College Student with a Disability:
A Faculty Handbook

The phrase "learning disability" has come to be the general term for a variety of specific disabilities including dyslexia, dysgraphia, expressive dysphasia, and sequential memory disorder. A common misconception among those not familiar with learning disability is that the student with the learning disability has mental retardation. By definition, a student with a learning disability has average to above average intelligence.

The college instructor should keep in mind that the needs of the student with a learning disability center around information processing. Students with learning disabilities have trouble taking information in through the senses and bringing that information accurately to the brain. The information often gets "scrambled." These students may have difficulty with discrimination or sequencing (perceiving differences in two like sounds, symbols or objects, or putting these in the correct order). Because the information does not reach the brain accurately, the brain often does not do a good job of storing the information, resulting in poor memory. Thus, it is important that students with learning disabilities receive and transmit information in a form or modality that works best for them.

The student is responsible for informing the instructor of the need for any academic accommodations. The instructor is responsible for providing the student with accommodations that do not alter the class. DSPS is available to advocate for the student and to facilitate the academic accommodations. The following are some ways of assisting the student with a learning disability.

Students who have difficulty with written symbols can use readers or recorded texts (as does the student with a visual impairment). In this case, the student should be encouraged to listen and read along. The student can be shown how to obtain textbook information in "economical" ways by using chapter summaries, pictures and captions, graphs, tables, bold type, italics, tables of contents, paragraph and unit headings, indexes, glossaries.

Some students with learning disabilities are unable to communicate effectively through printing or cursive writing (dysgraphia). This condition may manifest itself in written work that appears careless. For such students, oral examinations and reports are more valid evaluations of what has been learned. Some of these students may be able to use the computer for written communication; many cannot. Another solution is for a scribe to take dictation from the student.

Other students with learning disabilities, for all practical purposes, will have great difficulty comprehending auditory information. Many of the adapted techniques that assist the student who is deaf will also assist these students – TV, movies, role playing, captioned audiovisual materials.

Still other students may have difficulty with sequential memory tasks involving letters (spelling), numbers (mathematics), and following step-by-step instructions. For these students, it will help to break tasks into smaller parts. Tutoring in math and spelling usually will be required. In general, the student with a learning disability will learn better if instructors can teach to one or more of sense modalities – visual, auditory, tactile/kinesthetic.

The expectation for college students is that they will absorb information, communicate it and be evaluated through the printed page. The student with a learning disability will need assistance and support from instructors in finding innovative ways of receiving and transmitting information and in being evaluated. Because a learning disability is "hidden," the instructor may have understandable doubts about the validity of these alternative approaches. However, the fact remains that the student’s capacity for learning is intact. It is only the means by which information is processed that is different.