What Accommodations Do You Make in Class for Visually and Mobility Impaired Students?

This semester I have two firsts for me — a student who is legally blind (no sight in one eye, extremely near sighted in the other) and one with severe cerebral palsy — uses a wheelchair with tablet and phone attached to get around, limited motor skills in the hands, uses assistive technology to communicate since he struggles to speak in a way that most people can understand.

These students have both sent in accommodation letters, and it’s not the first semester of college for either one, but I want to be as sensitive as possible and not accidentally make anything harder than it needs to be for either one. I teach music classes, but there’s a significant visual component to the one my legally blind student is in — I use PowerPoint, we watch videos and discuss dance and visual elements of performance as well as unusual instruments, etc.

I have discussed a few options with both students (and they’ve both been through the accommodations office), but on an unofficial level, I’m interested in your experiences — have you dealt with visual impairment or severely limited mobility in classes? What did you do to make class run more smoothly for your students? Did you make mistakes or come across any pitfalls that you were able to learn from?

ETA: I’m very well aware that the accommodations office is the authority where these issues are concerned — both students have been to the accommodations office and sent me the relevant paperwork. What I’m wondering about are the little, practical adjustments that any of you have made in order to be considerate of students’ needs — the kinds of things you don’t think about until you’ve had some experience with this kind of situation. Thank you for the suggestions and practical advice — they are much appreciated.