Which of the following instructional methods has scientific evidence to support its effectiveness?

• The way information is presented (e.g., text, lecture)
• The way the student is required to respond (e.g., writing, speech)
• The characteristics of the setting (e.g., noise, lighting)
• The timing and scheduling of instruction (e.g., time of day, length of assignment)

What is an accommodation?

Teachers can address these barriers by providing students with accommodations—adaptations or changes in educational environments or practices that help students overcome the barriers presented by their disability. Two areas in which accommodations can be used are instruction and testing.

• Instructional accommodations are changes to the delivery of classroom instruction or the accompanying materials. Instructional accommodations change how students learn but do not change what they learn. In other words, they do not change the scope or range of the grade-level content standards, nor do they alter the complexity of the knowledge students are expected to learn. Students with disabilities who use instructional accommodations are required to learn the same content at the same level of proficiency as their peers who do not use instructional accommodations.
• Testing accommodations are changes to the format of a test or its administration procedures. Testing accommodations change how students are tested but do not change what a test measures. Commonly used testing accommodations include having the test read aloud, allowing for extended time, permitting scribes or dictation, and giving the test in a small-group setting.

Whether for instruction or testing, accommodations provide students with opportunities to achieve the same outcomes and to obtain the same benefits as students without disabilities. By addressing barriers, accommodations create better access to learning opportunities for students with disabilities. For some students, these barriers can be relatively simple to address. For example, a student who has difficulty with fine-motor skills and struggles to hold a pencil might require a pencil grip to help her write out her responses. For others, addressing the barrier can be more complex. For instance, a student who has a visual disability and cannot access written materials might require Braille materials. To better understand how accommodations can address barriers presented by a student’s disability, see the table below.

Accommodations provide support that allows students with disabilities to achieve the same instructional goals as students without disabilities. It’s important to note that accommodations:

• Do not change the expectations for learning
• Do not reduce the requirements of the task
• Do not change what the student is required to learn

Teachers should provide accommodations that meet the unique needs of each individual student. Not all students with the same disability or even those who experience the same barrier will benefit from the same accommodation. For example, not all students with visual impairments will benefit from Braille materials; some might be better served by audio books.

It is a common misconception that accommodations offer an unfair advantage to students with disabilities. Used appropriately, accommodations level the playing field, allowing students with disabilities the opportunity to perform tasks as well as students without disabilities.

Instructional Practices Often Confused with Accommodations

Teachers use a number of instructional practices to improve their students’ learning. It is not unusual for several of these—specifically, modifications, instructional strategies, and interventions—to be confused with accommodations. In the sections below, we’ll describe each of these practices and explain what makes them different from accommodations.

Modifications

Modifications are adaptations that change what students learn and are used with students who require more support or adjustments than accommodations can provide. Whereas accommodations level the playing field, modifications change the playing field. Unlike accommodations, modifications:

• Do change the expectations for learning
• Do reduce the requirements of the task

The table below lists some modifications that could address the barriers presented by students’ disabilities. Note that the modifications actually change or modify the expectations or requirements of the task.

Though educators often confuse them, the terms accommodations and modifications are not interchangeable. Listen as Margaret McLaughlin further explains the distinction (time: 3:03).

View Transcript

Another way teachers often help struggling students is to implement an instructional intervention or strategy, both of which involve teaching the students to work through a series of steps to improve in an area of deficit or remediate a certain set of skills. Unlike accommodations, strategies or interventions do not specifically address the barriers presented by a student’s disability; rather, they address a skill or knowledge deficit. To further complicate matters, accommodations can be used in conjunction with interventions. The table below lists a few areas in which students often struggle and contrasts example instructional interventions or strategies with examples of accommodations that might be used to help students be successful in class.

Teachers might believe that, if they are already using differentiated instruction or Universal Design for Learning (UDL), they do not need to provide accommodations for students with disabilities. Although these approaches might meet the needs of many, some students with disabilities will require the further support or services that accommodations offer.

Each of the following scenarios introduces a student with a disability and identifies his or her related challenge. For each student, the teacher implements several types of supports. Determine whether each support is an accommodation, modification, or strategy/intervention.

1. Danica, a student with a learning disability (LD), struggles with writing. Her teacher has assigned the class to research a planet using a minimum of three sources and then to write a five-paragraph essay about that planet. Because Danica produces few complete sentences and ideas when given a writing task, her teacher implements several types of support to help her complete the assignment.

   TREE (Topic sentence, Reason, Explanation, Ending), a mnemonic device student can use to organize their ideas	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention TREE is a strategy that outlines the steps for writing an essay.
   The teacher color codes key information in her materials	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention By coloring coding key information in the materials, the teacher helps Danica to identify main ideas; however, this does not change the learning expectation, which is to write a five-paragraph essay.
   Shorten the writing assignment to one paragraph containing three facts	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Shortening the writing assignment is a modification because it alters the learning expectation.

