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Thriving in Academe
Tales from Real Life

From Disability Service Provider to University Professor

Ten years ago, I found myself in the role of disability service provider, talking to university professors about how to meet the needs of students with disabilities.

Today, I find myself in the role of a university professor wondering how I can meet the needs of all the students in my classroom. When I was helping faculty figure out how to meet the needs of students with a range of disabilities from visual and physical impairments to Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD, and obsessive compulsive disorder, I had no idea that one day I would be thinking about how to address these issues in my own classroom.

Over the years, I have found that the best tool I can employ is Universal Design for Instruction. As issues arise in the classroom, I find myself uniting my knowledge of learning theory and my training and experience working with students with disabilities to emphasize the importance of creativity and flexibility.

When I think about course design and assessment, I find myself thinking about how a variety of students can encode, retrieve, and illustrate the knowledge they have learned. In my classes, I bring the content knowledge, the students bring their experience, and together we create the magical experience of a learning community.

—Alexa Darby
Elon University

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