Most ARC students are given this accommodation because they have an invisible disability that significantly impacts how they process verbal and/or written information. In general, except where universal design features are being incorporated, college classes are taught in a way that assumes that all students can process information in very specific ways. For instance, it is assumed that the student can continuously and efficiently shift their attention and focus between listening to the professor, looking at slides, and writing notes, while simultaneously sorting and digesting the material and assimilating the new information into their existing fund of knowledge.

However, many students with disabilities are not able to process information in the way just described. For example, many of our students are not able to quickly shift their attention from one learning modality to another, such as from listening to reading and back to listening. Many of our students find it extremely difficult to perform certain tasks simultaneously, such as listening and writing, or harder yet, listening, writing, and digesting information.

All learners need to have cues about the most important points in a lecture and about how ideas are scaffolded so that they can identify key concepts and then put them into an orderly arrangement that allows the student to absorb and comprehend what is being taught. A student with a processing disorder benefits from having a framework for organizing ideas in advance, because during the lectures, they have to work so hard to follow the information that they can't arrange the ideas in a logical progression or distinguish between key takeaways and supporting details. It's a little like finding your way through a forest without a map and compass. Having the slides in advance offers them something to follow as they go through the forest.

ARC also promotes and encourages universal design, and along those lines, There are quite a few students who have no disability but would also benefit from having lecture slides in advance. These are students who have difficulty processing information efficiently due to a variety of backgrounds and life circumstances impacting them on a daily basis. Some examples include students for whom English is a second language, nontraditional students who have been out of school for a while, single parents and family caregivers whose attentions are pulled in multiple directions based on their loved ones’ needs, and students working fulltime who have to divide their finite mental energy between work and school.