Some Terms That Employers Might Find Helpful

Accommodation

In order to assist people with learning disabilities to reach their potential, there are two key requirements. These are:

1. the development of coping skills on the part of the person with learning disabilities. In order to acquire these, the person must be aware of his/her strengths and weaknesses, individual learning style and level of ability in the best conditions.

2. the availability of appropriate accommodation to match the learning disabled person's coping skills.

The issue of accommodation usually arises in two specific areas: educational settings and in the field of employment.

It is usually not too difficult to deal with the issue of accommodation, if the concerns of the employer and/or educational institutions are identified. These concerns tend to focus in the following areas:

• safety,

• Cost,

• effects on co-workers or fellow students,

• industrial relations or union implications,

• impact upon the integrity of the institution.

For example, in an educational setting, lowering the pass mark for a course by 10% clearly interferes with the integrity of the course. On the other hand, allowing the student to tape lectures is a minor modification that is unlikely to be considered "unfair" by others.

It is often very helpful if the individual with a learning disability is able to identify the required accommodation and put it forward before any problems arise.

Accommodations for learning disabilities may include:

• assistive devices, such as calculators, word processors, tape recorders,

• extra time for the completion of tasks, including examinations in an educational setting ú information and direction provided both orally and in writing

• a working environment that is reasonably free from distractions

• a clear indication of the skills required to carry out the tasks or job in order to avoid surprises

• a learner/employee support and guidance program, in case problems arise

Job Coach

A job coach is someone who works with an individual in a work environment to assist this person to work satisfactorily and reliably in that placement. Job coaches can be extremely helpful for people with disabilities. Unfortunately, the provision of a job coach to help the person with learning disabilities to gain success on the job is very rare. Job coaches are often funded through the provision of funds from the Ministry of Community and Social Services and most commonly support those who have a developmental disability.

Learned Helplessness

This is a term that we use to describe persons who attribute their success or failure to outside sources, and who feel that they have no control over anything that happens to them. They allow others to act for them and state quite often that they are helpless. Many people with learning disabilities were allowed to feel helpless as children and weren't encouraged to take control of their lives as they grew up. Learners who show this kind of an attitude will have trouble assuming responsibility for their own lives, unless they are actively helped to do so. It is important that they are helped to understand the link between their own efforts and their success.

Metacognition

This word means "thinking" or "knowing about thinking" - in other words, knowing how we can regulate our own learning and thinking processes. Many people know this instinctively. Others, including many with learning disabilities, need to be helped to understand how they can assume responsibility for their own learning.

Once they understand how they can learn, then they must be encouraged to get into the habit of applying such metacognitive techniques to all aspects of their daily lives.

Print-handicap

An individual who is unable to read as a result of a physically or neurologically based disability is traditionally considered to be print handicapped. The term usually excludes individuals who are unable to read as a result of developmental disabilities. Individuals who are identified as print-handicapped are able to access taped books as a form of accommodation. For secondary and post-secondary students such books are made available through the W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind in Brantford .

Remediation/Rehabilitation

This term means the reteaching of what has not been learned at the usual time and in the usual way. Remediation is usually meant for those who have been exposed to formal instruction in the past, but have failed to learn. The reason for this failure may or may not be known and may include learning disabilities. It is often noted that the individuals have learned "something". However their level of knowledge and their skills may be so patchy, that it will be hard to build upon such shaky foundations. It is then very important that diagnostic techniques be used to identify what they know, what areas of learning they cannot handle at this time and what learning style(s) suit their needs best.

Remediation, coping and compensation are complimentary strategies that can be used together. Remediation is sometimes called rehabilitation, especially in non-educational settings.

Undue hardship

The Ontario Human Rights Code requires that the special needs of individuals with a handicap, which includes learning disabilities, be accommodated.

Such accommodation may be denied if the individual or organization of whom the accommodation has been requested can prove that the requested accommodation would cause undue hardship in terms of cost and finances or health and safety requirements.

When it comes to the accommodation of learning disabilities, there are no forms of accommodation that would endanger the health and safety of others, nor is it likely that the cost would be so excessive that it would alter "the essential nature or would substantially affect the viability of the enterprise responsible for the accommodation".

When looking at the issue of accommodation of disabilities within an educational setting, the question of lowered standards is often raised. Lowered standards in terms of lower pass marks or reduced expectations are not considered to be accommodations of a disability. On the other hand, appropriate modifications of the pace of teaching, e.g. a reduced course load, or of the evaluation process, e.g. extra time for the writing of examinations do not interfere with the integrity of the educational program or the institution in question. Similar considerations will also apply in employment settings.