Assessing the needs of Students with Disabilities

1. Assessing the needs of Students with Disabilities

2. INFORMATION GATHERING (section A in report) IDENTIFICATION OF NEED (section B in report) SUITABLE SUPPORT STRATEGIES (section C in report)

3. Strategies • Person centred; • Not product orientated; • Task-orientated e.g. text to speech; speech to text; screen enlargement; • Adds to or helps improve student’s current strategies. • SFE defines quality as ability being used to its utmost

4. Assessing Perceptual Difference • This relates to students who have problems accessing the teaching and learning environment because of the teaching strategies, styles and the medium used e.g. students with Specific Learning Difficulties; mental health difficulties; and examples of recommendations include: • 1:1 Specialist Support; • Mentoring; • Text to speech software; • Concept mapping software.

5. Assessing Perceptual Difference: Intelligence • Diverse – we think about the world in all the ways we experience it – visually, in sound, kinaesthetically, in abstract terms, in movement; • Dynamic – interactive – brain is not divided into compartments; • Distinct – manifest itself in a variety of ways

6. Assessing Perceptual Difference: Students with SPLD or Working Memory Deficit • Every strategy recommended in an assessment of need report for a student with an SpLD is relates to 1:1 specialist support strategies – either technological or human based; • If we define intelligence as diverse, dynamic and distinct then every student with SpLD has a right to a tailor made report.

7. Need Reading Comprehension; Researching in a library; Current research note-taking strategy; Use of Web-based research Strategies Highlighting and annotation; Inserting comments; Text to speech; Taking research spider notes. RESEARCH

8. Spelling scores and/or percentiles; Drafting process and typing speed; Use of mind maps; Feedback on previous coursework. Touch typing; Speech to text; Planning software – mind mapping; Text prediction; Autosuggest COMPOSITION

9. Need Visual problems; Working Memory Score; Current Strategy used; Feedback from tutors. Strategies Text to speech; Changing text display properties (formatting and typography; Altering background colour; Using hard copy. PROOFREADING

10. Need Working Memory; Adhering to submission Deadlines; Use of Timetables; Current Strategies; Need for a portable device Strategies MS Outlook (Diary, planner); Web-based programs; Tuition in time and information management; Portable devices. TIME MANAGEMENT

11. Non Medical Recommendations • All recommendations made in this section of the report need to reflect the underlying strategy based methodology, in particular, the AT training recommendations.

12. Enhanced Research Active research strategies; Creating research sub-folders for his assignments; Scanning the document into MS Word (or downloading from the Internet); Having text read aloud – paragraph at a time; Having PDF files read aloud; Ensuring student is aware of need to then read the relevant paragraph and highlight the key words or themes; Using Full Screen reading and MS Word Research; Cutting and pasting key words into corresponding mind maps. Researching on-line e.g. using Google scholar; Organising research material into folders with spider maps hyperlinked to MS Word document and lecture sound files stored for additional research on each topic. Enhanced Composition Improving typing speed; Using keyboard shortcuts and switching between applications; Using the MS Word Ribbon; Creating assignment folders, sub-folders and hyperlinks between folders; Improving the appearance of work in MS Word (inserting tables, images, mind maps) Creating hyperlinks to MS Word documents and Web-sites; Understanding the assignment brief and structuring the assignment; Planning and narrating presentations. AT Training

13. AT Training Enhanced Note-taking • Active research strategies; • Using the Cornell and Mapping method; • Enhancing downloaded lecture notes – using comments, highlighting, annotating text in MS Word. • Using track changes to match outline notes; • taking outline notes using the mind mapping technique during the lecture; • Embellishing outline notes with more details from the recordings; • transferring lecture sound files to lecture/research folders; • Using audio note-taker to edit lecture recordings; • Using audio note-taker to meld research documents with lecture recordings. • Proofreading Strategies • Expanding the lexicon of MS Word; • Using on-line talking medical dictionary at: http://www.kmle.com/ • Spellchecking, autocorrect and the thesaurus in MS Word; • Using on-line dictionaries ; • Using Google as a spellchecker or to define any word by typing ‘define:’ followed by the word in question in the search box and pressing return; • Using text to speech; • Using homophone detection; • Ensuring that the background colours being used by MS Windows are appropriate

14. Research: Active learning when skimming; scanning; highlighting and summarising. Taking research notes in the form of spider diagrams; Memory techniques. Composition Improving rate of production – developing touch typing; Structuring work using spider diagrams and/or essay plans; Organising research to form the basis of an essay; Working in a systematic manner. Note-taking Using the mapping or Cornell method; Following and discerning key points in discussions / lectures using active learning principles; Embellishing outline notes with recordings or downloaded material. Time Management Managing and prioritising time within the context of coursework submission deadlines. Non Subject Specific Study Skills

15. Student Centred DSA Assessors AT Trainers Study Skills tutors