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ERIC Number: ED271134
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1986-Mar
Pages: 12
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Adapting to Diversity.
Longo, Judith A.
Ocean County College (OCC) has had a long-standing commitment to serving all those who might benefit from higher education. One of its efforts to serve the disabled is its Telecollege Program for Confined Adults, which began in fall 1978. Through the program, homebound students select and schedule courses through a counselor, who also arranges for the transport of instructional materials and proctoring of exams. Once registered for a course, the homebound student dials a conference telephone at the beginning of each class period, enabling him/her to participate fully in class. For faculty members, the Telecollege Program requires an extra commitment, which may extend to altering lectures, developing special assignments, and arranging after class telephone discussions. For Telecollege students, who are generally young adults partially or totally paralyzed through accident or degenerative disease, the courses permit the use of their unimpaired intellectual resources toward the goal of a college degree. Although the Telecourse Program has made possible 4,710 hours of instruction which would otherwise have been inaccessible, not all college courses are adaptable to the Telecollege format. One of the most difficult obstacles confronting disabled students, many of whom are physically unable to write and in many cases unprepared for college-level composition, had been the English composition requirement. Two courses were developed to meet the special needs of these students: Communications for Motor-Impaired Students, which contained modules in listening, composing, speaking, and reading; and Literature for Motor-Impaired Students, which contained modules in the short story, the novel, and poetry. A final dimension to OCC's service to the disabled is provided through the Home Study curriculum of television, radio, or newspaper courses. Through these programs, OCC has shown that a little money and a lot of concern can go a long way in expanding educational opportunities for the disabled. (EJV)
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers; Practitioners
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A