Accommodations: How They Help Individuals with Learning Disabilities

Adults with learning disabilities face many obstacles in the learning environment. Most of all they face their pasts where they have achieved, in most cases, nothing but failure. As literacy practitioners, we must be aware of ways to bridge the gap and provide opportunities where an adult learner with learning disabilities can achieve success. The following has been taken from the website for the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario. It addresses why it is so important to provide accommodations to individuals with learning disabilities and, in this case, demonstrates how accommodations for the Ontario Grade 10 Literacy Test help students who might normally be held back from achieving success.

"Almost all (if not all) students with learning disabilities can acquire literacy skills, provided that they are taught appropriately and have access to accommodations when taking a test. Students with learning disabilities have average intelligence, which is an essential requirement for the comprehension component of such tests. Of course, students with learning disabilities also have specific psychological processing difficulties, which result in problems with information processing tasks such as reading or writing. That is what having a learning disability means. But with accommodations such as having the material provided on audiotape rather than just in print, being allowed to use a computer, audio taping responses or having answers scribed, most students with learning disabilities should be able to compensate for their difficulties."³⁵

"There are many ways that learners can be accommodated to compensate for their difficulties. Accommodations can range from low to high tech. They are the strategies that individuals use that help them be independent."³⁶

For learners who cannot read print, there is now computer software that will scan print and generate synthesized voice. For those unable to write, word processing software is available which will facilitate composing with appropriate spelling, capitalization and punctuation. Some learners might be unable to use a traditional keyboard. For them, software has been created which recognizes voice and prints a written copy of verbal text. With rapid development of computer technology, such assistive devices will become more common and affordable.³⁷ Some examples of accommodations for individuals with learning disabilities include: