<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>While it is recognised that the numbers of students needing accessibility supports and accommodations are increasing exponentially, research on accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic is still sparse. The purpose of the current study was to explore special education teachers’ accommodation practices at secondary schools before and during the unprecedented time of COVID-19. To better understand the experiences of participating teachers, we engaged seven teachers from a prairie province in Canada with one-on-one online semi-structured interviews. Teachers who offered accommodations to students before COVID-19 used a range of accommodations such as general technologies and assistive technology that fall into major categories of accommodations as defined by research. Evidence from this study indicates that some teachers delivered learning packages to homes or taught online classes during school closures, while some teachers did not. Teachers who taught remotely changed some of their accommodation practices during the school closures because in-person classes were switched to online learning. The implications for professional development are also discussed in this paper.</p>
</abstract>

While it is recognised that the numbers of students needing accessibility supports and accommodations are increasing exponentially, research on accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic is still sparse. The purpose of the current study was to explore special education teachers’ accommodation practices at secondary schools before and during the unprecedented time of COVID-19. To better understand the experiences of participating teachers, we engaged seven teachers from a prairie province in Canada with one-on-one online semi-structured interviews. Teachers who offered accommodations to students before COVID-19 used a range of accommodations such as general technologies and assistive technology that fall into major categories of accommodations as defined by research. Evidence from this study indicates that some teachers delivered learning packages to homes or taught online classes during school closures, while some teachers did not. Teachers who taught remotely changed some of their accommodation practices during the school closures because in-person classes were switched to online learning. The implications for professional development are also discussed in this paper.

Secondary special education teachers’ experience with accessibility supports and accommodations before and during COVID-19

Research on Education and Media

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

While it is recognised that the numbers of students needing accessibility supports and accommodations are increasing exponentially, research on accommodations...

Secondary special education teachers’ experience with accessibility supports and accommodations before and during COVID-19

Published Online: Dec 15, 2022

Page range: 64 - 70

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rem-2022-0023

Keywords
secondary school, special educational needs, teaching practice

© 2022 Pei-Ying Lin, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Secondary special education teachers’ experience with accessibility supports and accommodations before and during COVID-19

Published Online: Dec 15, 2022

Page range: 64 - 70

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rem-2022-0023

Keywordssecondary school, special educational needs, teaching practice

© 2022 Pei-Ying Lin, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
secondary school, special educational needs, teaching practice