2. A 6th-grade student with ADHD, Brody has difficulty organizing his time. His social studies teacher assigns a long-term project that involves researching the history of their town. The assignment includes the following requirements: visit the local library to complete a demographic information sheet, interview three people who have lived in the town since childhood, and create a presentation using that information. Because the teacher knows that Brody has difficulty completing long-term assignments by the due date, she implements several types of support to help him to do so.

   Break the assignment into smaller pieces (e.g., week 1—visit the local library to complete demographic information sheet; weeks 2 and 3— interview three people who have lived in the town since childhood)	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Breaking the assignment into smaller pieces is an accommodation because it does not change the learning expectation for the student.
   Teach the student to schedule and monitor his time	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Teaching the student to schedule and monitor his time is a time-management strategy.
   Complete a homework packet on the same topic instead of the project	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Completing a homework packet on the same topic is an alternate assignment that changes the expectations for learning and the requirements of the task.

3. Aliyah, a middle school student with muscular dystrophy, often experiences physical fatigue. She is a highly motivated student and excels academically. Her language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies teachers typically assign homework that requires access to the textbooks used in each of these classes. Because her teachers realize that carrying heavy textbooks home each night is difficult for Aliyah, they implement several types of support to help her complete her assignments.

   Provide access to online textbooks	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Providing access to online textbooks is an accommodation because it does not change what the student is required to do; it simply removes the barrier—lack of physical strength, which results in her inability to carry textbooks.
   Provide a different assignment that does not require the textbook	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Providing a different assignment that does not require the textbook is a modification because it changes the expectations for learning.
   Allow her to keep a set of textbooks at home	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Allowing her to keep a set of textbooks at home is an accommodation because it does not change what the student is required to do; it simply removes the barrier—lack of physical strength, which results in her inability to carry textbooks.

4. Ahmed, a high school student with an intellectual disability, reads at a 2nd-grade level. Because he has difficulty with decoding words, he is not able to read fluently enough to comprehend what he has read. His special education teacher has noticed that he typically understands and remembers the information that she presents orally. For this reason, his teacher implements several types of support to help him succeed in the classroom.

   Allow him to use text-to-speech software—text will be read to him	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Text-to-speech software is an accommodation because it allows the student to access the content but does not change the learning expectation. In this case, the learning expectation is comprehension, not decoding.
   Explicitly teach phonics to improve decoding skills	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Explicitly teaching phonics is a strategy to improve a student’s decoding skills.
   Give him a lower-level reader that provides fewer facts and details	Accommodation Modification Strategy/intervention Providing a lower-level reader is a modification because it changes the expectations for learning.

Selecting an Accommodation

For some students with disabilities, instructional or testing accommodations are documented on their individualized education programs (IEP) or 504 plans. When this is the case, teachers are required to provide those accommodations. There are instances, however, when students with disabilities continue to struggle even with the accommodations in place or they begin to struggle in a new area. When either occurs, the teacher might want to try a new accommodation. If the teacher identifies a beneficial accommodation, the IEP team should convene to determine whether it should be added to the student’s IEP.

Before teachers can select an accommodation, they must first identify the barrier that is interfering with the student’s learning and consider how that barrier is affecting his or her performance. Identifying the student’s barrier can help the teacher to determine the type of accommodation that will likely support the student.

Accommodations are typically grouped into four categories: presentation, response, setting, and timing and scheduling. Teachers can use the table below to determine the type of accommodation that would best support the student given the student’s barrier.

Implementing an Accommodation

As mentioned above, when instructional or testing accommodations are documented on a student’s individualized education program (IEP) or 504 plan, teachers are required to provide them. For some students, accommodations are recommended for just one or two classes; for others, they are needed in all classes. By reviewing the student’s IEP or 504 plan, teachers can identify the accommodations and the context in which they should be implemented. As you will see below, there are a number of ways that teachers can help to maximize a student’s success with accommodations.

• 
  Review the student’s IEP or 504 plan.
• Know the student’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Recognize that, though some accommodations will be simple to implement in the classroom, others will be more difficult or might require more time to learn how to use effectively.
• Allow the student time to practice using accommodations with content that comes more readily to them so they are not struggling with new content and new accommodations at the same time.
• Be aware that students using accommodations might require more or less time to complete instructional tasks.
• Recognize that changing demands throughout the school day might mean that a student’s accommodations differ from one class setting to another.
• Understand how the classroom environment can affect the student’s successful use of his or her accommodations.
• Be aware of how the student perceives the recommended accommodations (e.g., does your student think his accommodation is useful, embarrassing?).
• Monitor the student’s progress regularly because needs can change over time.