The COVID pandemic affecting eighty-million children in the nation has been a burden on many families. A number that deserves attention is the seven million students who have learning disabilities.
The burden is especially heavy for Dominique Hill who is the sole support of her two special needs daughters, Brittany age 16 and Aiesha age 14.
Recently the Michigan Chronicle interviewed Atlanta resident Dominique Hill who experienced a year of disappointments and frustration with the online program. She has become an outspoken advocate for children with learning disabilities. These children rely on the individual programs prescribed according to the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
Dominique’s daughters were students in an Atlanta Public School (APS) until March 2020 when all Atlanta public schools were forced to close due to the pandemic and transfer to online learning.
APS, in good faith, issued forty thousand Chromebooks and iPads to families throughout the state who were considered to be in financial hardship. At first, the idea was unique until the challenges began to take a toll on Dominique and her daughters.
Aiesha and Brittany worked out a successful study routine by splitting their time on the family’s state-issued computer. That is until their only computer ceased to work after just two weeks of classes.
Working Through the Glitches
Dominique realized immediately that her daughters were not alone in this new online endeavor. She said that it was apparent that families are all learning the new process at the same time. Dominique called it a “piecemeal” approach.
She said that in one day she had to buy three laptops because she was never told that her daughters’ assignments called for Chromebooks.
The Disability Rainbow
Aiesha has muscular dystrophy and autism with dyslexia, attention deficient disorder, a reading disability, and an expressive language disorder.
And yet Aiesha has been consistently following her lesson plans, completing her homework assignments, and taking requisite tests. She participates in a full school day from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon.
A New World of Online Learning
Dominique looks at this period as being thrown into a new world of online studies without preparation or a “How-to” guide for parents of challenged or even non-challenged children.
APS officials did, in fact, issue a handbook for Parent Virtual Learning for the 2020-2021 school year which Dominique felt was more of a technology guide rather than a how-to learning guide.
Dominique explained that Individualized Learning programs had been set up to protect special needs children from being denied quality education. She pointed out that these programs were developed during periods of in-school learning with the cooperation of school boards and faculty members as well as compliance officers of ADA.
The current programs do not favor online learning. It is apparent that significant modifications are necessary to meet the needs of special students.
Online Education’s Rob Kelly believes that students who have learning disabilities do learn more when studying online. However, he also believes that institutions should be doing much more to improve these programs.
Dominique added to Rob Kelly’s appraisal by saying that the virtual learning Aiesha receives actually exceeds the conventional education that Brittany receives. Dominique is pleased to replace books and the usual learning tools with an online platform.
The traditional study routine required Dominique to work side by side with Aiesha reinforcing instructions given by her teachers followed by a phone call with the teacher discussing Aiesha’s progress.
Looking Forward
Dominique has not seen many improvements in the new online special needs curriculum. Yet one aspect enables the special needs children to move from books to sharing information online with a much larger group of students. She is pleased that Aiesha is now familiar with modern technology. The regular online interaction with instructors has proved to be a rewarding experience.
