Have you had students in your classroom with vision or hearing impairments, cancer, or hemophilia? Students such as these have different types of disabilities that need to be addressed when considering how your students will learn. Despite the fact that most biology educators have had students with some type of disability in their classroom, few institutions require their faculty to be formally trained about their role as educators when teaching students with disabilities.

We will present information to bring you up to date on what is required of the student with some type of disability and the teacher when designing lectures, exams, and laboratories. Specifically, we will address how teaching a biology course to students with disabilities can be very challenging as compared to courses in other disciplines. We will also provide helpful suggestions so that you will be better prepared when you realize you are teaching a student who cannot see, or perhaps, not hear you.