Accommodating the Syllabus to Visually Impaired Students in the English Language Classroom

Abstract

The inclusion of students with disabilities in the education system results in content or assessment accommodations to suit the students’ special needs and to ensure they have acquired the objectives listed in the curriculum. In this paper, we aim at proposing different ways to accommodate a university English language test to a partially blind student who used text-to-speech tools (TTS) in order to provide them with accurate assessment. To carry out this research, the student has been monitored throughout the course to see which accommodations fit their1 needs best. All in all, we have observed that read-aloud accommodations lead to a better inclusion of the partially sighted student and better performance.

Functional diversity in higher education: curriculum accommodation for people with vision disability or hearing impairment in the English as a Foreign Language classroom

“…However, extra support is provided, namely granting extra time, assigning a different setting or redesigning the layout of the task. In short, accommodations pursue fairness and equity (Darrow, 2007;Harrison et al, 2013;Martínez-Hernández & Bellés-Fortuño, 2021) as the student is expected to meet the same course learning objectives; the purpose of the accommodation is to overcome a barrier. A clear example of accommodation for students with a high degree of sight loss could be the use of screen readers to access an exam in digital formal.…”

“…Alternatively, however important ambition and fulfilment might be, this deeply rooted utilitarian approach cannot prevail if society is to change. Instead, people should be acknowledged and validated as individuals as a matter of social justice (Burke, 2012;Gibson, 2015;Hansen & Mislevy, 2008;Hurst, 2010;Martínez-Hernández & Bellés-Fortuño, 2021).…”

“…Hegarty et al, 2000;Hurst, 2010). ICTs have indeed been an indisputable catalyst for change and inclusion (Drigas & Ioannidou, 2013;Forman et al, 2002) as technology offers functionally diverse learners the opportunity to access the curriculum, content materials and assessment on equal ground (CAST Inc., 2021;Dolan & Hall, 2001;Douglas et al, 2009;Martínez-Hernández & Bellés-Fortuño, 2021;Nisbet, 2020). Nevertheless, many studies have concluded that faculty development opportunities regarding ICTs applied to diversity to attain inclusive university classroom are scarce at post-secondary levels (Dolan & Hall, 2001;Hansen & Mislevy, 2008;J.…”

“…Nevertheless, many studies have concluded that faculty development opportunities regarding ICTs applied to diversity to attain inclusive university classroom are scarce at post-secondary levels (Dolan & Hall, 2001;Hansen & Mislevy, 2008;J. Hegarty et al, 2000;Hromalik et al, 2019;Martínez-Hernández & Bellés-Fortuño, 2021;Morgado, Melero, et al, 2016;Seale, 2006;Seale et al, 2015;Şimşek et al, 2010).…”

“…In contrast, the ones for VD participants contemplate written text and visual input mainly. Moreover, Block 7 (see Table 7) also considers the situations in which two sensory channels work in tandem in sighted students but one sensory channel is used in low vision learners, for instance, when using a screen reader or text-to-speech tool to read the questions of a listening comprehension activity (Martínez-Hernández & Bellés-Fortuño, 2021).…”