Disability Pedagogy WorkshopTeaching Strategies for Including All Students

Amy Vidali, PhDEnglish Department

University of Colorado Denveramy.vidali@ucdenver.edu

All images and backgrounds used in this PowerPoint are described in the “Notes” section, below each slide in non-presentation mode.

What do I mean by disability?•learning disabilities•psychiatric and psychosocial disabilities•other types of neurological diversity

• autism, TBI, mental illness•physical disabilities

• temporary or permanent•sensory disabilities

• Blindness/vision impairment, hard of hearing, d/Deaf, environmental disability

•And these all overlap.

In a 1999 U.S. study, 428,280 postsecondary undergraduate students identified themselves as having disabilities, representing 6% of the student body.

–Learning disabilities 45.7% –Mobility or orthopedic impairments 13.9% –Health impairments 11.6% –Mental illness or emotional disturbance 7.8% –Hearing impairments 5.6% –Blindness and visual impairments 4.4% –Speech or language impairments 0.9% –Other impairments 9.1%

Source: An Institutional Perspective on Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, Postsecondary Education Quick Information System, August 1999

Source: Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). Profile of Undergraduates in U.S. Postsecondary Education Institutions: 2003–04 (NCES 2006-184).

UC Denver Statistics

Rethinking Disability & Our Pedagogies

• Disability is a way of being and functioning in educational settings that is often not “in line” with traditional academic settings and expectations, which may assume

• sight and hearing• ability to (primarily) learn from lecture• ability to (primarily) learn from text/reading• ability to sit for long periods• ability to participate in class without anxiety• and so on.

• “Should those students be in college?”– Yes. Like most disadvantaged groups, students with disabilities

point to the need to adjust pedagogies to respond to those without certain privileges.

Living the Ambiguity

– The ways disability is predominantly informed by medicine and law informs an urge to “pin down” what disability is and “what to do.”

• But just like we can’t consistently define what “students with kids” are like, or what “GLBT students,” etc., so is disability necessarily ambiguous and shifting. (This is a good thing.)

How Does Disability Enter Your Classroom?

#1A student with a visible or invisible disability arrives in your class and gives you a letter from DRS that explains the accommodations s/he requires. (Maybe the students talks to you, maybe not.)

DRS Quick Facts

• Students do not have to list their disabilities. DRS cannot give you information on a student’s disability.

• DRS can give information on how to include student.

• Listed accommodations may feel like a mismatch for your course (such as a note-taker). You can contact DRS and speak with the student about options.

How Does Disability Enter Your Classroom?

#2A student with a visible or invisible disability arrives in your class. S/he talks to you about her/his disability and possible accommodations (at some point), but does not provide a letter from DRS.

How Does Disability Enter Your Classroom?

#3A student with a visible or invisible disability arrives in your class and does not provide a letter or mention their disability. (You may be aware of the disability or you may not.)

How Does Disability Enter Your Classroom?

#4You are a teacher with a disability.

(We’ll all be disabled if we live long enough.)

Accommodation versus Inclusion

• Accommodation imagines students all take the same train on the same route to the same destination. Attempts are made to get all students on the train.

• Inclusion imagines that students can take different routes (and even trains) to arrive at the same destination (or learning outcome). Inclusion ensures all can ride the train(s) - as a prerequisite - and reconfigures the tracks.

Accommodation

Inclusion, Universal Design

Universal Design

Sounds great. So what do I do?

Seven Strategies:1. Re-craft your syllabus.2. Work in multiple modes. 3. Encourage interdependence.4. Make physical and online spaces accessible. 5. Build in feedback.6. Account for your own embodiment as a teacher.7. Consider disability studies curricula.

1. Re-craft your syllabus.

• What does your syllabus say about disability?

• How do you talk about disability on the first day?

Typical, if Problematic, Syllabus Statement

“You must work with the Disability Student Office if you have a disability. Please note that I will not reduce assignments, attendance, or rigor. Talk to the Disability Student Office with questions, and make arrangements by the first week of classes.”

Possible Disability Inclusion Statement

“If you have a disability, or think you may have a disability, I encourage you to contact me so we can work together to develop strategies for your success. Also, the office of Disability Resources and Services (DRS) provides support for students with disabilities, and you can find them at their website (http://hschealth.uchsc.edu/ disabilityresources/) or by calling (303) 556-3450/TTY (303) 556-4766. To access their services, you will need to provide documentation of disability.”

more ideas in the packet

“Um, that conflicts with other policies I’ve been told to use.”

It very well might. Take a look at whether the policy you are using is suggested or required. In either case, you can add language to required policies.

