What are accommodations?

An accommodation, sometimes also referred to as an “adaptation,” is any change or adjustment to teaching methods or the learning environment that allows a student with a disability to participate fully in school activities. Accommodations are designed to level the playing field. It’s important to understand that they do not provide an unfair advantage; rather, they are a necessary support system to help children with dyslexia achieve their full potential.

When considering accommodations, you should ask yourself “Does my child’s work match their potential?” If the answer is no, you may want to ask the school to put accommodations in place to help fix this issue.

Purpose of accommodations

Learning in all subjects happens through reading and writing. When a child struggles with reading and writing, make sure these challenges don’t affect their overall learning. For many students with dyslexia, early reading problems can lead to difficulties in other subjects and a dislike of school. Effective use of accommodations can help them stay on track and engaged.

Even for students with dyslexia who can read and write, doing so can often be more time consuming and mentally taxing than it is for other students. Some will manage to meet grade-level expectations by putting in a lot of extra effort, but this can lead to frustration, stress, and burnout. This added pressure can affect their mental health, increasing the risk of anxiety and low self-esteem. Using accommodations can help reduce this stress by making their work more efficient and less demanding.

When are accommodations appropriate?

When considering accommodations, think about the purpose of the task your child is completing. If the goal is to understand or improve reading, writing, or spelling skills, the child should complete the task independently. For example, during reading screening, your child may be asked to read a grade-level passage aloud to an educator for a set amount of time. Since the purpose of this task is to understand your child’s reading skills to help plan instruction and intervention, accommodations such as assistive technology or extra time are not appropriate or beneficial. Similarly, if the purpose of the activity is to teach or practice spelling skills, students should participate without using assistive technology to strengthen their skills.

On the other hand, if the goal of a task is to learn about a topic or to determine what your child has learned about a topic, accommodations can be appropriate and beneficial. For example, if the teacher assigns a reading about ecosystems and your child doesn’t yet have the skills necessary to read that text, or if completing the reading would take them a very long time, giving them the option to listen rather than read the text is an appropriate accommodation. Similarly, if the goal of the task is to evaluate what your child has learned about ecosystems, then completing the assignment or test using a computer with voice-to-text technology and being provided extra time would be appropriate.

Accommodations are not a substitute for intervention

We often hear from families who are frustrated because their child’s school will provide accommodations but will not provide effective intervention to help their child improve their reading and writing skills. This was a theme in the OHRC Right to Read Inquiry, which warned that accommodations are not a substitute for intervention, and also advised that accommodations should be implemented alongside effective intervention.