Digital & Analog Video Equipment as Assistive Technology in Dissection-Intensive Labs: Potential Benefits to Students with Disabilities

tudents taking courses in which they perform dissections and learn to identify structures and their functions face a unique set of problems. These include a requirement for physical manipulation of specimens, a time-constraint imposed by the length of the laboratory, the prohibition concerning removing specimens from the laboratory, and marked differences between drawings and actual specimens. Unlike quantitative or qualitative data from experiments that can be reviewed or analyzed outside of dass, data from dissections consist of lengthy, written accounts that may inadequately describe the appearance of structures or detailed relationships among those structures. Because scheduling, cost, and safety issues limit the availability of time for students to review their specimens outside the regular laboratory period, students must rely on their notes to study. For many students this is inadequate because they may have only rudimentary drawing and note-taking skills.