Disability Resource Center

More Alike Than Different

SPECIFIC DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI)

An acquired brain injury (ABI) can be anything that inflicts trauma to the brain. The variety of problems and the degree of severity that can result from an ABI, makes regular follow-up necessary. The Disabled Students' Programs and Services counselor provides support to students with an ABI. Services, such as priority registration, assistive technology and on campus transportation are available. Although, accommodations are helpful, there are still significant differences between an educational program of a student with an ABI from other students with disabilities. A student with an ABI can demonstrate one or more of the following problem characteristics that may affect their learning. These characteristics range from moderate to severe:

• Organizing thoughts, cause-effect relationships, and problem solving
• Processing information and word retrieving
• Generalizing and integrating skills
• Exhibiting discrepancies in abilities such as high reading comprehension vs. a lower level spelling ability
• Memory loss

In these areas, accommodations similar to those suggested for students with learning disabilities are useful. Such as:

• Readers
• Note takers
• Extended test taking time
• Transcription

For more specific academic deficits a student with an ABI may need:

• Established routines and/or step-by-step directions
• Books and lectures on tape to reinforce information by repetition.
• Behavior management techniques
• On-going counseling
• An aide (not provided by the college) for personal assistance.

Gavilan's Disability Resource Center provides a variety of services for students with Acquired Brain Injuries.