Accommodating Disabilities and Different Learning Styles

There are many resources available to assist faculty and staff with accommodating both students with documented disabilities and students with different learning styles. A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. Some examples include learning, visual, hearing, mobility, psychiatric and health impairments. A learning style is a preferential way in which a student absorbs, processes, comprehends and retains information. Examples of learning styles include: visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic.

One of the keys to accommodating different disability types and learning styles is by using principles of universal design, which is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. When universal design is incorporated into course design, ALL students benefit!

The Washington DO-IT Center is a national resource that promotes inclusion and success for people with disabilities. The organization offers many helpful resources on universal design and creating accessible online courses. Here are a few pages to start exploring:

• Universal Design Overview
• Applications of Universal Design in Postsecondary Education

The Washington DO-IT Center offers a resource known as The Faculty Room. This is a space for faculty and administrators at postsecondary institutions to learn about how to create on-site and online courses that maximize the learning of all students, including those with disabilities.

BGSU Resources

Online Adobe CMS Trainings are offered on the following topics:

• Multimedia accessibility
• Canvas accessibility
• W3C standards
• BGSU’s web accessibility policy

The Center for Faculty Excellence has a digital accessibility page and a searchable repository of just-in-time resources with teaching guides with information about teaching and educational technology tools. The CFE has created a Course & Content Accessibility Resource Repository in Canvas.