Think about curb cuts on sidewalks. Designed for wheelchair users, they also benefit parents pushing strollers, travelers pulling luggage, cyclists, and delivery workers. The same is true of accommodations: supports that are essential for some learners often improve learning for many others. Once we start thinking about accommodations this way, the conversation shifts from “Is this fair?” to “How can we make learning more accessible?”

What This Looked Like for Me

Last year, I taught an undergraduate introductory course in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Wanting to practice what I preach, I intentionally built accessibility into the course from day one by offering multiple ways for students to engage, participate, and demonstrate learning.
When I later received students’ accommodation letters from the university Disability Access Center, I realized many of the listed accommodations were already built into the course. Multiple ways to participate, movement breaks, captions, flexible assessments, and other supports were simply part of the course design. That was a powerful reminder that when we intentionally design for access, many individual accommodations simply become good teaching. Did it require more intentional planning upfront? Yes. But it was far easier than trying to retrofit accommodations after the course began or create separate solutions for individual students.

So…What’s the Difference?

An accommodation changes how a student gets there—not where they’re going. It provides support without changing the learning goal. A modification changes what a student is expected to learn. The learning expectations themselves are adjusted to align with individualized goals and are determined through the IEP team.