Faculty Experiences with Technology Integration and Students with Disabilities

Schmid, Richard, McWhaw, Katherine and Bissonnette, Leo

In the fall of 2001 and winter 2002 semesters, the CSLP and Services for Disabled Students at Concordia University, undertook a research study aimed at finding out how faculty have been taking into the account the needs of students with disabilities as they integrate technology into their courses. We sent out 900 questionnaires via internal mail to faculty who had at least one student with a disability registered in their courses. One hundred and sixty-six faculty members completed the questionnaire representing a participation rate of 18%. Eighty-three percent of the professors who responded to the questionnaire reported using technology in their courses such as using e-mail to communicate with students, showing videos or PowerPoint demonstrations in class, to having a course website.

When asked how they had taken into account the needs of their students with disabilities when developing the technologies used in their courses, 72% reported that they had not considered the needs of these students while 16.5% reported partially taking into account the needs of their disabled students. Twelve percent reported definitely taking into account the needs of their disabled students. Less than 1% of professors had been trained in how to use adaptive technology in their courses but 49% reported that they would like to receive this type of training. Only a small number of professors reported that they would like to receive a workshop on disabilities and technology integration. The majority of professors who specified the type of training they were interested in mentioned just-in-time hands on training to meet the needs of a particular student registered in their course.

The next phase of our research will be focused on how to inform and motivate faculty to take into account the needs of their students with disabilities as they integrate technology into their courses.