Reasonable Accommodations and Needs Assessments in Tertiary Education

Cost: Free!

Format: Self-directed and fully online. Enrol and complete at your own pace.

Estimated Learner Effort: 90-120 mins

Who is this for?

This course is designed for current and future tertiary education practitioners who may be involved in the handling of learner support needs or the provision of reasonable accommodations. While the primary audience is intended to be those who are working in learner/disability support provision, it may also be of interest to professionals working in administration, registration, or teaching. This course can also be useful for those in leadership positions within tertiary education as a primer to understand the process of a needs assessment and the legal obligations of institutions regarding reasonable accommodations.

What’s in it for me?

All participants who complete this course get an AHEAD digital badge for completing which can be shared as evidence of your continued learning. Please note this is one of a series of Digital Accessibility courses you can do for free with us.

Course Content

This AHEAD short course is designed for self-access. It should take around 2 hours to complete. You can complete it in any order you like, but we recommend working through sequentially. There are inbuilt reflections and tasks to help you embed the learning into your day-to-day work.

By the end of the course, you should be able to: 

• Describe what a reasonable accommodation is and what legal responsibilities tertiary education institutions have in this area.

• Explain the concept of the Inclusive Practice Pyramid in tertiary education and how Universal Design and reasonable accommodations relate to each other.

• List the stages in a Needs Assessment (NA) and summarise why and when they are needed.

• Identify common reasonable accommodations offered to disabled learners in further education and training (FET), and higher education (HE) settings.

For a more specialist course for disability support staff working in education, we recommend the AHEAD Start course, an 11-week long, paid course with a tutor.

 How do I enrol into a Course?

1. Go to the AHEAD Moodle Platform to begin the enrolment process.
2. In this Moodle page you need to select 'Create a new account'.
3. Follow the onscreen directions and create a username, password and add your email address,  first name and surname too.
4. Select the 'Create my new account' button on the bottom of the page. A new page open with a button called 'Continue'.
5. Instantly, you will receive  a mail with a weblink that must be selected to verify your new account. You need to verify in order to access the courses.
6. A message will appear in Moodle saying thank you and 'Your Registration has been confirmed'. Now press the button called 'Continue'.
7. You are almost there - In Moodle, along the navigation bar on the top, select 'Search Courses'.
8. You will see all the Accessibility courses in a list there. Choose the course you wish to begin then select the button for that course 'Click to enter the Course'.
9. Now select the button 'Enrol me' and the course opens. Select the button called 'Start Course' to begin.

You will receive an email to verify that you have self enrolled into a specific course.

Note: You can exit the course any time and your position in the course progress is recorded so you can return to that point.

Getting your Badge 

When you complete the course, you will automatically receive a mail with your digital badge from the 'Open Badge Factory', this may go to your junk mail. Follow the instructions in the mail to claim your digital badge. You will need to create an open badge factory account, using the same email that was used for the AHEAD Moodle platform. You need to go into the Open Badge Factory account you make and then accept the badge. Once accepted, you can add this badge to your profile and download the badge image.

Got questions?

Contact us AHEADcourses@ahead.ie or if you have any issues with the accessibility of these courses email accessibility@ahead.ie.