Virtual College Degrees: What Disabled Students Should Know

One of the best things about Virtual college degrees is its accessibility. This gives students with special needs and disabilities a chance to learn in an environment that is safe, comfortable, and that best suits their needs. Although online college degrees do offer a lot of special advantages for disabled students it is still worth weighing the pros and cons of learning online. Here are some tips to consider before opting to take an online course to cater to your disability.

1. Not All Online Courses Are Accessible To Every Type of Disability

Sometimes it takes a little effort to access all your course materials if you have a certain disability. Hearing-impaired students may need to report the lack of captions on a lecture video or request for a transcript of an audio file. If you experience the lack of these captions and transcripts immediately report the problem to your professor or someone in charge to get the problem fixed as soon as possible.

2. Submit An Accommodation Letter Concerning Your Disability To Your Instructor

Not all instructors will have the means to accommodate individual needs during their lectures if they are not informed in advance. Accommodation will take some time to arrange especially if it requires printed text for blind students or an extended time during tests for other students. Speak to someone at your disability resources office to know more about the procedure for submitting an accommodation letter.

3. Accommodations Do Not Guarantee A Passing Grade

Although virtual college degrees will give students with disabilities accommodations this is not an unfair advantage that will guarantee success. Accommodations help level the learning field when it comes to access to resources, learning materials, and classes.

4. Test The Course Using Your Assistive Device Beforehand

To ensure that you learn and benefit from all the classes properly test out any device you need before the class starts. This includes testing homework upload options, exam location accessibility, and other links and videos you will need for class. If you find any issues you can address them with the help of an instructor before the class starts.

5. Questioning The Captioning

Although most will claim that their captioning of a video is near perfect it is very rare to catch every word being said by the speaker. Even the best-captioned videos will have a few mistakes. Take this into consideration when relying on captions for learning materials.

Closing the Unemployment Gap Using Technology

Although people with certain disabilities are protected by law (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) there is still a large percentage of disabled people who are unemployed. By using the resources offered by online education and the convenience and flexibility it offers, people with disabilities are given a chance to increase their technical fluency. This is an important skill that many employers value today and gives you a better chance of getting a job after obtaining a degree. Use this opportunity of learning online to give yourself an advantage when entering the workforce in the near future.

Virtual college degrees opens up opportunities for everyone, even for those who are physically challenged. Learn how you can make most of college degrees online at www.bestonline.college.