I second KC's comments about reluctant professors making life hard for students with special needs. ? When I was advocating for students with LD or other needs at a private university, I was appalled at the outright hostility SOME professors expressed about students with challenges--indeed, exactly the words, " "They are not college material,"? were frequently used. ( Like all people apparently WITHOUT challenges are college material???)??? One professor, faced with a student with real dysgraphia, commented that if a student could not handwrite theses, she or he should never graduate from college. 

Then there are those who cooperated but were ignorant of the law, such as the professor who agreed readily to a student having a scribe, but turned to the whole class and asked who would like to take notes for ___X as he couldn't do it himself, or the art history professor who reluctantly agreed to an alternative testing format, but made the student in question turn to the wall , unlike all the others--thereby blowing his privacy protection.....
 
On the other hand, many professors either were extremely cooperative  or simply had not thought about accommodations-- like the professor in a community college who was asked by a student with GREAT self advocacy skills ( a graduate of Arlyn's Threshold Program, actually!)? if he could write more things on the board since the student couldn't take notes very well. The professor? was more than willing and expressed surprise that he hadn't thought to do it earlier.?? By the way, this student, who was literally TERRIFIED to try real college courses, became the hero of the class, which was mostly populated by ESL students, who couldn't keep up with the professor's oral-only presentations, either!!

Robin Lovrien Schwarz, M. Sp. Ed:LD
Independent Consultant in Adult ESOL/ Education and Learning Difficulties



 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: KC Andrew <kandrew at sbctc.edu>
To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List <learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>
Sent: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 4:02 pm
Subject: [LearningDisabilities 1522] Re: DAY TWO- Transition










From: KC Andrew [mailto:kandrew at sbctc.edu <mailto:kandrew at sbctc.edu> ]
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 3:08 PM
To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List; The Learning Disabilities 
Discussion List
Subject: RE: [LearningDisabilities 1515] Re: DAY TWO- Transition


No statistics, But I'd like to address Will's idea that LD students may do 
better in the college system than they did in K-12.  A lot of 
colleges/professors still have a fairly elitist view of higher education and 
feel that if a student requires or requests accommodations, he or she probably 
shouldn't be there - the person just isn't "college material."  Also, some 
systems are good about providing accommodations for students with visible 
disabilities but more reluctant to provide them for those who look like 
"regular" students, even with documentation.  They don't consciously 
discriminate, but they have an inherent bias about what constitutes a disability 
and what's reasonable for a school to provide.

Another difficulty potential college students face when entering into college, 
regardless of age, is simply negotiating the obstacles of being there - 
scheduling, dealing with financial aid, registration, meal plans and housing 
arrangements, transportation, buying texts, new people, activities and settings 
- often without the more familiar structure of the K-12 system which has been 
their exposure to education in the past.  It's overwhelming and confusing enough 
for  more typical college students, but for those who may struggle with memory, 
prioritizing, time management, spatial orientation, decoding and/or 
comprehension, it may be more than they can cope with on their own.  So, while 
they may do well once in class, they may not make it that far.
 
-kc
 
KC Andrew
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
Adult Basic Education - Professional Development Services
360/485-2338
kandrew at sbctc.edu <mailto:kandrew at sbctc.edu> 
 

________________________________

From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Sharon Reynolds
Sent: Fri 11/9/2007 11:10 AM
To: 'The Learning Disabilities Discussion List'
Subject: [LearningDisabilities 1515] Re: DAY TWO- Transition



Bill Fagan  posted..."While I don't have statistics, it seems that if LD 
students reach university they do well."

 

Does anyone have these statistics to share?

 

Sharon Reynolds

Coordinator

Central/Southeast ABLE Resource Center

338 McCracken Hall

Ohio University

Athens, Ohio 45701

 

1(800 )753 - 1519

(740) 593 - 0969

FAX (740) 593 - 2834

reynols1 at ohio.edu <mailto:reynols1 at ohio.edu> 

 

"Literacy arouses hopes, not only in society as a whole but also in the 
individual who is striving for fulfillment, happiness and personal benefit by 
learning how to read and write. Literacy... means far more than learning how to 
read and write... The aim is to transmit... knowledge and promote social 
participation."

- UNESCO Institute for Education

 

 

 

________________________________

From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov] 
On Behalf Of Will Fagan
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 1:20 PM
To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List
Subject: [LearningDisabilities 1512] Re: DAY TWO- Transition

 

In my province, because LD is based on the discrepancy model, students who are 
doing well, are supported both in school and in university through such 
mechanisms as providing more time to complete tests, taking tests orally. While 
I don't have statistics, it seems that if LD students reach university they do 
well. The expectation is that they are as intelligent as the next student, they 
only need an accommodation to help them demonstrate the knowledge they have.

 

The bottleneck seems to be in the school system, when strategies, programs, 
plans, are not available to unlock the potential students have and they fall by 
the wayside and do not make it to university.

 

By the way, in order to avail of accommodations by professors, the student must 
attend the Counseling Centre where a file is set up. This information is then 
communicated to the professor. In addition to the time, oral testing factors, 
professors tend to do other supportive things in their teaching such as speaking 
slower rather than faster, using oral language and visual aids, clearly stating 
points if there is a sequence, and in some cases, the LD student may have a 
notetaker.

Bill Fagan

 

 

 

On 9-Nov-07, at 2:07 PM, PatMFL at aol.com wrote:





As I think I stated earlier, Florida has a requirement in state board policy 
that all students with a disability must have been taught self-determination/self-advocacy 
skills sometime begining at age 14 and that this must be documented on the 
student's Transition IEP. In order to meet this requirement, The Transition 
Center at the University of Florida and the Florida Bureau of Exceptional 
Education and Student Services, have been offering statewide training on several 
self-determination curricula, most recently on an curriculum called Standing Up 
for Me. This curriculum was developed for students with disabilities and has 
lessons for students from kindergarten to grade 12.

One of the biggest issues that comes up at these trainings, is how to reach 
those students with disabilities that are fully included in the general 
education program. How do you teach them the self-determination skills that they 
need and how do you document that this has been done (once again the paperwork 
requirement)?

I would like to hear from others on the list as to how they reach those students 
with disabilities who are fully included, especially those students with 
learning disabilities who are expected to graduate with a standard diploma and 
continue their education in some type of post-secondary institution.

Patrick Mulvihill, Consultant

The Transition Center at the University of Florida





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