What’s Next: Changes in disability services could add more flexibility – Education Dive
Accommodations to help students adapt to online instruction during the pandemic may lead to more options for learning remotely in the future.
As the coronavirus took hold in the U.S., colleges’ disability services offices were busy helping with the rapid shift online. Often, they only had days to contact faculty members to confirm students with disabilities had what they needed to continue classes remotely.
Some of those tools or changes had never been tested in a classroom before, said Kristie Orr, director of Disability Resources at Texas A&M University and president of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD).
Students with partial or full hearing loss might not have required a translation service in a small classroom, but now they needed their video lectures captioned.
Students who are blind might have their typical coursework translated into Braille, but now it also needed to be mailed to their home address.