Projects

Faculty Awareness and Training in the Post-Secondary Community: An Annotated Bibliography

Dalhousie University

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Disability-Specific Pamphlets

Brochures

This is a series of five pamphlets published by Dalhousie's Services for Students with Disabilities office. Separate pamphlets have been produced about ADD/ADHD, hearing impairments, learning disabilities, visual impairments and mobility impairments.

Each pamphlet begins with a "What It Is" section, giving a very brief overview on what the disability is and the difficulties it may pose to people with the disability. The second section offers general accommodation ideas for working with students with all disabilities. The final section lists disability-specific accommodation suggestions for faculty. Six or seven tips are listed under each of the general accommodations and disability-specific accommodations sections.

These pamphlets are effective in offering a brief summary of what can be done to accommodate various disabilities. But ultimately, more information is needed for faculty to gain a proper grasp on accommodation solutions.

Online Guide

Dalhousie also offers instructors a comprehensive accommodations guidebook, featured on its Web site. The guide is easy to use, with a table of contents, and each section hyperlinked for easy navigation.

The guide begins with university admission and accommodation policies for students with disabilities, and for students with learning disabilities. The accommodation procedures for students with learning disabilities section also lists some examples of accommodations, such as extra time and modified formats on tests and assignments.

A section on testing accommodations provides fairly thorough information on the accommodation methods to be used in testing, from changing the site of the test, to varying the date of the test if warranted by a student's health.

The information on specific disabilities includes sections for visual, hearing, mobility, and communication impairments. Also included are sections on lesser-discussed disabilities, such as ADHD/ADD, traumatic brain injury, emotional disorders and inflammatory bowel disease. Each section provides a definition of the disability, lists some of the common disabilities under each category, and lists some of the effects of each impairment. Up to a dozen accommodations are given in each category.

Finally, a more comprehensive section on learning disabilities is included, including a definition and some characteristics often inherent in students with learning disabilities, and a list of common accommodations.

The document provides good information on learning disabilities, and while being short on accommodation examples in many sections, covers the most important considerations.

Contact:
Students Accessibility
Dalhousie University
6225 University Ave.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 4H8
Phone: 902-494-2836
TTY: 902-494-7091
Fax: 902-494-2042
Email: access@dal.ca
Web site: www.studentaccessibility.dal.ca