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Tailoring Accommodations�to the Individual

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Ventura County Community College District

Nate Streeper – Oxnard College

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In this presentation, we will cover:

  • Why we do what we do
  • Preferred learning modalities
  • Examples from the world of alternate media
  • Ways, not way
  • Three (very simple!) best practices
  • System failure
  • The inherent value of personal interaction
  • Self-identification
  • Lack of resources
  • The snowball effect

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Why we do what we do

  • We want to help!
  • Purpose driven
  • Mission statement!
  • “Begin with the end in mind”
  • The eager beaver
  • Transition to routine
  • “Establishing a system is mindful. Following a system is mindless.”
  • We are not a cut and paste institution

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Preferred learning modalities

  • We all know students learn differently
  • Efforts to provide multiple modalities is increasing
    • LMS with text, graphics, videos, audio
    • Accessibility checkers, best practices
    • Universal Design, Universal Access
    • This is excellent!
  • The danger lies in insisting on Universal Response
    • One size does not fit all
    • Hence, tailoring the accommodation to the individual

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Examples from the world of alternate media

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  • Providing alt media is not synonymous

with “getting an audiobook”

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  • Buzzwords in the Bizz: PDF, DOC, ePub, MP3, LaTeX, MathML, HTML, BRF, large print (on paper!), Braille (on paper!), tactile images, tagged/untagged, scanned images, alt text, Optical Character Recognition, Kurzweil 3000, Kurzweil Read the Web, Read&Write, Equatio, MathType, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, Google DOCS, spreadsheets, tables, equations, Clearly Reader, OpenDyslexic, chapter extractions, page renumeration, zoning, navigation bookmarks, heading levels, descriptive hyperlinks, language markers, human narrated/synthetic voice, BeeLine, Immersive Reader, VoiceOver, Windows Narrator, JAWS, NVDA, TalkBack, WCAG compliant, LTIs, VPATs, VitalSource, KDP, digital rights management, AccessText, Bookshare, publisher contacts, chop and scan…

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  • Yes, that bullet point is intentionally blocky ‘cuz there’s a lot to consider!

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Examples (continued)

  • Not every student prefers the same thing
  • If our goal is to help them reach their goals…
    • Don’t provide them with an accessible product
    • Provide them with the accessible product that is BEST for THEM
    • PDF/Kurzweil vs DOC/Word Immersive Reader might make all the difference
    • Not everything can be provided optimally…
    • But our goal is to approach optimization
  • You Otter know
  • Beware the bulk purchase

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Ways, not way

  • There is no one way to run a disabled students program
  • Resources and methodology are a matter of prioritizing
  • Every campus does it differently
  • We can learn best practices from each other

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Three (very simple!) best practices

  1. Encourage intakes

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  • Tailor services

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  • Follow up

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System failure

  • Discourage intakes
    • This can allow faster activation of services
    • It can also lead to students falling between the cracks
  • Limit services
    • This can allow for easier record keeping
    • It can also lead to students falling between the cracks
  • No follow up
    • This can allow more time for non-student-centric projects
    • It can also lead to students falling between the cracks

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The inherent value of personal interaction

  • You don’t know what you don’t know
  • Establishing a rapport
  • Emotional support
  • Walk them to other departments
  • Reminder calls
  • Personalized emails
  • Videos vs live demos
  • “Welcome Back Days”
  • The resultant void of loneliness that so many of us are experiencing can no longer be denied

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Self-identification

  • …and self-advocacy
  • Proactive vs. reactive
  • Student progress report
  • Pride in accomplishments
  • “Disability Awareness Month” campaign
  • Foster a community
  • Not for everyone
  • FERPA

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Lack of resources

  • Elephant in the room
  • “This is great, but we have 1 counselor for every 500 students.”
  • Back to establishing a system rather than following a system
  • Determine what you need to do… and NOT do
  • Streamline
  • Fight the Big Fight

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The snowball effect

  • Chicken, egg… that whole thing
  • Base proposals on future goals rather than current needs
  • Reputation: If you build it, they will come
    • Pasadena College - Veteran Resource Center
    • Santa Monica College - BIPOC success
    • UC Berkeley - Blind services
    • Cal State Northridge - Deaf services
    • Moorpark College - Zoology
    • Oxnard College “The College with a Heart”
  • What do you want YOUR school to be known for?

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