Starting with a diagnosis
This article concerns students whose learning disability has been formally identified, usually by a qualified professional such as an educational psychologist or specialist assessor. Examples include dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia, along with other conditions that affect how someone processes written, numerical or other information. A diagnosis often leads to a written record of needs and recommended adjustments, which an institution uses to arrange support.
Terminology varies between countries; some places use “learning disability” for these conditions and others reserve it for intellectual disability. Whatever the label, the main point is that a student with a formal assessment usually has access to defined support, and open materials should fit into that arrangement, not bypass it. The article is general information and does not replace advice from the student’s support team.
What open texts offer
Open educational resources, such as freely licensed textbooks, give a student and their support team something that restricted materials often do not: permission to change the material. Typical adaptations include:
- reformatting text with larger type, wider spacing or a different layout;
- exporting text to a form that read-aloud software can use;
- creating a summary, glossary or outline of difficult chapters;
- adding headings, diagrams or labeled examples;
- turning a long reading into shorter sections with questions;
- producing an audio recording or captioned video of key content.
With a commercial text, a disability service may have to request an accessible copy from a publisher, and wait. With an editable open text, the same service may be able to produce a suitable version quickly, subject to the license terms.
Checking the license first
Not all open licenses are the same. Most Creative Commons licenses allow adaptation with attribution, but “NoDerivatives” licenses do not permit changed versions to be shared. Making a personal copy for one student’s use may be treated differently from publishing an adapted version, and some countries have specific legal exceptions for accessible formats. Where the situation is unclear, ask the rights holder or the institution’s library or copyright adviser. The broad field of copyright and licensing is worth understanding before a support team invests time in a major adaptation.
Also keep attribution and license notices attached to the adapted version, and record what was changed.
Multimodal content
Multimodal means presenting information in more than one way, such as text, audio, images and video together. For students with learning disabilities, the aim is to reduce dependence on the one channel that causes difficulty without removing the content that matters.
Examples:
- A reading passage paired with an audio version, so a student can follow the text while listening.
- A concept explained with a diagram and a short caption, as well as in a paragraph.
- A video with captions, plus a transcript for reviewing.
- A math procedure shown stage by stage with visual models and a worked example.
The thinking behind dual coding suggests that well-chosen pictures and words can support one another, but irrelevant decoration can distract. The test is whether each element helps the learner understand.
Learners differ in what suits them, and the popular idea that people have fixed learning “styles” does not have good research support. Offering options helps because tasks and individuals vary, not because each person has a single preferred channel.
Working with formal support services
A coordinated approach tends to work best.
- Share the course plan early. Tell the support service which open resources the course uses, so that adaptations can be prepared in advance.
- Agree who does what. The service might format texts, the teacher might provide editable files, and the student might choose preferences.
- Match adaptations to recommendations. What helps is what the assessment and the student’s experience suggest, not a general assumption about the condition.
- Review. Check regularly whether the adaptations are working, and change them if they are not.
- Plan for assessment. Make sure that arrangements such as extra time or assistive tools used in study are also available in exams, where permitted.
Students are the experts on their own experience. Ask them what they find hard and what they have found useful, and listen.
Study skills and tools
Alongside adapted texts, learners often benefit from help with study strategies: annotating texts, planning writing, breaking assignments into steps and using tools to catch errors. Practice in text annotation or note-taking tailored to the student may be useful. Reflecting on how you learn, building metacognition skills, can help learners judge which strategies are working. Specialist tutors are usually best placed to teach these, and open materials can provide the practice content.
Limits to bear in mind
- Adaptation takes time and skill. Someone has to do it, and quality matters.
- Not all open resources are well made. An editable but poorly structured file may need extensive repair.
- Open does not mean supported. A free text does not come with the human assistance, technology or arrangements that an assessment might recommend.
- Individual needs differ even within the same diagnosis.
- Evidence about specific interventions is mixed, and no adaptation can promise a given result.
In summary for families and students
If you or your child has a learning disability, ask the course or school at the outset which materials will be used and whether editable versions can be made available. Make contact with the support service early and share what you know works. Open education makes some adaptations quicker, cheaper and more legally straightforward, and used alongside professional support, it can make a course more manageable.