Accommodating Students with Disabilities: Fieldwork Educators' Experiences.
Shaminder K Dhillon, Sandra E Moll, Magda Stroinska and 1 others
PMID 37715626WHAT IT FOUND
Occupational therapy fieldwork educators described accommodating students with disabilities as part of normal student learning rather than a separate disability issue.
They used their OT skills to adapt tasks and environments, but their ability to do so depended heavily on workplace flexibility and personal capacity.
Key findings
01Educators viewed disability-related accommodations as seamlessly fitting into their primary focus on student learning, rather than as a separate or problematic task.
02Fieldwork educators relied on core occupational therapy skills, such as communication, collaboration, and strengths-based approaches, to determine and implement accommodations.
03The success of accommodations was heavily influenced by context, including the physical demands of the practice setting, supervisor support, and the educator's personal responsibilities outside work.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study included only 11 educators from a single university program in Ontario, limiting the transferability of the findings. Participants were recruited because they had previously provided accommodations, which may have selected for educators with more positive or confident experiences. Data were collected at a single point in time through interviews, relying on retrospective accounts rather than observing the accommodation process as it unfolded. The first author knew several participants professionally, which required reflexivity to manage potential power dynamics or bias.
Declared interests
The study was funded by a $4,000 Priority Areas for Learning and Teaching Research (PALAT) grant from the MacPherson Institute at McMaster University. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that because educators in this study felt accommodations fit seamlessly into their workflow, this is the case in all settings. The participants were selected for having prior experience and generally positive views; educators who struggled or declined to supervise students with disabilities were not included, so this paper does not capture the full range of challenges or the reasons some sites refuse placements.