On June 1, ECAR released its 2020 Study of the Technology Needs of Students with Disabilities. Responses from just over 1800 students who self-identified as having a learning or physical disability revealed the following:
Students want their instructors to make all course materials and resources accessible online, but class notes and presentation slides were the most commonly requested, followed by assignments/tests and lectures
The learning management system (LMS) is considered key to providing access for students with disabilities to online course content and they would like faculty to use it more.
Students want to use their mobile devices in the classroom to take notes.
Students want training for themselves and for their instructors on how to use the technology on their campus and for their classes
Greater use of videos or other media in the classroom and online can benefit students with disabilities by presenting course materials in multiple formats.
Assistive/accessible technology such as captioning and text-to-speech software is important to their academic success, and students with disabilities would like instructors to account for this when developing their courses.
Students with disabilities want to have a more engaging classroom experience through the use of interactive technology.
Assistive/accessible technology such as captioning and text-to-speech software is important to their academic success, and students with disabilities would like instructors to account for this when developing their courses.
The report offers recommendations for how instructors might better satisfy the needs of students. The key solution appears to be providing more in-depth training of faculty so that faculty can build in the necessary accommodations more readily and earlier in the course development process. Additionally, faculty are encouraged to make course materials more accessible by creating different formats and by using a variety of video, visuals and multimedia to present information in the classroom.
An executive summary is available here in PDF file format.
