DAIS Online

August, 2006
Volume I, No. 1

WELCOME to DAIS ONLINE and the new DAIS website!

For half a dozen years, the monthly DAIS Newsletter provided practical guidance, useful resources, technical assistance and OpEd pieces for postsecondary disability service providers and administrators. After a two-year hiatus, the newsletter is making a reappearance with this inaugural issue, in an updated format, and with an updated title as well!

DAIS is proud to welcome you to the first issue of the DAIS Online newsletter. While the original DAIS Newsletter was distributed by email on a subscription basis, DAIS Online will be posted here each month and will be available to the entire DS community. Editor, Jane Jarrow, will once again provide guidance in developing policies and implementing services, critical evaluation of pertinent legal happenings in the field, alerts about emerging issues, and insight into the philosophy, mission, and spirit of the laws that govern our focus on supporting students with disabilities in higher education.

Don't forget to explore the other resources available to you through DAISweb.com. Check out the guided tour at "Where to look, and what you'll find at daisweb.com!"
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"Toto, I've Got A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore!"
An Introduction to Accommodating Students with Disabilities in Online Education

The tag line you see above seems appropriate for a discussion of accommodations in online learning. In the classic story, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy opened the door and stepped outside to find a whole new world. She didn't know where she was, and she didn't know how she got there, but she had a feeling that what she was looking at was different from anything she knew before. How is THAT for a pretty fair description of what we face as disability service providers facing a newly configured landscape with ONLINE EDUCATION (capitals on purpose!) looming large on the horizon.

Over the past several months, I have spent hours researching the "state of the art" in accommodating students with disabilities in online classes (or classes with an online component). I am not talking about accessible websites and assistive technology. We are all aware of the issues of technology access, and there are many more people more qualified than I to discuss how to address those issues. I am talking about reviewing, rethinking, and revamping the accommodations process and activities that are carried out daily in DSS offices across the country. How do students identify themselves as disabled? What kind of documentation should you require? How do faculty get notified? What kind of timelines should be set to assure a "timely" response? Just how MUCH extended time should you give Student A for an online test? Such questions are just a start in the long process of determining how best to transfer our traditional activities to a virtual world.

In interviewing scores of disability service providers about all this, I find that folks generally fall into one of three categories – those who don't THINK they have a problem, those that THINK they have things taken care of, and those that are too scared to THINK about it! (Aside… I thought about equating the three approaches to the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, but that seemed to be taking the parallel too far! GRIN)

"WHAT Problem?"
I have talked to a number of service providers who seem to believe that the systems they have worked so hard to put in place over the years will suffice nicely in our shift to an online world.

"Why complicate things? Shouldn't the same documentation we rely on for students in traditional, "seated" classes be necessary and appropriate for students in online classes? What do you mean how much extra time will I give the student? It depends on the documentation. What do you mean there is nothing in the documentation to help me figure that out. It's just like any other test, right? Oh… wait. It's not. This test is to be taken online, using technology, with open book/resources expected to be used. Ummm…"

"Notification letters? Not a problem. We believe students should develop independence and self-advocacy skills so we provide letters to the student and it is THEIR job to deliver them to faculty on the first day of class. Oh… wait… they aren't going to see the faculty member on the first day of class. Ummm…"

"Intake process? Heck, we've got it down to a system. I don't want to just see the documentation, I want to talk to the student. It is terribly important to get a feel for who this student is and how comfortable they are with their disability. I need to know about their coping strategies and to judge their ability to self-advocate. Our process starts with the student coming in to our office for an interview with one of the staff. What do you mean this student is never going to set foot on campus? How am I gonna conduct my interview? Ummm…"

You get the picture.

"I've Got It Covered…"
I have also spoken with a number of service providers who have recognized that there are a lot of new parameters to accommodating students with disabilities in online classes and have taken steps to address these differences. The problem is that I have yet to find someone who has stepped far enough!!!

"They have hired someone over in the IT department whose job it is to assure appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities in online classes. She is a whiz at issues of online access and knows all about assistive technology. She works with faculty to make sure that their websites are properly configured and she works with students to make sure they can access everything on the website. What? Oh, right… the first assignment for that History class is to do a web search for information on the Crimean War. No, our expert can't assure the accessibility of all the websites the student will visit in that search so… Ummmm…"

(Specially appointed online accommodations specialist says:) "My job is to arrange accommodations for students with disabilities in online classes. I work with the student and with the faculty member. How do I know that a student has a disability? Oh… the folks at Disability Services tell me if there is someone I should contact. No… I don't deal with documentation or decide on any accommodations. I just implement them."
(Director of Disability Services says:) "Yep… we have someone over in IT that handles that. We send him information on accommodations for students with disabilities who come through our office, but that is mostly students that we already know because they are here on campus and happen to be taking one class online. The person over there handles the documentation and decision process for students who are solely online learners. HE DOESN'T? I thought he did. Ummmm…"

