Posted on 12/30/2019 5:03:35 AM PST by karpov
For many years, colleges and universities have observed the Americans with Disabilities Act by finding alternate ways for students with disabilities to meet course requirements. For example, a blind student might be accommodated by allowing a university representative to orally read the student questions from a written exam. A student with limited mobility might be allowed some extra time in getting from one class to another. More recently, many universities have expanded accommodations to cover conditions that might have been ignored in the recent past: today, students who can document Attention Deficit Disorder are routinely offered extra time in taking exams.
One example of the rapidly changing institutional culture regarding students with disabilities is a new service provided by Blackboard, which is perhaps the most common software platform in American colleges for delivering course content. Through Blackboard, professors post required readings and assignments, grade student work, and even facilitate online discussions among members of the class. This fall, the university at which I teach implemented an additional service offered by Blackboard that is called “Ally.” Blackboard Ally is a tool built into the software that alerts the professor in the case that any material posted for the course may be less than perfectly “accessible” for students. Next to each document posted for the course, a small gauge or dial is shown: colored green, yellow, or red, the software judges the “accessibility” of each file. I post mostly Microsoft Word documents and .pdf files for my courses: sometimes these would be deemed green, sometimes red. As I don’t have the technical knowledge to know which disability my Word files are disadvantaging (or the time or knowledge to make them more “accessible”) I generally ignore the feedback from Blackboard Ally.
But my university made it clear that they expect full compliance
(Excerpt) Read more at quillette.com ...
As an anomalous trichromat I find their grading system to be discriminatory. I demand all dichromats and anomalous trichromats raise the red flag of outrage in our fight. No, half of you have raised the green flag of outrage....I think. Well let's raise both flags of outrage about this grading system.
I have epilepsy, and one of the complications for me is incredibly poor sleep. I notice I’m generally slower than people, both physically and mentally. I haven’t had any energy for over 15 years, and avoid running across the street. I feel like I’m wasting away at this point.
Blackboard sounds like a great idea, but there should be some limits to how far a teacher must bend over to accommodate their students.
That’s the plan, BTW
One of the goals of the identity politics crowd is to normalize low function and dysfunction to “level the playing field” for low functioning people.
And the low functioning, lazy and party hardy and screw off elements of campus culture embrace this mind set, especially the unqualified affirmative action/legacy/rich elite ( think Chris Cuomo) admits
This is a fundamental change from the original mission of University to strive for intellectual excellence and expanding the horizons of human knowledge
As a life long wheelchair user all I can say is: It’s about damn time! Accessibility and the ADA has been in place for almost 30 years and it is still hard for me to believe that there are people in the world that have a problem with it. Sit you ass in my seat for a day and then get back to me. BTW, I’m a big-time tax payer so I dont feel bad about it at all.
Some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met could not read and take a test online or in class like the average abled bodied student. This is about helping those with the mental resources but lack the physical resources necessary, NOT about giving anyone underserving a freeebie.
Standards are racist, don’t you know? :)
Take a look at this article on using a ketogenic diet to help control epilepsy: https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/ketogenic-diet#.Xgn_AOs8KK0
Did you read the article? The author is not complaining about making classrooms wheelchair-accessible.
yes, I read the article...
The author needs to take a freshman persuasive writing seminar, at which he would learn that you need to get to the actual point you are making somewhere in the first 20 paragraphs.
Further, we were warned that if any assignments or course requirements could not be adapted to make them achievable and accessible for people with a(ny) disability, then the instructor should not have that requirement or give that assignment. As an example of how far-reaching these new guidelines would be if fully implemented, I am aware of an art instructor who tests students on their abilities to discern certain shades and tints of color. Obviously, this task can’t really be adapted for a person who is colorblind. Thus, such an assignment would now be evidence that the course is an inaccessible one—even if no one in the course is colorblind.
In a sane educational environment, we would still teach and require art students to master the subtle variations in color schemes, and if a colorblind student were to take the course, we would offer a different assignment so that the student need not forfeit the credit this component of the course. The new order advanced by Blackboard Ally would ultimately render the current procedure for addressing disabilities obsolete: if everything in the course is designed so that no one with any disability would face any difficulty in achieving success, then disabled students would no longer need to offer medical documentation of disabilities and negotiate accommodations with professors. That scenario—where every possible need is fully anticipated and fully accommodated—is precisely what anti-ableists imagine when they envision the fully “accessible” society.
The seizures are well controlled, I just don’t have any energy. I sit on my butt and play video games on my days off. I really don’t have the energy to do anything else.
A few years ago I believe the University of California was required to eliminate thousands of free on-line course materials, because the blind could not have access to them. If all couldn’t have access, none could have access.
Limits are, well, limiting. With today’s students, perhaps the profs should bend over and give everyone an A whether they turned in a single paper the entire semester.
That sounds like a terrible cross to have to bear! I hope that your seizure medication isn't the cause of your chronic fatigue. You will be in my prayers.
Just curious, have you been tested for sleep apnea? Not intending to pry.
I’ve been taking the medication since September 2014, so that’s not the reason I’m always tired.
The sleep apnea is mild enough that a CPAP machine won’t do anything for me.
Are people really starting to pay attention?
It’s about time...but it is not enough.
The deplorable condition of the Universities is finally making its was to the front.
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