Resources for Supporting Students With and Without Disabilities in Your Physics Courses

Abstract

All students deserve access to effective, equitable physics education. Postsecondary faculty have been shown to be unprepared to support students with disabilities in their classes, and popular, research-based introductory physics curricula do not adequately plan for variations in learners’ needs, abilities, and interests. It is urgent to address this disparity because students with disabilities are enrolling in postsecondary education at increasing rates and enroll in STEM degree programs at steady rates. Specifically, in 2014, the National Center on Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) found that 10.5% of students enrolled in science and engineering degree programs identified with a disability. The purpose of this paper is to provide resources that instructors can use in their classes to promote accessibility and support all learners. In this paper we: 1) provide a brief review of the literature related to supporting students with disabilities in the context of STEM; 2) describe Universal Design for Learning, which is a design framework intended to encourage development of curricula that support all learners; and 3) provide a list of resources that physics instructors can use to increase support for students with disabilities.