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Barrier-Free Classrooms:

10 Easy Tips

Dr. Melodie Cook

Dr. Davey Young

Ms Alex Burke

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This presentation is dedicated to the late, great Marc Helgesen.

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Question:

Why have you come to this presentation today?

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Activity:

Match the quote with the disability/difference!

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Organization

Write each day’s list of class activities on the board and check off or erase each item as you do it.
Some students need this structure, though it can benefit all students by providing a roadmap for the lesson.

This is very simple, but highly effective. Melodie didn’t encounter a teacher explicitly doing this until she was doing her TESL certificate in Canada. The professor at the University of British Columbia was named Ken Reeder and Melodie really liked that he wrote the class plan on the left side of the board each day and checked off each activity as it was done. After learning about ADHD from her co-authors, she realized that she had it, and that is probably why she was so happy to know what the class plan was and how students were moving from one activity to the next. She thinks it gave her a feeling of accomplishment as each item was checked off. She also understood the logic of each lesson.

So, you can do something simple, such as just listing the activities and checking them off or something more complicated, such as making signs that you re-use for every lesson. What you do will likely depend on the age of your students. Here is an example.

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Example

(Alex’s classroom pictures here.)

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Example

(Alex’s classroom pictures here.)

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Example

(Alex’s classroom pictures here.)

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Question: What’s the problem here?

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2. White/Blackboard

As well as giving instructions orally, write them on the board in large print.
Also, give your instructions in easily digestible chunks so neurodivergent students don’t feel overwhelmed.
Modeling is also recommended so students know what language forms are appropriate.

So this video may be extreme, but perhaps some of your students might be experiencing your classes in a similar way! How many of you have noticed, after giving instructions, being met with a) blank stares, or b) students starting to whisper to each other in Japanese? I think most of us have experienced both of these things. If non-neurodivergent students are struggling to understand instructions, how are neurodivergent students likely feeling? This can easily be solved by doing these three things.

First, give instructions in written form as well as verbally. Also, don’t give students too many instructions at one time. Finally, model what you want students to do (ask a strong student to work with you, or two strong students to work together).

Okay, so that’s about black/whiteboards, so next we will look at handouts. Here’s a question for you.

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Question: What are the differences?

Serif fonts have extra lines, some have heavy diagonal lines, and in words may be closer together. San-serif fonts are cleaner, rounder, and easier to read. According to Alex, the latest default Microsoft product font is Aptos, which is problematic because it’s quite narrow and the letters are close together.

We can fix Aptos by increasing the spacing to 1.3 which is in the advanced tab on fonts. It’s not here in Google Slides, but will show up in Microsoft products.

Now, let’s look at something else that can be easily fixed to help students with reading.

The right fit of font for the individual, can increase reading speed by up to 35%. So let students find the font that works for them.

Now, I have another question for you:��

Day, S. L., Atilgan, N., Giroux, A. E., & Sawyer, B. D. (2024). The Influence of Format Readability on Children’s Reading Speed and Comprehension. Education Sciences, 14(8), 854. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080854

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Question: Which is easier to read?

Which one is easier to read?

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Question: Which is easier to understand?

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Alex’s student didn’t know what this was. He asked for a photograph.

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3. Prints/Handouts

When making handouts, use large sans serif fonts (Arial, Helvetica, Proxima, Calibri, Nova, Futura).
Also, avoid justified lines (ragged right is best and line spacing of 1.15 and above).
Instead of diagrams, use photographs where possible.

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Style Guides

British Dyslexia Association Style Guide

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4. Colour Choice

Use strong contrast on the board and on computer screens.
Do not use red and green or pastel colours to highlight different teaching points.
If colour-coding, blue and orange may be best, and provide the name for the colour when it appears.

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What benefits do these activities provide to language teachers?

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5. Breaks

Do a variety of activities so that students can take brain breaks between them.
Even changing groups or partners helps increase blood flow to the brain.

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Questions!

How do you organize your classes for different activities?
What do you when you have “disruptive” or “difficult” students?

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6. Group Work

Assign roles for students in groups.
Have students work with different classmates as much as possible, which gives students with social anxiety a chance to find sympathetic friends among their peers.
Talk to students, tell them you are on their side, and allow them to take breaks when needed.

As the video we saw in part 1 mentions, it might be difficult for neurodiverse students to “go along to get along”, so teachers need to make their expectations explicit.

In addition, you should be very intentional in how you pair and group students. This means, over the course of a lesson, pairing and grouping students who differ in ability, proficiency level, and interest. This will help provide further support for students who need it, as well as develop interactional competencies for all students.

We often view the flow of knowledge and ability from those without disabilities to those with disabilities, but this view itself is ableist: people with disabilities have their own lived experience and knowledge of the world and, despite difficulty they might face in the classroom, can teach students without disabilities (either explicitly or implicitly) about their point of view and thereby improve these students’ competency at interacting with people from other groups.

