Lectures, seminars and tutorials
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A flexible and student-centred approach and a willingness to adapt existing teaching strategies are key to inclusive teaching in lectures, seminars and tutorials.
Effective reasonable adjustments can have a huge impact on access to the curriculum for many disabled students. Not all reasonable adjustments are complex or require specialist input. Many are relatively simple, such as facing the front when you speak where there is a student who is lip-reading in your class, or making time to clarify uncertainties at the end of a lecture for a student with concentration or mental health difficulties.
It is important that you understand and anticipate possible barriers to learning and that you discuss with students what can be done to make your teaching more accessible and inclusive. However, don’t single out disabled students or discuss their requirements in front of their fellow students – talk to them privately.
On this page there are sections on the following topics.
Preparing the session
Creating a more accessible learning environment for disabled students should start with the planning of your teaching sessions. There is more information in Preparing to teach inclusively.
Just as you need time to prepare for your teaching, students do better when they have sufficient time to read an article and absorb information, consider ideas and points for a discussion, or develop a presentation. Let students know well in advance what they should read or prepare.
- Provide outline notes in advance or put them online so students can familiarise themselves with new subject matter and terminology and so they understand what is expected of them and what activities they will be undertaking.
- Provide a glossary of terms and always spell out new words.
Taking account of the room setting or environment
When considering the location for teaching a group of students you should consider whether it is likely to lead to difficulties for any of them. For example, if your group includes people with mobility difficulties, ask yourself
- Is the room accessible?
- Is there space to manoeuvre around the room?
- Will anyone be excluded from a discussion because they are unable sit with their peers?
- Are adjustable tables and chairs available?
- Are boards, videos and screens positioned where they can be viewed in comfort?
- Is mains power available for specialist equipment?
Many visually impaired students find it helpful to sit near the front in a lecture theatre in order to maximise their useful vision and be able to hear well. Some may need to sit next to their support worker, or to have a space for a guide dog. Make sure that a guide dog can sit safely and comfortably with the student, but otherwise just ignore it.
Structuring class time
Many disabled students experience fatigue and are unable to study effectively for long periods. There are ways to modify your teaching to reduce the impact of these difficulties.
- Have regular breaks
- Permit the use of recording devices and do not draw attention to their use
- Accept that the student might need to leave your teaching session early or for a break
Long sessions can also be too much for students whose concentration is poor. Try some techniques to help your audience concentrate.
- Outline the structure of the session, then recap by going over key points using multisensory methods – show pictures rather than text, or run a short video
- Break the lecture up with an activity
- Target some item in your handout and expand on it
- Allow time for questions and answers
You may become aware that certain learning situations are difficult for some students with mental health difficulties. Examples include
- difficulties participating in discussions, leading to an apparent unwillingness to join in, or making contributions that do not seem relevant
- difficulties making presentations
- problems with group activities and interacting with peers
- behaviours that interfere with learning or participation, or which affect the learning of others.
If it seems appropriate, discuss these issues directly with the student and together try to work out strategies that will help them to participate.Try to make the student feel comfortable.The student may want to bring along a supporter to help in the discussion or even to advocate on their behalf. If you feel unsure of how to conduct such a conversation, seek the advice of the disability officer or your institution’s mental health specialist.
Some students are very wary of offering their thoughts to a group of people. Get to know your tutor group and discuss issues such as public speaking – perhaps in private with students who are unsure of their skills. Where students have such difficulties you should take care not to
- insist on students reading aloud
- ask for presentations without due warning
- expect a student to read an article at speed in order to discuss it
- expect students to participate in a discussion without some preparation.
Managing confidential information
Some students have difficulties which are not obvious to others and that they do not want to draw attention to. In this case the pain and tiredness they may feel are not generally understood or discussed. There may be occasions when students miss a session or are late, but it is essential that any issues arising from this are discussed privately and the student is given the confidence to say how much they wish others to know about their condition.
Your institution is likely to have policy and procedures on managing confidential information relating to disability that have been developed to meet the requirements of the DDA. You need to understand these procedures and be confident about applying them.
You may need to brief visiting lecturers and other guests on how best to work with your students. The amount of information you give to others on individual students must be discussed and agreed upon by the student.
Facilitating participation
A tutor or lecturer’s role in encouraging and facilitating participation is vital, and may be all the more important where a student finds it hard to communicate, or is left out of groupings because of physical barriers. Some matters need to be discussed with the student beforehand. For example, a student who is unable to raise an arm when a reply to a question is required can arrange with you to use another form of alert. Consider seating arrangements too. The inclusive nature of a horse shoe style setting where tables are abandoned and chairs are set in a semicircle can be very helpful.
Allowing time for questions may sound a simple request, but when speech is slow or unclear it can be frustrating for both sides and repetition may be required. Some students depend on an alternative or augmentative communication aid (AAC) or a voice output communication aid (VOCA). The speech output may be clear, but considerable time is required for the answer to be generated a symbol or word at a time. We tend to speak ten times faster than can be achieved using a communication aid.
When dividing groups of students into teams for project work or presentations check that disabled students have clear roles to play.
Group work should be rewarding and challenging for all students. You may need to help disabled students negotiate their role and tasks within the group. In some circumstances it is beneficial to have a very open discussion with the group so that they understand any functional limitations associated with a student’s disability, while allowing the disabled student to take a full role. A light touch is essential and any such discussion must be done in negotiation with the student.
You may need to facilitate discussion in seminars as, for example, if a blind student cannot see the body language and interactions of the other students, or if they do not know who is speaking, they may not feel comfortable about participating. Judging when to interrupt or take a turn in discussion can be particularly difficult and stressful. Encourage all students to take turns speaking and to introduce themselves by name when they speak.
Communication issues
Do not stand with your back to the window or in deep shadow. Lighting is very important for visually impaired students and those who are lip-reading.
Eliminate background noise as far as possible and speak clearly.
Allow the use of equipment that supports communication in lectures or seminars, such as tape recorders, a laptop computer or an electronic Braille note taker.
Some students may work with an assistant who takes notes for them, or works with them to give presentations.
It is not appropriate or necessary to include a student’s study support specialist in academic discussions - they are simply there to do a job of work for the student.
Any text or diagrams written on the board or on overhead projections or given in PowerPoint presentations should also be read aloud.
Talk through any calculations and describe graphs and charts, and also make sure this information is also available to the student in their preferred accessible format.
New or unusual vocabulary should be spelled out.
When using visual aids, allow extra (silent) time for students to look at or read what is being presented before you talk about it.
You may need to allow extra time in discussions in order to allow all students to contribute. The University of Wolverhampton’s guidance, Learning, teaching and assessment: A guide to good practice for staff teaching d/Deaf students discusses this issue.
Audio-visual aids
Audio–visual aids can form an important part of your teaching as they provide deaf students with an additional opportunity to see or read information. To maximise the benefits remember that
- students cannot look at visual information at the same time as they are lip-reading, working with a sign language interpreter or lipspeaker
- dimming the lights for audio–visual presentations makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the deaf student to lip-read or see the interpreter
- information presented aurally where there are no subtitles or assistance from support staff is inaccessible to the deaf student.
Provide focused lighting so that the interpreter or lipspeaker is visible to a deaf student when the room lights are dimmed.
Ensure that any off-air recordings you make to support your course use a VCR that can record embedded subtitles.
If you use commercial videos try to ensure that they have embedded subtitles and use a caption decoder. Films on DVD usually have a subtitle option.
Provide transcripts in advance of your presentation if subtitles are not available, or encourage students to borrow a copy of the video beforehand so that they can watch it with their interpreter. Students can then prepare themselves to participate equally in the class.
