Students' special needs should be identified by the teacher, such as physical learning disabilities and the immediate obvious needs of the deaf, the blind and wheelchair users who require physical assistance and various conditions that suit their learning needs.
Attendance and promptness to class should be noted to ascertain and distinguish students' physical challenges from apathetic behaviors. An example is differentiating between late van transportation that may hinder students, most especially wheelchair users, from getting to class on time and the indifferent attitude of those toward classroom learning activities.
Physical access deals with the proximity and location of the classroom environment, which ensures that the classroom is accessible and an easy exit is available for all students who use mobility aids such as crutches, wheelchairs and canes. The seating needs for students with these physical challenges should be observed, and access to seats should be without steps. This includes during field trips and computer work. Equipment such as computer consoles should be positioned closely to wheelchair users to ensure that they can reach them with ease, and tables should have sufficient space underneath to position their legs.
Lecture and laboratory course involves a session or series of sessions that students undergo during classroom learning activities. The considerable number of techniques that are available to students with learning disabilities may also be beneficial to those without learning or sensory difficulties. Teachers should explain technical vocabulary by presenting them visually on the chalk board, as well as orally. Describe all visual examples by demonstration and create room for students to get review and clarification.
Teachers should ensure that students with physical disabilities benefit from the class activity by speaking out loud while they face the class and wear a lapel microphone, for the benefit of students with hearing disabilities who read lips and for students who cannot take notes and use cassette recorders. Unfamiliar words on handouts should be read and interpreted to students who have a hearing disability, and reading lists should be made available for the visually impaired who rely on Braille in advance for the next term.
Class participation deals with the arrangement of classroom activities to create an atmosphere for class discussion which will enable the teacher to identify students who are unable to contribute in a class discussion exercise. It is the duty of the teacher to ask such students how they wish to be recognized in class or if they prefer to have a one-on-one discussion about the course content before or after the class.
Teachers should directly address the student and not his interpreters during a class discussion, though it is ideal to acknowledge his aides or interpreters. Each comment should be repeated from participants, and the speaker should be identified by name, so that students with visual disabilities can follow the discussion. Oral presentations may be given, though students with speech disabilities may experience difficulties in expressing themselves. They should never be interrupted, and those that may choose to give their presentation with the help of an interpreter can do so.
Teachers should ensure that the required academic help students need to succeed in class is made available to them. Students should be encouraged to use computers and teachers should make provisions for computer disks that contain a prepared syllabus, handouts and assignments, so that students with learning disabilities can benefit from revising and drafting their papers on a computer. Those with an impaired ability to understand written language should be stimulated to use computers that have spell-checking features and students who are not completely blind can adjust the fonts on their computer screen to a more legible size. Those who are completely blind can use the disk in an adaptive computer to prepare a readable copy in Braille.
Test-taking conditions for students with learning or physical disabilities include: a separate room that has a better lighting and special equipment like video magnifiers and a text-to-speech converter, an option for substituting a written exam for an oral exam, an option of having the exam questions presented in an oral or written form and an aide to write down students' dictated answers to exam questions.These conditions are enumerated in federal law and should be provided for students.
The availability of assistive instructional technology, which entails the advanced instructional materials use in teaching students with disabilities, should be provided. Equipment such as reading machines, speech-activated computers, Braille workstations, talking calculators and certain adaptive computers should be made available to students with disabilities. Computer center advice and information or programs about disabled students should be embraced. To enhance the usage of adaptive technologies for students with mobility challenges, the positioning and usage of keyboards, floppy disk guides and other computerized instructional materials should be available.
Students with learning disabilities may benefit from adaptive software; those with visual disabilities can use large-print output devices or Braille screen reading programs.