Hey teachers! We see you creating your visual schedules, getting your curriculum ready, and rounding up donations of markers and tissues. We see you taking a deep breath and getting ready to resume the juggling act of teaching, memorizing new names and faces, remembering accommodations for students with IEPs and 504s, communicating with parents, and maintaining a shred of sanity all at the same time. One thing we can make a little easier for you is the work of creating an accessible classroom.
Here are some practices we’ve gathered to help you create a space that will support your students with disabilities and your typical learners too. Read on or jump right to the one you want.
- Normalize conversations about what different bodies need
- Collaborate with your students and families to understand what they need
- Think about how people move around your space
- Address sensory needs
- Provide information in multiple ways
But first… What is an accessible classroom?
What we’re talking about here is the way you use your physical space and how you model for your students that their physical needs are real and important.
As a teacher, we know you have spent a lot of time reading your students’ IEPs and you have experience managing accommodations. But accessibility is broader than accommodations. We love this description from the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning at Indiana University in Bloomington:
“While an accommodation removes barriers for an individual, accessibility aims to create inclusive circumstances for all students.”
“Inclusive circumstances for all students” can look different depending on the age of your students and many other factors. But, for every student, inclusion is closely tied to a feeling of belonging – and feeling like we belong is an important piece of what helps us be ready to learn.
As we’ve talked to educators around the country, we’ve identified some practices that benefit just about every student.
How do you create an inclusive classroom?
1. Normalize conversations about what different bodies need
It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking about sensory needs mainly for autistic students and those with ADHD, who often have big sensory needs. But the reality is that we all have sensory needs, and talking about this openly can help students understand themselves better and develop empathy for other students whose needs may be different from their own.
If you have a classroom of young children, you may be in the habit of doing this already. But older kids (and adults!) need this too.
When you normalize these conversations, you may start to see:
- Students asking for what they need before melting down (this is great self-advocacy!)
- Students suggesting strategies to each other when they notice signs of sensory overload
- More trust between you and your students because they feel like you understand them
- Quicker recovery when students get overwhelmed
You can plan discussions or activities around accessibility and sensory needs, read books together about them, or watch videos. But normalizing sensory needs can also be as straightforward as saying things like “I think we all need to move our bodies for a minute so we can get focused again,” or inviting everyone to take 5 deep breaths and asking them to pay attention to how their bodies feel afterwards.
2. Collaborate with your students and families.
Your students and their families are the experts in what they need. Enlist them in figuring out what you can do in your classroom to support them.
Reach out to your students with disabilities to ask what’s helpful to them. You may be surprised to know it’s not always what you think.
Here are some ways you can get this information for all of your students:
- Add a question on student profile sheets that families fill out at the beginning of the year. You might ask something like “What helps your child focus when their energy is too high or too low?”
- Ask your students to tell you at the beginning of the year. Younger children might draw you pictures. Older children may write something for you or join in a classroom brainstorm.
- Talk to parents about this at parent-teacher conferences, IEP meetings, and during Open House.
3. Think about how people move around your space.
Students with wheelchairs need pathways between desks or tables that are about 3 feet wide, even when (ahem) students forget to push in their chairs. But students who use smaller mobility devices like walkers or crutches, and those who struggle with balance, also need clear paths and plenty of space.
Build a habit starting on day 1 that everyone stores backpacks in lockers, cubbies, or the backs of chairs so no one has to move them out of the way to get through the room. If you teach young children who stay in one classroom for most of the day, it may be helpful to designate several students as “Pathway Leaders.” They can be in charge of making sure these routes stay clear.
When you design interactive activities, make sure the materials and the way students are moving around are accessible:
- Students who might have a mobility device, a service dog, or physical disabilities need to be able to get from point A to point B even when people are moving around the classroom.
- Deaf or hard of hearing students will need a clear line of sight to ASL interpreters and to the faces of the people in their small groups.
- Students who struggle with auditory processing – or any student who gets distracted – may need to see instructions again in writing or demonstrated when they get to their new destination
Bonus! Wide, clear pathways create a sense of order and calm in your classroom that benefits everyone.
4. Address sensory needs
As a teacher, you likely have a good handle on when and where your students can use fidgets and, if you teach small children, you may even have a “sensory corner” already set up in your classroom. We love this way of normalizing the fact that we all need to be able to regulate our energy and our bodies in order to learn.
While you may have students whose IEPs call for sensory regulation strategies, the great news is that you can implement many of these strategies for any student in your classroom and create a better experience for everyone.
Sometimes teachers have understandable concerns about whether these strategies will be disruptive – and they can be! But it’s helpful to remember many of the current disruptions in your classroom are due to dysregulation, so addressing sensory needs directly can help with your classroom management.
Chances are you are already doing some of these things with some of your students. Try building them into your everyday strategies and watch how well your students do.
Here are some (budget-friendly) ways to address sensory needs:
- Create a “hiding space” in a comfortable corner. Even a large scarf stretched out a few feet from the floor can give a child a sense of privacy when they are overwhelmed.
- Request adjustable-height tables or standing desks – or bring in some boot boxes to put on the existing tables so students can stand if they need to.
- Allow for sensory-friendly seating – stretch an exercise band across the rungs of a chair so children can push against it or swing their legs while seated. Or offer yoga balls and wiggle discs for students to sit on. Allow students who need to stand to move to the back of the room.
- Build in movement breaks. Try 60 seconds of structured wiggling (even for high school students). Or a 5 minute Rock Paper Scissors tournament. One of my kids’ elementary teachers used to send him to the school secretary with a folded note that said “movement break.”
- Build in calming breaks. Try a quick group exercise like 5,4,3,2,1 to get students re-centered and re-grounded on a day when the energy is too high.
5. Provide information in multiple ways
As an educator, you probably already know that students miss a lot of what you say. This can be related to disabilities. Students may be hard of hearing, struggle with auditory processing, or be overwhelmed by the sensory environment. But we also know that classrooms can be loud and everyone gets distracted and tired. And once they start moving around for an activity they can lose track of what they’re doing during the transition.
Here are some simple ways of making sure your message is heard:
- Make sure you have your instructions in writing, even when you’re also giving them out loud.
- Repeat questions that your students ask. This is helpful for slower processors and anyone who missed the question the first time, regardless of why.
- Use live captions for remote sessions and closed captions for videos.
- Use visual schedules, even in classrooms with older students.
Creating an accessible classroom takes some planning and thought. But the great news is that you already have most of the tools you need to do it. And when you adopt some of these strategies into your classroom days, you’ll find that it’s a win for everyone. Have a great year!
Learn more:
- Exceptional Lives Professional Development: Understanding the SPED Process for General Educators (and more!)
- How can teachers support students with disabilities? Advice from a graduate
- Working with parents of students with disabilities: 4 ways for schools to earn families’ trust
- How to teach self-advocacy to your students with disabilities
- What is sensory processing? And can it help explain my child’s behavior?