Other Syllabus & First Day Ideas

• Move beyond disability as only a “policy issue.”– If you have a diversity statement, include disability there.

• Think about where disability appears on your syllabus.– Is it always dead last? Why?

• Plan your class so that all can plan ahead.– Avoid assignments given one class and due the next.

• Bring your syllabus in large print.– This announces, right-off, that you are interested in access.

• Go over the syllabus in class.– Many aren’t textual learners, and would benefit from your

discussion.

• Talk about the kind of learner that you are, and recognize that there are other types of learners.

2. Work in multiple modes.

Avoid Relying on a Single Channel

• lecture• PowerPoint• handouts• BlackBoard• lab• group work• class discussion• email• blog

complicated!

• VISUAL– learn best through seeing, need to see the teacher’s body language and facial

expressions– may prefer sitting at the front of the classroom in order to see more clearly– learn best from visual displays, diagrams, illustrations, videos– think in pictures

• AUDITORY– learn best through lectures and discussions– interpret the underlying meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, pitch,

speed, and other nuances– often benefit from reading aloud– written information may have little meaning until heard

• PHYSICAL– learn best through an active, hands-on approach– do well in classes with a lab component– may find it hard to sit still for long periods– maybe become distracted by need for activity and exploration

adapted from a poster at: http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Learning-Styles-Posters_i4471245_.htm

• What is your preferred mode?

• (What is your textual preference today?)

For example, in a writing class I might ask students to do the following….

freewrite in class

outline

draft

revise at home

But is requiring writing the only way to get to writing? How can I utilize other modes?

sketching

writing

talkingrevising

listening

Different Modes Turn Each Other to Get Students Thinking

writing

drawing

talking

But the end product stays the same (in this case, a written paper). You’re just taking different paths to help students get there.

Making Weaker Students Stronger, Making Stronger Students More Diverse

• “The metacognitive distance all writers learners need …can come through visual, aural, spatial, emotional, kinesthetic, or social ways of knowing, or unique combinations of them… [W]e should have greater expectations for all our students, resisting the urge to use one way of making knowledge –writing – as a gauge of their intellectual capacities.

• Those who for whatever reason are not ‘good writers’ should be expected to call upon other strengths to enhance the linguistic-based tasks English Studies requires. Those already ‘good writers’ should be expected to develop what may be for them lesser-used representational systems (talking, sketching, moving, etc.) as ways to gain deeper insights on their print-based work.

• All writers would benefit from multiple intellectual pathways to generate knowledge, and the world in general would benefit from the intellectual contributions of people traditionally excluded from print-loving pedagogies” (1).

Dunn, Patricia. Talking Sketching Moving: Multiple Literacies in the Teaching of Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook & Heinemann, 2001.

Amy’s “aha!” moment…

So wait – I don’t have to have all students doing the same thing at

the same time?

Example #1

Goal: Understanding How Students Feel About Writing

• Original assignment: On the first day, I asked students to fill out a card with some personal information, then go home and write a “literacy essay,” where they talk about their relationship to writing. Most of the essays are typically grammatically correct and guarded (which AP classes they took, etc.).

• My revision: On the first day, I asked students to sketch their feelings about writing, or pick a writing “theme song.” Most picked a song, and I learned a ton about them, right off the bat.

Example #2

Goal: Learn Principles of (Visual) Rhetoric

• Original assignment: Asked students to analyze a visual text and talk about its properties in a written essay.

• My revision: Asked students to write brief arguments about visual rhetoric, then transcribe those arguments into an image of their own creation.

• Or: Let students choose which they want to do. (Your grading rubric should be able to accommodate both – if it’s truly focused on outcomes.)

Great Case-by-Case Resource

But…

What benefits one student may hinder another.

• Consider an assignment or project in your class (as a teacher or student).–What do you hope students will learn? –What steps do you usually take to get

there? –How might you take advantage of different

modes to reach your learning goal?

3. Encourage interdependence.

• We can think of interdependence as “the interconnection or interrelationship between two or more entities that suggests a connection or a partnership in an effort to maximize one’s potential” (154).

Gooden-Ledbetter, Melva A., Michele T. Cole, Jill K. Maher and Al Condeluci. “Self-Efficacy and Interdependence as Predictors of Life Satisfaction for People with Disabilities: Implications for Independent Living Programs.” Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation 27.3 (2007): 153-161.

In the classroom, interdependence means

• featuring group work where students have different tasks and depend on each other

• emphasizing how learning is not an independent enterprise

• encouraging students to identify what or who helps them be successful in your course

• highlighting the ways we work in concert with technology

Goal: Group Work or Group Project

For a group project, I have students form into groups or teams and then spend time defining their roles. This differs from strategies where all students do the same thing or the roles are assigned.

