While I do have a good understanding of most of this information, I found some good take-aways to remember. Regarding self disclosure, which can be very uncomfortable and difficult for some students due to a variety of reasons including that they will be seen as less than or dumb, that peers will be critical, and a desire to be like all the rest of the students and not stand out. Many try to be independent and not seek assistance which often leads academic trouble because they needed accommodations, the most common of which is needing more time to complete assignments and tests.
For students with PTSD, when they disclose this information to their instructors, the new awareness could be used to devise a strategy for greeting the student and gauging how the student is doing that day, and a plan can be devised to help the student through the upcoming class session. If the student with PTSD feels comfortable in the class right from the beginning, the chances increase that they will successfully complete the course.
I found it interesting that a little over 11% of the students enrolled in post-secondary settings have a disability as I thought it would be higher. This number has grown over the past five years as the students completing high school with disabilities are better prepared to make the transition to further education (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). The disabilities represented by these enrollees include learning disabilities, autism, TBI and PTSD, as well as vision, hearing, and orthopedic challenges to name a few. Thus, instructors are going to have approximately one tenth of their students coming into their classes with a disability. This is why they need a general working knowledge, like that of this module, of the different disabilities and how to work with students who have them.
