Accommodations are any changes in the physical environment, curriculum format, or equipment that allow individuals with disabilities equal access to content, and tasks. These changes allow students to pursue a regular course of study and do not alter what content is being taught in the classroom nor provides specially designed instruction. There are four categories of accommodations: presentation, timing, response and setting. How one provides these accommodations differs from student to student based on the IEPs. Each students’ needed accommodations are included in the chart preceding these paragraphs. For example one can provide guided notes for each lesson. One can also allow for extra time and assistance for students. When tests take place, I make sure they are in a familiar environment without many people. I offer options of reading the tests aloud to the students and allowing for verbal responses.
Why use accommodations?
Providing accommodations is also critical to student learning for many reasons. First, it is a legal obligation to provide accommodations. The school is legally bound to provide accommodations for students as written in IEP. These accommodations were determined by the IEP team and parents can sue if the accommodations, services and other information recorded in the IEP are not followed. There are many legal examples of this. Second, accommodations provide the student access to the school. This means that accommodations allow students with disabilities to have the same access to instructional materials that students without disabilities have. It is a way of leveling the playing field for students with disabilities. Third, these accommodations provide students with an equal opportunity to show what they know. A student may understand the material and be unable to show that understanding in the assigned way. Providing accommodations allows the student a means of showing what they know and can do. This does not change what the test or assignment measures. It only changes how that measurement is taken. It is not an unfair advantage for students because it does not change what is being measured or the assignments being completed.