temper tantrum, he was better able to see his behavior as we discussed it….When I did not judge him but merely noted what happened and explained what was appropriate behavior…he seemed somewhat relieved.”
Outbursts in class can be an especially serious challenge. As Cynthia Cooper explained: “Emotionally disabled students can cause serious disruptions to college classes….An emotionally challenged student can either antagonize or lead the students to disruptive behavior.”

Cooper described having to call in a dean at the university to respond to a belligerent student with an emotional disability.

“The dean then referred him to counseling and insisted he apologize to the class and to me before returning. It worked. He did well in the course.”

Rachel Rigolino noted that, sometimes, other students can be a source of support for their emotionally troubled classmates. “I recently had a young woman in my class who had frequent outbursts, and, as frustrating as that could be for all of us…the rest of the students became very protective of her and empathetic.”

Handling outbursts can require quick thinking and imagination. As Ohio State’s Caity McCandless pointed out, there’s no simple formula for handling a student whose behavior becomes disruptive. When the outburst is actually happening, it’s important, said McCandless, to be able to assess how urgent the situation is and decide whether it allows a low-key response, such as acknowledging the student’s anger and requesting that he or she stop disrupting the class, or, on the other hand, calling 911. McCandless also stressed the importance of contacting DSS, whose counselors may have a pre-existing relationship with the student, and can shed light on the origin of the problems.

For some part-time faculty, outbursts never occur because their SWDs simply do not come to class.

“Often,” observed Judy Juanita, “the students with cognitive problems are reluctant to reveal them. Instead they absent themselves from class, come in late, don’t turn in work.”

Determining exactly why a student has stopped coming to class can be difficult, noted McCandless, who advised talking with the student and keeping the lines of communication open but, at the same time, remembering that it is the student who ultimately bears the responsibility for attending class.

A related problem occurs when a student waits until late in the semester to disclose a disability, forcing a faculty member to scramble at the last minute to make accommodations. This can happen even when a faculty member exercises great diligence in apprising students of the existence of DSS. Judy Juanita, for example, is always careful to announce the existence of DSS to her students at the beginning of each semester and, in addition, to include an explanatory note and contact information on her syllabus. Even so, “[S]ome reveal their disability well into the semester, at the same time revealing they haven’t been classified officially,” said Juanita.

Part-time faculty should know that they have no legal obligation to provide accommodations to students who are not registered with DSS. Nor are they required to provide retroactive accommodations for requests made after the beginning of the semester. They are not excused, however, from accommodating a student whose request comes after the beginning of the semester, as long as there is still time to implement at least some of the requested accommodations.

Timeliness depends on the nature of the requested accommodation and a university’s written policy. At the University of Montana Western, for example, students must request services within four weeks of the start of the semester or face the possibility of delay, substitution or denial of the services. The key point for part-time faculty to remember is that they should never deny accommodations simply because a request comes late in the semester. Instead, they should contact DSS to verify the existence of a specific deadline and discuss the feasibility of providing the requested accommodations.

Universal Design and Individualization—Two Complementary Approaches to Teaching SWDs

As a starting point in teaching SWDs, disability experts such as Caity McCandless emphasize the need to implement the principles of universal design, which has its roots in architecture and strives to make systems usable by as many people as possible. As Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler explains in her article, “Universal Design of Instruction,” universal design embraces ideas of equitability, flexibility, simplicity, efficiency, and perceptibility. “[U]niversally designed learning environments are created to be accessible to everyone from the beginning. When designers apply universal design principles, their products and services meet the needs of potential users with a wide variety of characteristics….”

Applying universal design in the classroom is just a matter of planning ahead and thinking broadly. The University of Washington’s Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (“Do-It”) website, at http://www.washington.edu/doit/Faculty/Strategies/Universal/, provides myriad examples. A universally designed course web page, for instance, would include captioning of videotaped material; employ a simple layout; and avoid tags or plug-ins that are enabled only by certain kinds of browsers. Universally designed tests come in a variety of formats (e.g., oral presentations, computer-based, written) and with different types of questions (multiple choice, essay, open book, etc.) to appeal to a range of student strengths.

Just as making the classroom universally accessible can stimulate learning for SWDs, so can individualization of teaching strategies. Rachel Rigolino has found this to be especially true for students with learning disabilities.

“The fact that learning disabilities vary so much from student to student means I must individualize my approach with these students,” said Rigolino.

Creativity and imagination can go a long way toward developing effective individualized strategies. Part-time chemistry professor Colin Byfleet, for example, has received little formal training from his university’s DSS. Nonetheless, through his own talent as a teacher and sensitivity to his students’ needs, Byfleet has fashioned a set of strategies that allows his students with disabilities to master an academic subject so notoriously difficult that it can strike terror into the heart of even the ablest pre-med.

In teaching one of his visually impaired students, Byfleet found that the use of three-dimensional models facilitates an understanding of molecular structures. And for dyslexic students, using the “comic” or “sans serif” fonts in written materials enhances comprehension. Byfleet observed that, because these fonts’ characters are not perfectly uniform, their appearance on a page is more distinct, making it easier for dyslexic students to read. Byfleet has also noticed that Power Point presentations are generally less effective as a teaching tool, because they tend to encourage passive, rather than active, learning.

Other Tips

The tips set forth in the box at right provide a foundation for part-time faculty seeking to maximize their effectiveness in teaching SWDs. Some are based on principles of universal design, and some on plain old common sense. In interviews with the Adjunct Advocate, however, DSS counselors repeatedly offered this simple tip: Talk to us.

Part-timers who feel that their DSS offices are not providing enough formal training should make those concerns known, perhaps by presenting signed petitions or letters explaining the need for more professional development. But they should also visit DSS regularly and be ready to initiate their own learning.
At the end of the day, the challenges of teaching students with disabilities carry with them the possibility of great personal and professional reward. Although Judy Juanita’s computer-toting English student disrupted the classroom—albeit humorously—with his luggage-sized equipment, he also completed the course successfully. “Because he had this computer in class, he did well…a low B or high C,” recalled Juanita. As chemistry professor Colin Byfleet put it: “Seeing people overcoming intellectual obstacles at any level is rewarding.”

SIDEBAR

Ten Simple Steps for Maximizing Your Effectiveness in Teaching Students with Disabilities

1. Encourage disclosure of disabilities by including a note on your course syllabus that describes your interest in accommodating those with documented disabilities;

2. Talk privately to students with disabilities about what accommodations work best for them. Remember that, ultimately, the student knows best what he or she needs;

3. Don’t “out” students with invisible disabilities by referring to their disability in front of others;

4. Use principles of universal design to make your classroom physically and intellectually accessible to as many students as possible—for example, by making sure that your classroom has seating for both left- and right-handed students, and by varying your teaching methods to cater to a variety of learning styles (tactile, auditory, visual, etc.);

5. Don’t negatively stereotype your students with disabilities; convey your confidence that, with proper accommodations, they can do as well or better as any other student in your class;

6. Read aloud the material you write on blackboards and overheads; if your class includes students with visual impairments, be sure to face the class when you read aloud, so that students may lip read if they choose;

7. When lecturing, pause regularly to let students process what you’ve said and take complete notes.

8. Visit your university’s office of disabled student services to ask questions, discuss strategies, and find out more about training and professional development opportunities;

9. Seek out colleagues who have also taught students with disabilities—get their tips and impressions of what works best.

10. Check with textbook publishers to see if they can provide you with copies of textbooks that accommodate students with disabilities (e.g., Braille or recorded copies); order those copies if possible.

Tips were taken from the following sources: Sam Goodin, Director, Office of Services for Students with Disabilities, the University of Michigan; Susan Bartzak Graham, Director, Student Support Services, University of Massachusetts Boston; Martha Jacques, Director, Disabled Student Services, Indiana University Bloomington; Terry Smith, Learning Specialist, Disability Programs and Resource Center, San Francisco State University; Brown University Disability Support Services: “Resources for Faculty” (http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Office_of_Student_Life/dss/resources_faculty.html).