In this way, I emphasize that students must be able to locate their own strengths and weaknesses and work together. This benefits disabled students, and all students.

This can also be achieved in in-class group work, to avoid one or two “strong” students taking over, and other students tuning out.

• What are the typical roles students assume when working with each other in groups or teams?

• What sorts of new roles and tasks can we suggest or model in order to include all students?

• (How might students learn from each other as they work interdependently?)

4. Make Physical and Online Spaces Accessible

Classroom Access

• Provide visual cues, captioning, and good text quality.• Describe all images, and speak at a reasonable pace for ASL

interpreters.• Avoid highly-scented products, especially during office hours. • Be aware of possible transportation challenges for off-campus

assignments.• Make classroom spaces navigable for wheelchairs and

walkers.• Provide information on textbooks and course materials in

advance of your course.• And again, work in multiple modes.

Online Accessibility

for…• course websites

• online materials you ask them to view (including YouTube, etc.)

• email interface

• various software (Audacity, Google sites, etc.)

Different Disabilities that Can Affect Web Accessibility

• blindness, low vision, color blindness

• deafness, hard of hearing

• physical disabilities, motor disabilities

• speech disabilities

• cognitive and neurological disabilities

• learning disabilities; dyslexia and dyscalculia

• attention deficit disorder

• intellectual disabilities

• memory impairments

• mental health disabilities

• seizure disorders

• multiple disabilities

• aging-related conditions

more ideas in the packet

So many resources…

Access Web (DO-IT): http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/accessweb.html

Web Aim: http://webaim.org/Experiences of students with disabilities: http://webaim.org/intro/#video (video)

Web Accessibility (University of Wisconsin): http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/

5 Basic Steps Toward Website Accessibility: http://www.improvetheweb.com/5-basic-steps-towards-website-accessibility

• What access challenges exist in your classroom?

5. Build in feedback

Feedback Avenues

• In-person requests should respect whether or not a student has disclosed to the class and be conducted in offices.

• Email requests should make clear that the student is to evaluate a practice or policy, not you. Save concerns you have for after the student has had a chance to give you feedback.

• Anonymous surveys can provide a class snapshot and allow students who do not feel comfortable disclosing to you to give feedback.

• What sorts of access features can we ask students to provide feedback on?

• Please help me build the cursory list I’ve begun in your packet.

6. Account for your own embodiment as a teacher.

(Brenda Brueggemann, “An Enabling Pedagogy: Meditations on Writing and Disability,” excerpt in packet)

Embodied Issueswhat I do say• that I’m absolutely a textual learner, and if you ask me to do something (orally) and you

don’t see me write it down, it won’t happen• that I need reminders or I’ll never hand back work at the end of class

what I sometimes say• that I have headaches every day, and migraines some days, so will sometimes open the

window shades, sometimes close them• that I’ll know their names while we have class together, but not later, but will always

remember their paper topics• that sometimes I pause to better auditorily process – it’s not that I don’t get what

they’re saying

what I don’t say but know impacts my teaching• that I can’t wear a sweater when I teach or I just might sweat to death• that I have an intestinal disorder so will sometimes leave class for the restroom, and not

because of poor planning on my part• that I get anxious when I’m observed, or on days when I return graded work to students• that my shackles go up when students question my curriculum (even when I ask them

to)

• How does your embodiment impact your classroom?

(Please don’t feel you must disclose illness or disability.)

7. Consider disability studies curricula.

(A quick pitch.)

Disability Studies CurriculaNow this requires a whole different workshop.

But it’s not hard to work in disability – because disability is everywhere: already implicated in social structures, in health studies, in demographics, in literature, art and culture.

And until students start thinking about disability differently – socially, politically, historically, ethically – nothing really changes, and disability pedagogy will always be “optional.”

Curricular/Research Resources• Disability Studies syllabi: http://www.disstudies.org/content/syllabi

(humanities & social sciences)

• Disability Studies Quarterly: http://www.dsq-sds.org/ (peer-reviewed, open-access)

• Disability Studies bibliographies:– http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/disability.html (U of MD)– http://disabilitystudies.syr.edu/resources/bibliography.aspx

(Syracuse U)

• Disability Studies in the Humanities listserv: https://listserv.umd.edu/archives/ds-hum.html (open archives)

Questions?

PROBLEM SOLVING SCENARIOS

(see packet)

Thanks for coming.

I’ll be emailing a brief online survey to gather your feedback.