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Role Assignment

Leader	Makes sure everyone speaks. Makes sure everyone uses English as much as possible.
Recorder	Takes notes for the group.
Reporter	Speaks for the group when the activity is taken up.
Participant	Shares opinions/ideas.

Back to brass tacks: you can assign pairs and groups a number of ways, but intentional grouping takes time, as you need to observe and learn interpersonal relations to maximize learning outcomes through collaborative learning. Once groups have been formed, you can also assign roles for discussions intentionally or randomly so that students know exactly what is required of them. Again, expectations and scaffolding are key inclusive practices.

Here is one example of discussion role assignments.

So, as you can see each student knows exactly what is expected. She practices doing discussions on easy and fun topics during the first week of class so students know what to do when there are discussions in class. She also counts off the students for group work, so they will always work with different people. There are times when students can choose their own group members, such as when they do presentations, so neurodiverse students can choose who they wish to work with.

Melodie does have one student this year who is repeating one of her classes. Last year, she lost an opportunity when the student came up to Melodie to say she wouldn’t be able to present in front of the class. Melodie says she kind of blew her off with “You won’t be alone – you will be with classmates” and she didn’t show up on the presentation day. Melodie regretted that, but this year the student is repeating the same class, so Melodie has spoken to her and asked her what she needs. Melodie told her that she can prepare the presentation with her classmates, but can present her part of it to me alone. Melodie also apologized to her for last year. By the way, Melodie also noticed that this particular student leaves class often and asked her about that – the student said that she gets nervous or has stomach problems, so Melodie told her it was okay for her to leave the room when she needed to.

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Question:

How and when do you make class materials available to students?

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7. Access to Materials

Make materials always accessible to students, even before lessons take place and after they have finished.
Some students require extra time outside the class to process material and this reduces anxiety for all students.

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8. Use Technology

Allow students to use technological tools, so that they can listen rather than read long texts.
This is especially helpful for students with dyslexia.

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Assistive tech

Speech-to-text, e.g. https://www.speechtexter.com/
Text-to-speech, e.g. the Read Aloud feature in Word
Text/speech to Braille e.g., https:// www.brailletranslator.org
Generative AI
And many more!

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Question:

How do you find out if there are neurodiverse students in your classes?

(Allow time for discussion and list answers on the board).

One thing that JASSO (2023) research shows is that in Japan most neurodiverse students don’t know that they are neurodiverse. Most have not been formally diagnosed, their parents have

not wanted them tested or they have chosen not to disclose their status. Only 1.79% are disclosed to tertiary educational institutions. Chances of these children making it to tertiary education is low and their chance of completing it will be influenced by teacher behaviour.

So what can you do to not single out students? Ask all students what you can do to help.

https://www.jasso.go.jp/statistics/gakusei_shogai_syugaku/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2024/08/06/2023_press.pdf

Mel will translate this document with DeepL.

If you notice kids with bitten fingernails or bandages on their arms, do not comment. Try to avoid putting them on the spot unless they volunteer. Hair pulling and fingernail biting can be symbols of stress and or self-harm. Nail biting: Etiology, Consequences and Management /Iran J Med Sci. 2011 Jun;36(2):73–79.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3556753/

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9. Ask (without asking)

If you give students an information sheet to fill out about themselves at the beginning of the semester, add an item such as “What can I do to help you learn better?” on it.
You can give examples such as “speak slowly” or “write instructions on the board”.
Students can then freely tell you what they need.

Here is an example of a student information sheet that Melodie gives out at the beginning of the semester for all of her classes. She collects these sheets and reads them to see if any students need anything extra from her. They believes that students will also figure out that she am open to their needs and they can discuss issues with her.

Also, it is easy to dismiss neurodiverse students as “lazy” or “problematic”, so we’d advise making the first move, although not in front of other students. For example, one year, Melodie had a student who was constantly falling asleep in class. This was not an issue of neurodiversity, but generally of what is going on with students. Melodie asked the student to stay after class one day and told her she’d noticed her sleeping. The student showed Melodie the terrible case of eczema that she had and told her that the medicine she took made her drowsy. This made Melodie much more understanding and less likely to have dismissed her as “lazy”.

We should also watch out for bias. Just because students look a certain way (lots of makeup, slouching, etc. doesn’t mean they are that are less able.

Okay, now we are on our final point!

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10. Be Flexible!

For example, offer students different modes of doing presentations because students with social anxiety may have difficulty getting up in front of the whole class.
This also gives students more autonomy and agency, which should in theory motivate them and help them identify their own learner preferences and boost metacognition.

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Time permitting:

M.I.T. Professor talks about her dyslexia

Dyslexia at Oxford (Website)

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Time Permitting

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Thank you for listening!

Q and A time!

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By the way…

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