AccessSTEM

Background

My name is Carol. I am a nontraditional student who was recently diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, a repetitive motion injury that affects my wrists. As a journalism major, I have many writing assignments that require the use of a computer.

Access Issue

I could not complete my coursework and assignments because my injury prevented me from using the standard computer keyboard.

Classroom, state accountability, and other math assessments are typically designed for a student who can use a pencil and paper. When the test administration is inaccessible to a student with a disability, reasonable accommodations will need to be provided to afford equal access to the instrument. For example, a person could record answers for a student who cannot do so independently.

The Gill Advanced Learning Laboratory (GALL) at Lamar University provides a unique science learning environment for students with disabilities. It is funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program.

Applying universal design principles results in products and environments that are usable by most people without having to make special adaptations. Universal design applied to educational environments, especially when technology is involved, is referred to by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) as Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL promotes the design of learning experiences that can be effective for students with a wide variety of characteristics, including disabilities.

Background

My name is Marika and I'm a math major in college. I'm visually impaired. I can read large print but have trouble seeing the content on a computer screen, especially when the lighting is poor. For the most part, I am able to read large-print text without any problems.

Disability-related issues can be easily integrated into many areas of study. The Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies (CHPLDS) website, contains a vast selection of materials and resources to help educators integrate disability studies into social studies, history, literature, and related subjects.

Many articles on how students with disabilities can fully participate in academic studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have been published over the years. EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) has put together a collection of those that have been published in the journal Information Technology and Disabilities. The collection can be found at EASI's Accessible STEM Content page.

There are a number of valuable resources about making math accessible available on the web. Here are a few places to look:

Students with learning disabilities and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder who participated in a study at Virginia Commonwealth University identified the following study skills as helpful to their success in postsecondary education:

Interactions with your peers can reinforce your classroom learning, help you persist to graduation, and make your college experience more satisfying (Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P. T. 2005. How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco). A group of students working together to advocate for increased accessibility on campus can also be more effective than a student advocating alone.