"Identification process? We had to be pretty aggressive about it, but we finally got IT to include a notice on the online application, with a link back to us, that tells disabled students to contact the Disability Services office if they need help. When they use that link, they are brought back to our website and we go from there. What? No, we don't have any information on our website that is specific to students in online classes. They just follow the same procedures that everyone else does. Yeah… it starts with them coming in for an intake interview with a staff member. What do you mean this student is never going to set foot on campus? How am I gonna conduct my interview? Ummm…"

You get the picture.

"I Have No Idea How to Begin!
Then there are the folks who have figured out that we aren't in Kansas anymore, but don't even know where to look for the start of the yellow brick road. (Aside – for those Oz aficionados reading this, I seem to recall that when Dorothy first found the yellow brick road, she wound up going around in circles for a while until the path opened up before her! )

"We had our first blind student taking an online class last semester. It was a disaster. We didn't know the student was going to be in the class until three weeks before it started, which wasn't enough time to get the textbook Brailled. The faculty member uses the chat room for class discussion once a week, and the student's assistive technology doesn't work in the chat room. We worked it out, but only because we had an extraordinarily cooperative faculty member and a pretty savvy student. It still took a HUGE amount of time to figure out what to do for this one student, for this one class."

"I had a student with a disability come in with documentation half way through the quarter. I looked it over and determined the appropriate accommodations. I set up a notification letter that said that in the future, these accommodations should be provided. Since it was an online class, I sent the letter to the faculty member (who is an adjunct instructor and not on campus) through email. The faculty member was irate that she was being notified so late in the term and incensed that I suggested extended time in testing in the future when this student has done such a lousy job in the class over the past few weeks (has yet to turn in any assignments). The letter said the same thing such letters ALWAYS say – that accommodations are not retroactive and that this information is to guide future arrangements. But because it was sent by me (instead of hand delivered), to someone whom I've never met and have no direct access to, and because she is teaching a class for us for the first time, it apparently got interpreted very differently and has opened a huge can of worms. What a mess!"

"I don't even know what questions to ask when arranging accommodations for an online class!! My tech specialist assures me that the learning management system we are using is accessible to students using assistive technology, but last week we had a blind student who couldn't get his assistive technology to work with the system. It turned out he was using an older version of the assistive technology. The course management system is accessible to those using state-of-the-art technology, but won't work with the old stuff. I know the institution isn't responsible for providing assistive technology for folks to use in their home, but neither can we require them to be using only the latest version. Help!!!"
You get the picture.

Everything Old is New Again!
Of course, the discussion of policies, procedures, and technology (above) only hints at some of the more basic issues that we have to be prepared to tackle. For example:

* How will we translate traditional accommodations to a nontraditional world? Most disability service providers spend lots of time arranging notetakers for students in traditional classes. Is there an equivalent for online learners? Is there some kind of support we should be providing that speaks to the same functional limitations as does a notetaker, or does the different course delivery mode mean that a different skill set needs to be in place? And what exactly IS that skill set?

* We have long-since identified the menu of services that we have to work with in accommodating students who are deaf/hard of hearing in traditional classes, from sign language interpreters and real-time captioning to priority seating and assistive listening devices. What is the menu of options going to look like for a D/HOH student in online classes? How do we find out what kinds of class activities will be a problem for these students, and how do we solve those problems (case in point – more and more faculty are finding that they can post their PowerPoint presentations directly to the web with an accompanying lecture available at a click. It's just like being in a traditional classroom and getting that lecture – EXCEPT for the student who is D/HOH and can't access the auditory part!)

* Recently, a faculty member objected to providing extended time to a student with a disability in an online test because she had decided that the student might use the extended time to get someone else to help him with the test, which would be inappropriate. When it was pointed out that ALL students taking the test from home might have access to someone else who might help them inappropriately, the faculty member stubbornly refused to see it as a problem for anyone other than the student with a disability (whom she assumed was going to be more in need of outside help?). Issues of faculty attitude and acceptance of students with disabilities may take surface in new (and not so exciting!) ways as we enter the world of online learning.

You get the picture.

I Am NOT a Wizard, But…
As you may have surmised, this urgent discussion of immediate problems in accommodating students with disabilities in online learning is, in part, a thinly-veiled attempt to encourage you to check out two new opportunities/services available from DAIS: (1) Accommodations in Online Learning Toolkit, and (2) Distance Matters Consultation. You can find more information on both by clicking on the appropriate links in the column to the left of this page.

