Most instructors have dealt with students with disabilities before the COVID-19 pandemic. In our classes, there will always be some students who have a disability. But these students have the right to learn like everyone else.
As a disabled veteran who went back to school despite my own disability, I always applaud others who follow my footsteps. But as instructors, it’s easy to forget that learning with a disability can be more difficult for some students, so we all need to focus on fully engaging these students.
Engagement Relies on Creating a Good Connection Between Instructors and Students with Disabilities
Engagement is not as simple as it might sound. According to a 2019 Journal of Educational Psychology article written by researchers Andrew J. Martin and Rebecca J. Collie, the key is to build a good connection between the instructor and learner. Some instructors struggle with engaging normal students but students with disabilities will pose more of a challenge.
Instructors need to remember that each student with a disability has one or more limitations that they deal with on a daily basis. Each student’s situation will vary, depending upon the disability and its seriousness. For instance, a student with a vision problem might need instructional materials that are easy for assistive technology software to comprehend or a hearing-impaired student could need videos with real-time captioning.
Part of the key to engaging students with disabilities can be that some of these learners might need additional help. But at the same time, those students do not want special privilege or attention because of their disability, according to researcher Anabel Moriña in PLOS One. Most students with disabilities just want the chance to learn and grow just like a normal student.
Related: Online Education vs. the Traditional College Experience
Engaging Students with Disabilities Requires Creativity
To engage students with disabilities, professors need to be more creative. For instance, we may offer different ways for these students to grasp the materials in a course. We can incorporate assistance for audio clips and videos for hearing-impaired students, offer transcripts of videos, and possibly slow down our verbal communication to promote better understanding of classroom material.
Schools and instructors can offer accommodations for students with disabilities, and most do. Each accommodation needs to be focused on the student’s specific disability.
We should also keep in mind that students may be affected in different ways by the same disability, and each student may need different accommodations. The help a student might need should provide the best possible assistance for that limitation.
We also have to remember that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some accommodations for students with disabilities have been limited. The pandemic forced some schools and instructors to change how and what they do with their students and the options for students as well, noted researchers Lefki Kourea, Panayiota Cgristodulidou, and Argyro Fella in 2021.
For example, most brick-and-mortar schools switched to remote instruction during the pandemic. According to Kourea, Cgristodulidou and Fella, students with disabilities experienced more difficulty during the COVID-19 pandemic with “accessible software and learning materials, acquiring appropriate accommodations, receiving therapies and feeling supported.”
While many educational institutions have now reverted to in-person instruction, others have kept their remote options. But now, the mindset of both students and professors is different after the pandemic. For students and instructors, the thinking about education has changed because we might still be thinking about COVID restrictions, even though those limitations have actually been removed or changed.
As instructors, for instance, we should be looking for best practices, not easier practices. We need to focus on moving engagement efforts forward, rather than moving in reverse.
Related: Returning to School: Tips for Student Success
Active Listening Is a Highly Important Tool for Instructors
Engaging all students is highly important. Some instructors often forget that one important tool we have is actively listening to all of our students and especially to students with disabilities. Students with disabilities will often tell us if something is working or not.
We must be ready and willing to listen to our students with disabilities. When they share important information to us, we need to share this information to our school leaders and disability services staff, and we should also be advocates for students with disabilities.
Students with Concerns May Not Know Who to Contact at Their Schools
Students with disabilities may not know who to contact at their school or how to establish a conversation with their school leaders. However, they should have already made a good connection with their instructors. Consequently, faculty members should know their leaders and disability services staff well and show a willingness to share the concerns and thoughts of all students, especially students with disabilities.
Student feedback is the only way to make positive changes. Some students will not share their issues in surveys, but they might be more open to verbal discussions with faculty members instead.
As faculty, we need to constantly send out the message that we care about our students, especially students with disabilities, and prove it by our actions. These actions will help to open the doors for better relationships with our students with disabilities and will also aid our engagement efforts.
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