Narrator: Science is possible for everyone.
DO-IT Scholars Can tell you how.
Maria: It's real helpful for kids like us with disabilities when teachers are flexible.
Nguyen: It is very important to include every student
in an activity, if they be disabled or not.
Travis: Just help out, give information when needed;
I don't appreciate secretive instructors very much.
John Paul: I want them to know that...
that I can do anything.
Narrator: DO-IT stands for Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology.
Students in the program learn to be successful themselves,
becoming experts on their own accommodation needs.
Then, they share their experiences with others.
Here, DO-IT participants show how students with disabilities
and science teachers can work together in learning partnerships,
multiplying the possibilities for academic and career success.
Students can help teachers to develop creative alternatives
for gaining and demonstrating knowledge.
First, we'll look at:
Anna: It's really important for a science teacher who has visually impaired students
in their class, to, first of all, describe anything that needs to be described.
So, if they draw something on the board or overhead, describe it as best as they can,
and then provide the student with a copy of the drawing to either be drawn tactilely or enlarged
so they can see it and see what the drawing looks like.
Eric: The computer has made doing school work a lot easier.
The computer I use has a voice output.
It is also helpful for doing research over the network.
Nhi: The instrument that I use in school to do my work is a magnifier,
and a binocular to see the blackboard.
The overhead I won't be able to see well because of the light reflection.
So, the overhead isn't really helpful.
It's helpful if the teacher explains or says what he or she write on the blackboard.
Shawnna: I have Muscular Dystrophy, and I use large print books to see the print better.
Kris: When I am in any class, including science classes, I always inform the teacher
or professor that I do indeed have a vision impairment and so they're not surprised if I ask
for something a little different than normal.
If they do have an extremely small handout, I will ask that it be enlarged.
Katie: I have a hearing impairment.
In a science lab, I prefer written instructions from the teacher, or handouts,
so that I can virtually see it and not have to concentrate so hard
on listening and get every single step.
I also like it when the teacher writes instructions
on the blackboard or overhead projector.
It makes it a lot easier for me to understand what's going on in the class.
Lloyd: Sometimes I need a sign language interpreter.
A lot of times I use a FM system which lets me hear the teacher only.
And I have a receiver which goes directly into my hearing aids.
Rachel: I had a stroke, which paralyzed me on the right side of my body.
And... just this whole thing affected my memory and just how
to get concepts of things and stuff like that.
If a teacher could give me visual things to look at and even touch, that helps me so much better.
Lectures do not help at all, 'cause I need to see things.
And just... that helps with the concepts.
Katharine: My disability is LD, which is a learning disability
and it affects me in that I am a very slow reader.
I read every single word individually and process it,
and so obviously the speed does not increase.
And so hopefully, the computer can sort of take over my mother's job
in that I can increase the speed that it reads to me,
and so I can increase the speed of my reading.
Mark: When you have a disability like I have, it's hard...
it's hard to write everything down that you need to write down.
It would be nice if I could...
if there were a computer at my disposal that I could use to write things down with
and the that I could view things through instead of having to always have somebody pull something
out for me or do something for me; I can just do it on my own.
Nguyen: I am very interested in space.
With the Internet, I can access NASA's big computers
and get pictures from their telescopes in space.
Zachary: The main point that I think s really critical for a science professor to know is
that a lot of the adaptations can be done right within the laboratory itself,
and that the professor has the knowledge, with a little extra effort, to make those adaptations
so that the laboratory is accessible.
Anna: The teacher shouldn't feel like it's all up to them.
It's very much a cooperation between the student and the teacher.
Narrator: There are many ways to gain information
but the most important element is good communication between teachers and students.
Learning styles and accommodation needs vary.
Once lessons are learned, students have to show that they understand the material.
For students with disabilities, there can be challenges involved in:
Jenny: Science labs are normally pretty difficult
for me unless they have a shorter workstation and the microscopes can tip and whatnot.
Travis: Like, I have had to have a stool so I can get up to the lab tables to work
on the things., or to wear an apron, I couldn't wear one, so they had to staple and kind
of hem up an apron so I could use it.
But, that's all I really required.
But often it's only little things that people require
so that they can participate just like anyone else.
Erofei: I'm an amputee.
And the main advice I'd give to a science teacher is to put me with a partner
when we do labs, because some of the things I can't do, and they can help me out with it.
Randy: I need less labs that deal with colors.
A lot of the labs say, you know, watch for the color change.
I can't do that.
laughs: So, change of shape, or heat, or texture I can do easy.
They would make science, you know, a lot more interesting for me.
Mike: The hardest part in a science lab is writing the information
down about the lab and lab results.
It's better if I have time to go home that night and do that on my computer,
or have someone else write it for me.
The computer helps me because it has a spellcheck and a grammar check
and can be read easier than my handwriting because my handwriting's bad.
Shawwna: I can't write at all with my hands, so I use the computer
to write my papers and communicate to other people.
Randy: A lot of the time I get my, like, worksheets and stuff like that for school
on Braille or on tape, and if I could get them over the computer, it would be a lot easier;
if teachers would just send me, for example, over email, a worksheet.
I could work on it with the computer then send it right back.
Megan: My disability is Lyme disease and it's affected my immune system
and my energy level a lot, so it's been hard going to school; and in the past I've had
to be home-schooled a lot; and about the only adaptation I need
for a science lab would be flexibility in the scheduling and a flexible teacher,
because I may need a different time than the class set time.
Katharine: I take at least twice as long.
Whenever a teachers gives a quota of the amount of time you should spend on homework,
I automatically double it because I know it'll take that long.
Narrator: In a written test or a lab situation,
each student will have individual challenges involved in proving knowledge.
Some common arrangements could include:
alternatives to standard equipment,
It just takes a little bit of creativity, patience,
and common sense to allow every student to participate in class.
Zachary: A lot of the time, the student has to prepare ahead of time so that he
or she knows what to expect and then to sit down one on one with the instructor and to go
over the points and see how they can adapt the experiment ahead of time.
And it's important that the professor tries to come up with ideas as well as the student.
Katharine: I can do it, just be patient, I can do it.
And I really enjoy it.
And so just be aware of what's there and work with it.
And so far my teachers have been really great about that.
Anna: I think it's very important that science teachers understand that people
with disabilities can do science.
We have the intelligence and the capabilities to do it.
And it's important that we're exposed to science just like people without disabilities are
so that we can better make choices about the rest of our life, like what career we want
to go into and what we want to study.