Shift to online learning exposes need for disability strategy

Moving to online learning during lockdown presents some challenges for most students, but what about those who have disabilities?

Educational psychologist Marcia Lyner-Cleophas, who is head of the Disability Unit at the Centre for Student Counselling and Development of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said some students with disabilities struggled to adjust to online learning, especially where they had certain “human supports” such as scribes.

“However, most students with disabilities have managed virtual scribes, virtual tutoring and virtual mentoring, which has proved a great support.”

Following the lockdown, challenges around test and exam concessions for students with disabilities were particularly pronounced, she said.

“There was a period of time needed to sort out how staff could still ensure students received test and exam concessions such as extra writing time, scribes and readers to support students in the online off-campus COVID-19 space, where students had to move off campus and continue academics online.

“This was mediated through disability unit offices on campus as they worked closely with the teaching and learning departments, together with the student representative council and bodies in some instances.”

Some benefits to off-campus study

Lyner-Cleophas said the lockdown had shown in many cases that it is possible – and sometimes even beneficial – for students with disabilities to work off-campus if they have the necessary resources.

“Disabling conditions such as social anxiety, speech disorders, and some psychiatric conditions mean that students, especially those with certain medical and mobility impairments, often struggle to juggle tight class attendance regimes and structures. Some struggle to connect with other students or to sit in huge classes,” she said.

“Some students with disabilities find the online off-campus set-up better for them as they can focus on their academic work much better and cut out the travel and preparation time needed to get to and from campus, especially where students live off campus and where the home environment is conducive to quiet self-study.”

Lyner-Cleophas said in many cases, staff have “drawn closer” to students with disabilities reaching out for assistance. “Staff are very open to engaging with students as to what would work best for them, given their disability.”

Flexibility

“Flexibility needs to be the standard … Nobody asked for this pandemic and everyone has to be flexible, staff and students,” Lyner-Cleophas said.

“As some students struggle with language difficulties, some with seeing and hearing effectively, and yet others process information slower, being flexible in teaching, learning and assessment is a good way to ensure reaching the students, given their diversity in how they function.”

For example, saving the audio of lessons is a good practice which enables students to do catch-up and being flexible with the kinds of exams and tests need to be considered too, she said.

“Where some students might struggle with an online quiz, it could help to send them the questions via email or WhatsApp and give them a specific period of time to respond, that is not too punitive.

“Having second opportunities to do tests and exams is also good practice to ensure all students have a chance to catch up and do assessments.”

Universal Design for Learning

Lyner-Cleophas said the COVID-19 pandemic had provided a chance to explore the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with much more vigour.

“The underpinning basis and principle of UDL is that you design environments, products, services and learning material in a way that makes it accessible for the largest range of people and users, and not the average.

“Africa has a huge range of student diversity culturally, linguistically, domestically, regarding class, race and disability (or range of functioning) … However, we often ignore cultural, linguistic and personal diversities and expect students to fit into specific Westernised boxes only.”

“There must not be a one-size-fits-all as this is restrictive and can be ablest because you expect the student to only respond or engage with you in a specific way according to the average student.

“I think UDL is good for all, no matter where you are in the world, and especially in Africa where we have adopted Western ways only of doing teaching, learning and assessment.”

Heather Aldersey, assistant professor in community-based rehabilitation at the school of rehabilitation of Queen’s University, Canada, said a critical way that universities can support students with disabilities (and all students) is to provide support to instructors to create online learning that follows the principles of UDL.

“There are a multitude of great resources out there for how to create courses and support student learning in alignment with UDL, including a free online module that was created by my university to support instructors.”