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  • Accommodations: Instructional and Testing Supports for Students with Disabilities
Challenge
Initial Thoughts
Perspectives & Resources

What should teachers know about accommodations for students with disabilities?

  • 1: Accommodations
  • 2: Practices Confused with Accommodations

What types of accommodations are commonly used for students with disabilities?

  • 3: Instructional Versus Testing Accommodations
  • 4: Selecting an Accommodation
  • 5: Presentation Accommodations
  • 6: Response Accommodations
  • 7: Setting Accommodations
  • 8: Timing and Scheduling Accommodations

What are the teacher’s responsibilities for students with disabilities who use accommodations?

  • 9: Implementing an Accommodation
  • 10: Evaluating Effectiveness

Resources

  • 11: References, Additional Resources, and Credits
Wrap Up
Assessment
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What types of accommodations are commonly used for students with disabilities?

Page 7: Setting Accommodations

In general, instructional or testing environments should be well lit with a comfortable temperature, good ventilation, and minimal extraneous noise or other interruptions. Even under ideal conditions, however, some aspects of the environment or setting might present barriers for certain students. These students might benefit from setting accommodations, which allow for a change in the environment or in how the environment is structured. They provide support that allows students with disabilities to access the same instructional opportunities as students without disabilities; however, keep in mind that setting accommodations:

  • Do not change the expectations for learning
  • Do not reduce the requirements of the task
  • Do not change what the student is required to learn

The table below offers examples, though not an exhaustive list, of setting accommodations that address common barriers or challenges students experience when they access or demonstrate learning.

Setting Accommodations
Common Barrier Example Accommodations
Staying focused or maintaining attention
  • Separate setting (e.g., different room for testing)
  • Different location in classroom (e.g., away from distractions such as windows or friends)
  • Preferential seating (e.g., near teacher)
  • Study carrels to block visual stimuli
  • Noise-reducing headphones
  • Individual setting
  • Small-group setting
  • Reduction of visual clutter
  • Small fidgets
    x

    fidget

    Small hand-held object that a student can use to maintain instructional focus.

Regulating behavior (e.g., is disruptive, distracts other students)
  • Separate setting (e.g., different room for testing)
  • Preferential seating (e.g., near teacher)
  • Study carrels
  • Individual setting
  • Small-group setting
Seeing text or illustrations (e.g., too far from whiteboard, glare from windows)
  • Preferential seating (e.g., near whiteboard)
  • Different location in classroom (e.g., away from windows)
  • Special lighting
Hearing information
  • Preferential seating (e.g., near teacher)
  • Different location in classroom (e.g., away from noisy areas)
Physically accessing resources or needed equipment/assistive technology
  • Different location in classroom (e.g., near electrical outlet, end of row)
  • Separate location to access equipment (e.g., computer lab)
  • Adaptive furniture or equipment (e.g., adjustable-height desk to accommodate a wheelchair)
  • Ample space for adaptive furniture or equipment
  • Larger desks or tables (e.g., to accommodate equipment)
  • Space for a service animal
  • Storage areas for equipment
  • Wide, clear aisles for easier navigation
Organization of materials
  • Visual supports (e.g., labeled storage containers, color-coded binders)
  • Checklist of needed supplies

Following are examples of setting accommodations teachers can use to help students access or demonstrate learning.

Kaden
Age: 10
Disability: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

When assigned independent work, Kaden is often distracted by noise and movement within the classroom. To address this challenge, his teacher gives him a collapsible study carrel (e.g., a cardboard tri-fold) to put on his desk during independent seatwork.

Rae
Age: 15
Disability: learning disability (LD)

Rae struggles to organize her instructional materials. The special education teacher helps Rae color-code her binders to help organize necessary materials (e.g., notes, class assignments) for each class.

Cierra
Age: 6
Disability: autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Cierra is highly sensitive to noise. The teacher gives her a set of noise-reducing headphones during independent seatwork to help her focus on her assignments.

Setting Accommodations in Action

Ms. Harbison is a kindergarten teacher. One of her students, Emma, has difficulty paying attention and staying focused in the classroom. She is easily distracted by other students and the activities around her. Ms. Harbison describes Emma as always on the go and needing to move constantly.

Listen as Ms. Harbison discusses some setting accommodations she has provided in her classroom to help Emma be more successful in participating in learning activities and in completing her work in a timely manner (time: 2:03).

Claire Harbison
Kindergarten Teacher
Nashville, TN

/wp-content/uploads/module_media/acc_media/audio/acc_page07_audio_harbison.mp3

Transcript

Transcript: Claire Harbison

Emma has sensory processing disorder. She is very hyperactive in the classroom and has a hard time regulating her behaviors, has a hard time controlling her body and where it is in relation to other students. So that poses a challenge in the classroom.

She has a table by herself where she can get her work done. That way, she’s not distracted by other students, by what they’re doing or what they’re not doing. She can just focus on her work. When we’re sitting on the rug, she is sitting really close to me, or any teacher. I can reach out a hand to put on her shoulder to remind her to sit on her bottom or give her a gentle touch to remind her to put her hands in her lap.

She has a tent that we use at quiet time. She just goes and pops out her little tent, and it’s a small, confined space where she’s free to do whatever she would like to as long as she’s quiet. That way, she’s not distracted by other students, and they are not distracted by her moving around in her own little space, which she enjoys. She has a study carrel, a little box that folds out that sits at her desk while she’s doing her work, again a way to cut down on the distractions. At the beginning of the year, she was able to sit for three minutes, tops. Now she’s sitting for ten to fifteen minutes. She’s able to sit. She’s able to get her work done. Her work is a lot neater. Her focus has improved. She’s able to close herself off from the distractions of kindergarten around her. Her schoolwork has definitely improved. She really has come a long way with these accommodations. I think it’s made me a better teacher because now I’m more in tune with all my other students’ needs.

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