COMPREHENSION, TIME EXPENDED, AND PERSPECTIVES OF A DOCTORAL STUDENT WITH A LEARNING DISABILITY WHEN READING WITH AND WITHOUT A SELF-PREFERRED ACCOMMODATION

In this session, I will describe the procedures and findings from a mixed methods study that combined single-case (applied behavior analytic) research methods and qualitative methods. My colleagues and I used an alternating treatments design to compare the efficacy of two modes of reading (reading while concurrently listening to the reading text versus traditional reading of text) for a doctoral student with learning disabilities. Results indicated that the student comprehended slightly more of his weekly seminar readings when he read without rather than with a self-preferred accommodation. However, the student took nearly twice as much time to complete readings, took more breaks while reading, and reported experiencing more stress when he did not use the accommodation. The self-preferred accommodation consisted of the student listening, on an iPod, to an audio file (text-to-speech conversion) of textbook chapters while concurrently reading the chapters. Analyzing qualitative data (interview and participant’s journal entries) illuminated our quantitatively derived findings. For example, prior to and during this study, the participant overestimated and over-generalized the benefits of reading-while-listening (i.e., his self-preferred accommodation) relative to tradition reading. A cost-benefit analogy helps summarize one of the major findings of our study. Specifically, for the participant in our study, the benefits he experiences, that is, needing only one-half the time to complete assigned readings, as well as experiencing less stress, when reading with his self-preferred accommodation, outweigh the costs, that is, slightly reduced comprehension, when compared to reading without his self-preferred accommodation. We discuss implications for those individuals and groups, in university settings, who design, propose, provide, or use accommodations and assistive technology in university settings.