Chapter 14.6: Academic support - Field trips
- Do not immediately assume stereotypical inability for students with disabilities to participate in field trips or exclude them from the field trips at the outset.
- Announce the date and location of the field trip as early as possible for timely arrangement of accessibility support.
- Make accessibility arrangement as early as possible to ensure the relevant arrangements will be in place on the trip date, e.g. transportation, and accommodation for overnight trips.
- Invite sighted companions and/or personal assistants to guide and verbally describe any visual observations to students with visual impairments. Invite hearing companions and sign language interpreters and/or personal assistants to describe any sound observations to deaf or hard-of-hearing students.
- If the observation sites are really inaccessible to some students with disabilities (e.g. full of staircases, which is inaccessible to wheelchair users), and there are no alternative sites, then course instructors and/or assistants might try making use of technological devices to capture real-time videos or photos for the students to engage in remote observations.
- Some technological aids, such as EduVenture, is useful for recording observation along with the geographical information during field trips to facilitate the review of field trip observations at the students’ own pace and format.
- Allow flexibility in the timetable of the required field experience, particularly overseas field experience, as it might take time to arrange some accessibility accommodations.