June 2008 — News
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Addressing the Needs of Students with Disabilities in Math (Part 1)
Deaf learners might need sign-language interpreters. For all learners, particularly the hearing impaired, educators are reminded to face the class while speaking and to repeat questions from the class before answering. Students will benefit from written assignments and lab instructions and summaries of demonstrations. Videos and slides will need captions. Visually impaired benefit from enlarged print, audio tapes, electronic formats for texts and handouts, tape recordings of classes, and alternative test taking arrangements.Depending on disability, sometimes a computer simulation could take the place of a hands-on lab activity that a learner might not otherwise be able to complete. In mathematics, for example, virtual manipulatives, such as those available from ExploreLearning.com for grades 6-12, might equally well help students to master concepts in cases where they could not physically work with concrete manipulatives.
Contrary to what some might think, a learning disability does not go away with treatment, so learners who have one also benefit from many of the accommodations already noted. Plus, some might need frequent breaks, oral exams and visual, oral, or tactile demonstrations, testing in a private room or at another site, or testing at an alternative time of day. Dyscalculia.org provides teaching and learning strategies for learners with dyscalculia (math LDs) and dyslexia (reading LDs). Among its many resources is an online diagnosis, which is available for a fee.
What's an Assistive Technology?
Assistive technologies help people work around their deficits, rather than fixing them. The tools and devices can be motivating and enable individuals who use them to have greater freedom and independence from seeking help from others. A device is defined in the Assistive Technology Act of 2004 as any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities" (sec 3: Definitions). According to Amy Brodesky, Caroline Parker, Elizabeth Murray, and Lauren Katzman (2002), students' strengths and needs related to their cognitive processing, language, visual-spatial processing, organization, memory, attention, psycho-social, and fine-motor skills affect their success in mathematics (p. 1). Those skills then influence the choice of accommodations and assistive technologies they might need.
Many of those technologies as they apply to instruction potentially benefit anyone. They can be as simple as using highlighters, color coding, taped books, tape recorders, special calculators, enlarged fonts, or different color backgrounds on computer screens. More complex systems involve computer screen readers for converting text to speech, or speech recognition software for converting speech to text, talking calculators or big onscreen calculators, or intelligent word-processing software that predicts words frequently used or edits words frequently misspelled (NCLD, n.d., sec: Grades K-8, Assistive Technology:
