students with disabilities
I found this course so interesting. Although I have experience with teaching students with hearing impairment with the assistance of interpreters, I really never thought about those with other diseases such as diabetes and the impact on learning. Very enlightening
My daughter is legally blind. I have dealt with Emily's visual challenges since she was born. Early on, we decided to explain to Emily that her visual problems were only a "minor inconvenience". It worked. Emily, who has optic nerve glioma, and has 20/800 in one eye and 20/2000 in the other, graduated with a BFA in visual arts no less.
People with disabilities come with all kinds of issues. In my mind, the real issue is for the individual to never give up hope, dream great dreams, and work like crazy to achieve those dreams.
Donald L. Buresh
You are so right. One is never to give up hope.
I just completed CM 251 on disabilities. I must say that my basic take-away is to refer students to the appropriate offices instead of trying to make something up as far accommodations. As a rule, I treat students (all students) as people first and so that goes without saying. I must say that I've never met a disabled person with a "victim" mentality and so I guess I was programmed not to highlight the disability from those folks. A documented student with a disability that I had in my class last term was one of the BEST students in my class. The only accommodation she asked for was for the printed powerpoint slides. Instead, I made these available online to the whole class. I think she may have helped the entire class with this accommodation.
