Students with special needs may require a variety of adaptations to maximize their learning and participation in school. These adaptations may be in the materials used for instruction, the teaching strategies, or in the classroom environment. Regular classroom furniture such as traditional desks, tables, chairs, or laboratory stations may not be appropriate to facilitate success for some students. They may need accommodations such as adapted workspaces to support their learning.
Planning the appropriate workspace for a student with special needs, like other types of accommodations and support services, must be carried out in a careful, collaborative manner based on the particular student's strengths and needs. Adapted workspaces can be one of a variety of interventions planned as part of the overall Individual Education Plan for a student.
Adapted School Workspaces for Students with Special Needs: A Resource Guide for Planning is intended as a resource to facilitate the development of appropriate adapted school workspaces for students with special needs. It can be used as a tool by planning teams to guide the process. The same process can be applied to planning workspaces for students in other settings such as work experience placements in the community. Similar planning processes could be used in post secondary or employment settings.
This resource guide contains information on the types of students who might need an adapted school workspace. It covers the process which should be used to plan collaboratively the most effective workspace for an individual student. It outlines the roles of planning team members and some possible strategies which might be used during this planning process. The resource includes case studies with workspace examples for districts or schools to consider. Some of these design solutions include adapted seating and positioning, adapted desks and tables, functional storage ideas, and suggestions for accommodating computer technology. The appendices contain reproducible forms to facilitate planning and record keeping and resource lists to help in locating manufacturers and suppliers of adapted workspaces or elements included in adapted workspace designs.
Much of the information for this resource guide was based on feedback from professionals with a variety of back-grounds gathered through a questionnaire circulated in 75 British Columbia school districts. Participants included school administrators, resource teachers, SET-BC District Partners, teachers of the visually impaired, speech and language pathologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and school district maintenance personnel. Information was also gathered through consultation with Sunny Hill Health Centre, Children's Hospital in Vancouver, and Queen Alexandra Centre in Victoria. The information was compiled and developed into this resource guide by School District No. 39 (Vancouver) and staff at SET-BC (Special Education Technology-BC).