Disability awareness > Module
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Creating an accessible curriculum
Including students with dyslexia
The third level environment can be challenging for students with dyslexia but the support of teaching staff can help them achieve their potential. Students with dyslexia share a common learning style, which is characterised by:
- a tendency towards holistic thinking and looking for patterns and relationships
- developed visual or spatial skills
- a reliance on long term memory and association of ideas
- over learning or learning by rote to compensate for poor short term
memory
- difficulty in tracking time and direction and using numbers
Staff can take these learning traits into consideration when:
- lecturing
- setting reading work
- setting written assignments
- giving feedback on assignments
- preparing students for examinations
- offering examination facilities
Lecturing
Lecturers can undertake a number of steps to adapt their teaching methods to the learning style of students with dyslexia, including,
- reviewing the previous lecture and giving an overview
of the current one
- providing copies of notes and overheads
- using large font in handouts and limiting the amount
of information per page
- briefly annotating reading lists
- breaking complex topics into smaller, simpler sections
- avoiding unnecessary jargon
- using a practical, multi sensory approach to cater
to the students visual learning style by presenting materials using videos,
flow charts, diagrams or tape recordings
- allowing students with dyslexia to use tape recorders
during lectures
- communicating patterns or themes in materials as
this enables students to associate ideas and caters to their visual/spatial
skills
- encouraging students to ask questions and re-explaining
complex material using simpler language
Setting reading work
Reading is an essential element of many courses, but lecturers can tailor reading requirements to students with dyslexia by:
- making allowances for the fact that students may
be competent at reading to themselves, but may have impaired ability when
reading in front of others
- only asking students with dyslexia to read aloud
if they want to and giving them advance notice
- offering students extra time for reading tasks and
giving examples of the sort of information students should look for
- helping students make choices about essential reading
- giving a list of key words in advance of assigning
a reading passage, as students with dyslexia have difficulties with scanning
text for gist
Setting written assignments
Most third level courses rely on written assignments to gauge students' progress. Students with dyslexia are often at a disadvantage in this area but lecturers and support staff can assist them by:
- establishing a reduced word count for essays
- helping students to plan essays by breaking them
into smaller steps
- setting interim targets for stages of an assignment,
rather than a single final deadline
- offering to go over early drafts of assignments
and encouraging students to use non-linear notes
- encouraging students to focus less on spelling and
presentation than on content, until they prepare their final draft
- focusing students on key essay requirements, such
as introductions, conclusions, presentation of arguments, providing evidence
to back up claims and arguments
- assisting them with ancillary conventions such as
bibliographies, citations and footnotes
- suggesting students write on only side of the page
and that they double space their paragraphs so that corrections can be
clearly inserted
- suggesting that students record any specific instructions
or conversations to aid their memory
The Disability Support Service recommends that all students with dyslexia become computer literate.
Giving feedback on assignments
Many students are eager to gain feedback on the material they submit for correction but this can be daunting if the form of their written work overshadows it's content. However, lecturers can provide constructive feedback by:
- showing understanding of the challenges faced by
the student
- recognising and acknowledging the students strengths
when evaluating their work
- asking for two copies of an assignment and correcting
one for content and the other for presentation, spelling, grammar and
syntax
- taking the opportunity to correct difficult to understand
work with the student
- highlighting any patterns in errors and colour coding
them, for example by using green for grammar and red for spelling
- if giving feedback in person, keep the session short
so as not to overload the student with corrections
- focusing on a small number of error types at a time
Preparing students for examinations
Pre- exam study demands a high level of motivation and examinations place pressure on all students. For those with dyslexia, this pressure can be intense and study time is most effectively used if it is geared towards the student's learning style.
Staff can offer these students pre-exam assistance by:
- establishing with students a schedule for short-term,
mid-term and long-term planning
- reviewing past examination papers, together with
course handouts and overviews
- rehearsing the reading and interpretation of questions
for example, by using the SCORER acronym (Scheduling time, searching for
Clue words, Omitting difficult questions, Reading carefully, Estimating
time for answers and Reviewing work)
- helping students to plan possible exam answers,
using past papers as a guide
- encouraging students to use highlighter pens to
pick out key words in questions as they read them
- encouraging students to proof-read their answers
critically, using a checklist of ‘personal errors'
- introducing students to mind-mapping concepts, which
can be used to help them organise key information in a visual format
- agreeing an emergency plan, such as using bullet
points, if time management fails
- getting students to rehearse sticking to a strict
timeframe by answering past exam questions under timed conditions
- offering stress management tips to help cope with
anxiety and use adrenaline to good effect.
Offering examination facilities
Examinations can be more daunting for students with dyslexia because of the additional effort they need to make to interpret the meaning of exam questions, recall information quickly and structure ideas coherently within a limited timeframe. Whereas certain exam features, such as a deadline for completion of the paper, cannot be eliminated, third level institutions can help minimise the impact of dyslexia on exam performance by:
- avoiding complex language in exam questions and
clearly separating questions on the exam paper
- offering some extra time – on average 10 minutes
for every exam hour – to compensate for the additional effort students
with dyslexia need to put into reading, writing and recalling memorised
information
- opting for multiple choice or short answer questions
rather than questions which require essay type answers
- for students with perceptual deficits, for whom
transferring answers is especially difficult, avoid using answer sheets,
especially computer forms
- allowing students to use a dictionary, hand-held
spelling checker or personalised list of spellings
- printing exam questions in enlarged font and on
shaded paper, such as light blue or pink, to eliminate the glare that
can arise from traditional black text on a white background
- enabling students to use a quiet room, to minimise
the risk of distractions
- permitting the use of a personal cassette player
with leak-proof headphones to play exam questions on audio tape
- allowing students to record their answers orally
while still providing skeletal notes to show planning and structure
- offering students the use of a word processor, ideally
one with voice recognition software, so that they can explain their answers
orally and edit them on screen
- allowing students to view the exam paper in advance
and have unfamiliar words explained to them
- permitting students to use a scribe to write down
answers.
