Digital education for students with disabilities

Disability Support Services is able to adjust the decision on support for a student to suit digital education; however, as the situation puts both students and staff under pressure, a certain degree of flexibility is necessary.

Please contact the coordinator for the relevant faculty if you would like advice and support with regard to adaptations and accessibility for digital education. You can find the contact information in the "Contact" section.

When on-campus exams become take-home exams

Students with a recommendation for extended time on on-campus exams may also need this for take-home exams.  

Disability Support Services can grant new recommendations at short notice, however, we ask those of you in charge in the prevailing circumstances, to allow extended time for take-home exams as well, despite it not currently being stated in the decision on support for the student.

It may be hard to ascertain how much time is needed in each individual case. Disability Support Services recommend that you, as a course director, talk to the student or that a standardised number of days be determined. At many faculties, it is already common to offer 1-2 additional days for planned take-home exams. However, this naturally depends on the length of the exam.

When exams are written at home

Some students will find it harder to concentrate when they are writing at home, where there are many more distractions than during an on-campus exam.

In cases when an on-campus exam is written at home instead, but with the same time allotted, the course director may need to add an additional hour, given the concentration and attention difficulties of some students, in addition to any ordinary extra time.  

General advice for digital education

Students who find it hard to plan and structure their studies via digital education may be helped by

• clear instructions on what is to be done. It is a good idea to provide these both orally and in writing.
• dividing large assignments into several smaller components.
• clarity with regard to how the course structure has changed and which areas of the required reading are particularly important. All students do not have the same ability to skim through information to find what is more or less important. This becomes even harder in a more isolated study situation
• digital exam feedback and the opportunity to ask questions before and during exams in cases where exams are changed considerably in relation to what is expected
• contact information on the learning platforms
• access to pre-recorded lectures instead of only live-streamed ones. This way, the students can go back and watch the lectures again.

The value of personal contact

There is an increased need for feedback from teaching staff in digital education. It is important to maintain contact to avoid isolation and student dropouts. Students who have a disability may be anxious in these circumstances, and some of them belong to the risk group.

It is recommended that you maintain regular contact with all students and, in particular, with students who have reported that they have a disability. They are in a vulnerable situation.

It is a good idea to encourage students to set up their own digital meetings to stay in touch and to keep up their motivation to study.