Thread by @p01arst0rm, so the new climate of remote learning, telling students what they can [...]

so the new climate of remote learning, telling students what they can and cannot wear, what their work environments need to be like etc its interesting to me as a person with ADHD

it more clearly shows something that i've known for years ;- teacher do not rate engagement on student feedback. you are expected to perform as if you are engaged and are learning, even if that is not the case.

you may not understand anything whatsoever but as you shut up, look smart, and seem to be paying attention, teachers can trick themselves into thinking theyre doing their job correctly

the reason why ADHD is clased as a """""learning disability""""" is just because the environment of schools very obviously puts to light the effects it has on someone

you have a zero tolerance boundary for distractions, confusing speech, badly explained concepts, or interference of any kind

when it comes to adhd things that you dont even THINK are related have catastrophic impacts on your learning

like for instance the clothes you are wearing. are they itchy? is the fabric uncomfortable? well congratulations now youre no longer focusing on the lesson

another fun one for me what kind of pen/pencil/paper i was using. different writing equipment has a huge impact on readability and writing speed. cant write fast with a fountain pen? you'll get left behind.

this translates into the virtual classrooms because teachers cannot necessarily see whether students are still writing down things they just said, or are ready to move on. this makes them much likely to move on to the next topic faster, leaving slower writers SOL.

another huge thing for me whether the teacher speaks at a whiteboard or facing you. if the teacher speaks facing away from you, their voice will be muffled slightly, and for auditory processing issues this is a killer.

if you talk facing someone it allows them to lip read, and much better projects your voice towards them, substantially improving the quality of the prose

i've seen some virtual classrooms where the teacher/professor just points a camera at their whiteboard just writing things up. this is a huge problem because most consumer microphones are directional to some extent.

This results in your voice not being picked up, getting clipped, etc. then add audio compression on top of that, and you have a pretty good analogue for auditory processing disabilities

the funny thing is right

anyone with ADHD will attest that teachers give zero fucks
about accommodating you.

speak facing you? why

repeat something i just said? how about you stop being rude and listen to me

dont talk while students are writing? you should stop messing around and hurry up with your work

want a copy of the slides because you missed what they said in lesson? hahahaha

the complete stubbornness of the education system to make education accessible has come home to roost, and its not looking good.

and thats before we get into things like access to an internet connection/working computer, having to buy stationary to use at home instead of poorer students being able to rely more on the school for stuff like that

also ADHD is not a "learning disability" and im sick and fucking tired of being told that. i've self taught for years and had zero problems learning when the supplied resources are accessible and well designed.

saying ADHD is a learning disability is like saying vision impairment is a learning disability

just no

please stop

ill add, this is just problems from the scope of someone with ADHD.

talk to someone with a different kind of disability, and im 100% sure theyll be able to highlight other bullshit too

if school boards actually talked to disabled students and asked them what improves their learning experience, they would be able to make their lessons far more accessible.

but no, they prefer their top down approach of implementing bullshit policies that harm the learning experience for students whilst APPEARING to improve student engagement.

and as all designers should know, improvements in accessibility for disabled users ALWAYS result in a better experience for all users

see also, tactile bumps on switches, closed captioning, alt text, text to speech, voice recognition and so on

</rant>

Latest Threads Unrolled: