Peer Review

Barrier-Free Education

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Highschool and college level laboratory experiments are discussed and
demonstrated with accommodations given for students with a variety of
disabilities. The project group gives advice for how the science laboratory can
be made accessable to students with disabilities.
Type of Material:: Tutorial, and guide.
Recommended Uses:: This material should be included in science teacher preparation classes so that
future teachers will be prepared - knowing there is special equipment and
resources available to help them accomodate special needs students. It is well
proven in the natural and life sciences that instruction without the laboratory
limits the learning of the student.
Technical Requirements:: Must register for access to lesson plans and other materials that are
copyrighted.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The resource explain to faculty the types of accomodations needed for
different types of special needs students.
Target Student Population:: Pre-service, in-service teachers, university and college science faculty who
work with students with mobility, vision, and hearing impariments.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: A knowledge of disability categories, specifically visually impaired, hearing
impaired, specific learning disabilities, and students with mobility issues.

Rating:
Strengths:: The materials provided were very good when it comes to making suggestions for
how the laboratory can be made accessible. The information given was accurate
and well presented. The authors of the project also provided excellent
resources for equipment that can be purchased for use in the laboratory that
meets ADA guidelines.

They also went beyond just giving resources, they also followed best practices
for how to use these materials and how to address the learning needs of the
students with a disability.

The information about how to access free software features of the computer for
use with students who have a disability, was excellent. Assistive Technology
was presented in a very real and clear way.

A major strength of the project is the links to resource materials such as the
American Chemical Society Committee on Chemists with Disabilities Teaching
Chemistry to Students with Disabilities by Thomas J. Kucera, Editor, August
1993 (3rd Edition) as well as links to vendors of special equipment and to
articles and stories to help both teachers
and students with special needs find ways to access lab science learning.
Concerns:: One concern is that the site will require on-going maintainance as computer
technology changes quite rapidly.

Rating:
Strengths:: The authors presented the material with excellent care and detail. Their
knowledge of the sciences, adaptive laboratory devices, and the uniquness of the
learner with a disability was excellent.

The authors guided the viewer through different phases of accommodations and
adaptations, with a well thought out sequence of instructions. This will make
it easier for the viewer to use the information.

Phone numbers for a great variety of assistive science lab-related projects are
listed at
http://barrier-free.arch.gatech.edu/Research/upcoming.html so a good use of this
material would be to have students make a plan and, perhaps, a budget for what
is needed to accomodate a specific student with a special need into a lab
science class. The material is too vast to cover all of the resources, and yet
having a teacher go through a scenario will give them confidence and help them
plan ahead to advocate for a student with special needs who will certainly be in
a lab class the teacher will teach some day.
Concerns:: The access to the copyrighted material would have been a big plus.

Rating:
Strengths:: The material is easy to use from both a teaching and learning perspective. The
navigation structure is not always consistent and appears to be in a process of
reorganization.
Concerns:: Some resources include copyright materials and so access is password protected.
No accessability to the copyrighted material is provided. The registration page
did
not work.

Other Issues and Comments:: This is an excellent resource for the viewers. As faculty in Special Education
and General Education are pressed to provide the student with a disability
access to the general curriculum (either at the K-12 level or at the
university/college level) information and instruction such as contained in this
site will be invaluable. The material this site provides is not readily
available and we thank the authors for sharing!
Creative Commons: