Videos, photos and power points. And graphics used should be described well so students will be able to understand them without seeing them.
Kara,
You can also give them a transcript saying what is actually in the videos- a description.
Renee Shaffer
Hello,
I would avoid using videos. I tried to use videos in a class before and I had hearing impaired students and I had to provide a transcript of the video for these students. I feel that there is nothing you could provide for a visually impaired student to help in their learning process.
I agree with your post, Parrish, and I think that is important even for students who do not have a documented disability but have a learning style other than visual. However, limiting the questions to those that do not address what a student "saw" still does not address the issue of students who might be hard of hearing.
Dolores Kiesler
Dolores,
Excellent ideas! I especially liked your 1, 2, and 3. You understand where students with disabilities are coming from and know of their hardships. You are indeed correct that every one of them is different. But whatever their differences, they are entitled to a good, vlaid education.
Renee Shaffer
Darren,
Good ideas. As long as the alternate assignment is similar, it would be acceptable. However, the better thing to do for video assignments is to have an adequate written transcript already available for the student. Your disability office should be able to help with this and many services are available which can help the learner and the instructor.
Renee Shaffer
This is very difficult to answer in an age where technology and especially the availability of videos is so prevalent. In some ways to remove all videos from a class is unfair to the students because of the wealth of information that is available through that source. Finding videos that are captioned is still difficult although there are more becoming available.
In my full-time job, I work with students who have disabilities and know the struggles they face. Each one of them is different in how they approach videos. Some need the captioning, others need a transcript, and some are able to gather the information from listening only. What I recommend to instructors and what I would consider would be a best practice would be for instructors to preview videos in several ways. First, watch the video without sound and then determine whether you can gain from it what you expect of the students. Second listen to it without watching it and then ask the same question. Finally read a transcript. If the video does not work in any one of those scenarios, then it probably should not be used in the online classroom.
As an online instructor, we would need to avoid assignments where the student has to watch videos. If the assignment was to watch a video then write an essay about it a student with a visual impairment would not be able to do it easily. We would need to provide some type of alternate assignment. Another solution would be to have some kind a description of what can be seen on the video provided to the student.
Michael,
How nice. A podcast or audioclip would be very useful and students could listen to it any time they wish.
Renee Shaffer
For a student with a visual impairment, you would need to use a multimodal approach of the content delivery… Meaning that you wouldn't rely solely on power point slide shows the student couldn't see… You could, perhaps, create a podcast that the student can listen to in order to get the content that way, by listening. Thank you. M. Crowley
Parrish,
Very good, thoughtful points. One of the keys is for the instructor to be open to the idea that there are students out there with impairments. Avoiding assignments that require students to describe what they "saw" is a good idea, or at the very least, give the students another option for the assignment.
Renee Shaffer
This is a great question Renee, because nowadays online instructors are using more graphics and videos to assist them in teaching certain topics. This is particularly true because of the accessibility of things like youtube that probably already have something on point that the instructor wants to convey. If students are visually impaired however, they will have a difficult or impossible (depending on the level of impairment) time completing such an assignment.
Therefore, if I were an online instructor, I would avoid any assignments that require students to watch a video and have questions attached that ask what they "saw". Videos in themselves would probably be fine, but I would tailor any questions to what the student "heard".
