Activity 4

Researching Accommodations

What Students Do

Students learn that people with disabilities in college receive support through accommodations (also called academic adjustments). They use the Internet to research accommodations available in one or more colleges. Once they have gathered this information, they discuss with you how they might begin using similar accommodations (that are appropriate for their learning needs) while still in high school.

Planning

Become familiar with the Web sites in the Teacher Manual to help guide students in their research. Visit college Web sites. Note that some are not comprehensive while others have added information on Postitt.org. Today, most colleges provide some information about the accommodations or academic adjustments that they provide. As this activity is designed simply to introduce the notion that colleges provide these resources to qualified students, it is not especially important that students know which college interests them.

Introducing the Activity

Refer back to Activities 1-3 where students learned about their learning preferences and the limitations resulting from their disability. Explain the concept of accommodation as a means of working around limitations and distinguish it from modifying the scope or nature of a school curriculum. Students need to be able to distinguish between these two concepts because modification of classes may occur in high school that will not be an option in college. Explain that a modification fundamentally alters the content of a class and an accommodation is a change in the delivery and assessment but not the content. Point out that in the K-12 system the distinction is often blurred, since both modifications and accommodations are provided. Alert them that they may encounter the term "academic adjustment and services" and that this has generally the same meaning as "accommodation".

Demonstrate how to access information using the Post-ITT Web Site (for Washington and Oregon colleges) or search for a college by name on Google.com