I can't make all your problems go away and answer all your questions with magic. Come to think of it, neither could the Wizard of Oz! In the end, though, the Wizard helped Dorothy and her friends to feel confident and to move forward. He even helped Dorothy get back to the relative "safety" of her home in Kansas. I'm planning to help the DSS community do the same as we prepare to explore our OWN magical new world – together!
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What You See Is What You Get?
How Traditional Accommodation Strategies Can Guide Responses to Nontraditional Requests (Kinda…!)

I'm feeling a little schizophrenic these days. I announced the title for this article at the AHEAD conference, and I had the article all planned out in my head. Then last week, my thinking on this got a little scrambled. Let me start with what I had PLANNED to say…

I am always surprised to open a post on one of the many listservs I monitor and find someone asking, "would you provide such-and-such an accommodation for someone with so-and-so disability?" I suppose I am surprised because I can't figure out why a service provider would question the appropriateness of an accommodation based on the disability, rather than questioning based on the need.

It seems to me that we know HOW to accommodate students, we've just forgotten to begin by asking WHY the accommodation might be needed. If we could only get back to that focus once again, I have the feeling that some of the agonizing that service providers go through in assigning accommodations would be – less agonizing! Recently, a relatively new service provider asked it if would be appropriate to provide a scribe for a student who was quadriplegic for an upcoming essay exam. She stated that the she had provided scribes for LD students who had written language problems, and she had provided scribes for blind students on essay exams, but this was the first time she had served a student who was quadriplegic and throughout his first semester with her, he had never asked for a scribe. She wanted to know whether a scribe was a legitimate accommodation to provide for someone who was quadriplegic. I thought it was a very unfortunate question to have to ask. It suggests that the service provider has sacrificed consideration of WHY an accommodation might be provided to a discussion of WHO is entitled to a particular accommodation.

Or what about the person who asked if it would be appropriate to allow a student with a health impairment that limited her energy level to take a reduced course load as an accommodation. The service provider stated that she had not-infrequently assigned this accommodation for students with LD/ADHD who had to take a reduced load to keep up with the academic load, and she had even assigned it for a student who was quadriplegic and spent a great deal of time each day working with personal care attendants, and such. But no one had ever asked for this accommodation because of a health impairment before. Was it OK to make it available to this population?

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TIME OUT! Alright… this was to have been my premise. We have this whole list of accommodations/responses that we have been using for years to provide equal access to students, and if we simply figured out which of these old, standby, accommodations spoke to the needs of new and different populations, we'd be all set. We have a complete arsenal of accommodations available to fight the battle for accessibility. We just need to brush up on which one to choose, when.
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Then, last week, I jumped in on a discussion on the DSSHE-L that had to do with the novel, and potentially intrusive, use of a "social navigator" to accompany a student with Asperger's syndrome to classes and in social situations,. I found myself extolling the virtues of thinking outside the box and recognizing that we may need to consider new, never-before-considered, accommodations to meet the new, never-before-encountered, challenges presented by students with "emerging disabilities." And I thought, "you can't have it both ways, Jane. Either we already know what accommodations are available to meet the needs of a changing population – we just need to think about when to apply them -- or we don't have accommodations in stock to meet the changing needs of the population we serve, and we need to think about how to support them. "

In the end, I decided that *I* was the one who needed to reframe my thinking. The focus shouldn't be on accommodations, it should be on the PROCESS of accommodating someone.

For a while, I did an online class called, "Back to Basics: What IS the Accommodation and Why Am I Making It." While we discussed a whole list of regularly provided accommodations, our approach was always the same: (1) What is the accommodation? (2) Why would someone need this accommodation (i.e., what is the functional limitation that is addressed with this accommodation)? (3) When/how does the accommodation get used? (4) Are there any drawbacks or limitations to assigning/using this accommodation? (5) What alternatives might be considered before assigning the accommodation (kind of a "thesaurus" approach to accommodations – what else is there that fits before I assign this?). We talked about how to deal with the functional limitations created by disability, but the name (formal diagnosis) of the disability wasn't terribly important to the discussion – only the impact of that disability on the student's ability to perform typical tasks in typical ways, and the impact of the providing accommodation on the campus environment.

Somehow, I think those questions, asked in the appropriate context, would lead us BOTH to applying existing experience to our daily activities, and to finding new solutions to meet new challenges. A wise friend taught me that, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" But I used to have a sign over my desk that read, "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Hmmm… nobody said it was going to be easy!
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(End Newsletter)