Modifications

You have just finished reading the section on collaboration. This may have got you thinking about how students with disabilities can effectively be included in the general education curriculum. You may have come up with ideas about how students with disabilities could participate in general education classes. But many of your ideas might have needed a little something extra to really make it work. You may have thought something like, ‘Well, he could do it if he just had this or that’. This is why we have modifications. Modifications are the “this” and “that” which allows students with disabilities to participate in general education classes. Without modifications, some students with more severe disabilities would have a very hard time participating in the general curriculum.
The 1997 Amendments to IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) require that a student with a disability be provided with "supplementary aids and services” as needed to enable him or her to succeed in the least restrictive environment. These supplementary aids and services can be provided in general education classes to enable students with disabilities to be educated with students without disabilities. Many times, the learning goals, activities, and materials can be modified so that students with disabilities can actively participate in the general education curriculum in a meaningful way. It is important to remember that the curriculum should be modified so that students can have access to the general education curriculum while working on their specific IEP objectives. You may hear the words “adaptations” or “accommodations” used instead of modifications, but for our purposes they are used interchangeably.

*ACTIVITY* View the following website to learn more about the guidelines for adapting the general education curriculum. What are the three guidelines listed?  Give an example of a possible modification for each guideline. http://www.circleofinclusion.org/english/pim/five/adaptations.html

*ACTIVITY* There are several ways that the curriculum can be modified.  Look at the following website to learn more. http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/strategies/types_adaptation.html

*ACTIVITY* View the following sites to find out about adapting the curriculum for students with disabilities. Be sure to look at the links on each page.  Choose one student with a disability that you have class with and list at least five possible adaptations that could be used in his or her regular classes.  Describe why each adaptation is needed. (For example, Jeremy needs picture cues about Martin Luther King during history class because he isn’t able to read written words.) http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/ddc/inclusion/schoolcaring/sc7.htm http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/ddc/inclusion/schoolcaring/sc2.htm http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/ddc/inclusion/schoolcaring/sc3.htm http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/ddc/inclusion/schoolcaring/c7.htm

Assistive technology can also be used in order for students with disabilities to participate in regular classes.  Students who have difficulty writing can use a computer to write a sentence or a report.  They can also listen to the computer read their work out loud to them. 

Read about how Emily (http://www.pluk.org/AT1.html#10) and Byron (http://www.pluk.org/AT1.html#11) use assistive technology to participate in school.

There’s a poster that says; “If you thought the wheel was one of the most important inventions in human history…you’ll love the ramp!”  The illustration shows a person in a wheelchair sailing to victory in a race as they speed down a ramp while the non-wheelchair users run to keep up.  Modifications, collaboration, assistive technology, adaptations, and accommodations all build a ramp to full access, participation, and inclusion in our schools and in life after graduation. 

Now that you have completed all of the activities in this unit on inclusion, you may have figured out that this is just a beginning.  Pretty much everything on this web site relates to the basic right of people with disabilities to full access and equal treatment in our society.  What is your role in this effort…as a peer tutor…a friend...a future parent…a citizen?  You may be ready to take the quiz on this unit, but once you can answer this last question your are ready to move on to bigger things—you will be ready for the challenges of life in our very complex world.