Providing customized accommodations 

A Personal Perspective by Charles Salzberg, Department Head, Special Education & Rehabilitation at Utah State University. 

In our training, we talk about accommodating students with various types of disabilities. There is a tendency to associate specific types of accommodations with specific kinds of disabilities. Thus, students with vision impairments may need written materials with large print or tape recordings of written materials; students with cerebral palsy who have impaired hand control may need note-takers or tape recordings of lectures. But, not all students with vision impairments need or can use large print materials; a student with cerebral palsy may not need note-takers. On the other hand, a student with a learning disability may need tape recordings of both lectures and texts. The aim is to provide customized accommodation that fi t each student’s individual limitations. Simply knowing the type of disability a student has isn’t necessarily a prescription for an accommodation. Please keep this in mind as we present accommodations that may be helpful for students with various disabilities and even more so as you work with students in your own classes.