Faculty Handbook - Mobility Impairments

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Students with Mobility Impairments

A wide range of conditions may limit mobility and/or hand function. Common ones are paraplegia or quadriplegia, amputation, arthritis, cerebral palsy, spinabifida, muscular dystrophy, cardiac conditions, multiple sclerosis, post-polio syndrome, stroke, and respiratory diseases. Functional limitations and abilities vary widely even within the same type of disability. Students may have difficulty getting to or from class, performing in class, and managing out-of-class assignments and tests. Accommodations vary greatly and can only be determined on an individual basis.

Things to Keep in Mind

- Physical access to classrooms is a major concern. Wheelchairs, braces, crutches, canes, or prostheses can cause fatigue easily or make it difficult to move about, especially within the time constraints imposed by class schedules. Leaving class may pose similar problems, especially in the event of an emergency (e.g., fire).
- Occasional lateness may be unavoidable. Tardiness or absence may be caused by transportation problems, inclement weather, or elevator or wheelchair breakdown.
- Some classrooms present obstacles to full participation. In such cases, it is important to make every effort to integrate these students into the class, or to arrange for a different more accessible classroom when possible.

Things You Might Do

• Be prepared to ask for the location of a class to be changed if no other solutions for accessibility are possible.

• Be familiar with the building’s emergency evacuation plan to insure that it is manageable for students with physical disabilities.

• Work with the ODS to arrange for the assistance of an aide to help a student in a lab course, if necessary.

• Consider seating arrangements carefully.

– Avoid placing students in a doorway, a side aisle, or the back of the room.

– Arrange to remove a chair to make room for a wheelchair.

– Use portable stations for laboratory counters too high for wheelchairs or insufficient under-the-counter knee clearance.

Accommodations to Consider

• Architectural accessibility to classrooms, labs, and field experiences

• Readers, note-takers, scribes, and assistive technology equipment

• Copies of power points and class notes

• Flexibility with exam accommodations (computer-assisted, proctors, scheduling)

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