College Student with a Disability:
A Faculty Handbook

The major challenge facing students with visual impairments in college centers around the overwhelming mass of printed material with which they are confronted: textbooks, class outlines, class schedules, bibliographies, campus newspapers, posters, tests, etc. Students may have a difficult time learning subject matter taught exclusively using videotapes, overhead projectors, computers, and closed-circuit television.

By the time students with visual impairments reach college, they have probably developed various methods for dealing with the volume of visual materials. Most students with visual impairments use a combination of methods including Readers, Large Print Books, Braille Books, audio tape Recorded Books, Personal computers equipped with scanners, screen reading and/or text enlarging technology, and classroom lecture. The DSPS staff is available to assist the student in locating appropriate materials and personnel.

Students may use Raised Line Drawings of diagrams, charts, and illustrations, Relief Maps, three - dimensional Models of physical organs, shapes, microscopic organisms, etc. Technological advances have made equipment, such as Talking Calculators, commonplace and inexpensive. Personal computers are almost indispensable to college students with visual impairments. Using a correctly equipped computer, a student is able to read a scanned textbook, research a term paper, write and proofread the same paper, without any outside assistance.

Some students who use Braille prefer to take their own notes in class using a Slate and Stylus, a Perkins Brailler, a word processor-like notetaking device that uses either a Braille or QWERTY keyboard or a laptop computer. Other students may wish to have a classmate make a copy of his or her notes using NCR paper or a copy machine, which a reader later reads onto tape for future use. Still other students audiotape lectures which they later transcribe into Braille or onto their personal computer.

When an instructor is planning to publish his or her lectures, she may fear that the tapes will somehow interfere with these plans. The instructor is required to allow the student with a verified disability to tape record the class. However, the faculty member may require the student to sign an agreement not to release the recording or otherwise hinder the instructor’s ability to obtain a copyright.

To a student with a visual impairment, phrases such as "the sum of this plus that equals this" or "the lungs are located here and diaphragm here" are basically meaningless. In the first example, the instructor may be writing on the board and can just as easily say, "The sum of 4 plus 7 equals 11." The student with a visual impairment, in this case, is getting the same information as a sighted student. In the second example, the instructor may be pointing to a model or to the body itself. In this instance, the instructor can "personalize" the location of the lung and diaphragm by asking class members to locate them by touching their own bodies. Examples of this type will not always be possible. However, if the faculty member chooses not to use strictly visual examples, the entire class will benefit.

The student with a visual impairment will require accommodations for testing. It is the instructor’s responsibility to arrange the administration of the test. The DSPS Office can assist you by providing information regarding required accommodations.

An instructor may administer a test in one of several ways. She may give the test orally, either in person or on tape. She may arrange to have the test enlarged or translated into Braille. Perhaps the easiest method in the Age of Information would be to give the student the test on diskette and arrange with DSPS for the use of an adapted personal computer. The student would respond in any of these cases, either orally or by typing the answers. In any case, the instructor and student should agree early in the course on how the student’s progress will be evaluated.

Books on tape are available, but it often takes several weeks to receive a textbook from Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) if it is already recorded. If it is not available, it could take up to several months to have a text audio recorded. Faculty members can facilitate this process by selecting texts early and making the information readily available through the DSPS Office or the campus bookstore, so that the student will have plenty of time to make the necessary arrangements.

Some students use Dog Guides. There is no need to worry that the dog guide will disturb the class. Dog guides are highly trained and disciplined. Most of the time the dog will lie quietly under or beside the table or desk. The greatest disruption an instructor can expect may be an occasional yawn or stretch. Tempting as it may be to pet the dog guide, remember that the dog, while in harness, is responsible for guiding its owner who cannot see. It should not be distracted from that duty.

Each college has procedures in place by which certain courses may be waived for the student with a disability; however, it should not be automatically assumed that this will be necessary.

Conversations between the student who is visually impaired and the instructor can lead to new and exciting instructional techniques that could benefit the entire class. For example, some people may believe that students with visual impairments cannot take a course in art appreciation. However, the students should have the opportunity to become familiar with the world’s great art (just as any other "educated person"). A classmate or reader who is particularly talented at orally describing visual images can assist the student as a visual "interpreter" or "translator." There is no reason for the student with a visual impairment not to know what the "Mona Lisa," or other great work of art, looks like. It can be described, and there are poems written about the "Mona Lisa" that may be used as teaching aids to give insight and understanding of the work. Miniature models of great works of sculpture can be made available for display and touching in the classroom. Many modern museums have tactile galleries.

Certain disabilities (in this case blindness) do not automatically preclude participation in certain activities or classes. Students, instructors, and counselors must be careful not to lower expectations solely on the basis of disability.

If classes involve field trips to out-of-class locations, discuss traveling needs with the student who is visually impaired. In most instances all that will be required is for a member of the class to act as a Sighted Guide. In localities where public transportation is adequate, many persons with vision impairments travel independently.

In general, when one speaks of a student with a visual impairment, one thinks of a student with little or no usable vision. Some students have enough usable vision that they can perform certain functions, without much difficulty, but have problems with reading. Instructors and classmates sometimes view these students as "faking it." One student commented that, having been observed playing Frisbee by one of her instructors, she was sure that the instructor would no longer believe that she had a disability. As she explained, she had more peripheral than central vision and was able to see a red Frisbee. If she used any other color of Frisbee, she could not see it well enough to play. Playing Frisbee and reading a printed page present quite different visual requirements. This is often difficult for the fully sighted person to understand.

Discussing the student’s needs early in the term can alleviate potential difficulties. Sitting in the front of the room, having large print on the board, or the use of enlarged print on an overhead projector may assist the student. However, the capacity to read printed material depends so greatly on conditions such as the degree of contrast, brightness, and color that it is preferable that the student and instructor discuss what methods, techniques, or devices may be used to maximum advantage.

Contact your DSPS office if you need additional assistance in accommodating a student with a visual impairment.