Key points

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Having a positive learning attitude

Identifying how your disability can help you learn languages

Setting realistic goals

Learning words and phrases related to your disabilty/ies

Advice for auditory processing issues

Terminology

TL = target language, the language you are learning

NL = native language

Advice

Introduction

This advice is primarily based around my own experiences as a language learner with autism, POTS, and migraines, as well as what I've learnt from studying linguistics, disability studies, and teaching English at university

The first pieces of advice are more general, and can hopefully be helpful to anyone with disabilites, while the latter advice is more specific to different disabilites/aspects of disabilites.

(This page is still in progress)

Having a positive learning attitude

★ Try to enjoy learning; instead of only thinking about the end goal of speaking a language fluently or understanding media, try to enjoy what you're able to do right now, and when you make mistakes, be grateful for the oppurtunity to learn.

★ Don't expect yourself to be able to do things you can't in your TL - if you have issues with pronunication or language processing in your NL, you likely will in your TL too, and that's okay!

★ This has already been said many times, but don't compare yourself to other people!

Identifying how your disability can help you learn languages

★ Most disability models focus around what we can't do, and while it is important to acknowledge our limitations, it is also helpful to consider how our disabilities can help us learn. Here are some examples for how my disabilities (mainly autism) help me:

✦ Memory: I have a strong semantic memory, so remembering new words is easy for me

✦ Synaesthesia: Certain words will trigger different senses, which is also helpful for remembering words

✦ Focus/motivation: Language learning is a major interest for me and I am very motivated to do it. I can also connect it with my other interests to help me focus for long periods of time

✦ Repetition and routine: I love repetitive tasks so doing flashcards never feels like a chore to me

✦ Perseverance: Being disabled has built my perseverance up

Setting realistic goals

★ A lot of goals in the language-learning community center around doing things on a daily basis, which can be difficult, especially if you have a disability. It can be disheartening to lose a streak of doing something daily because of a bad day, so I would suggest setting very small achievable goals like:

✦ Write (or think or say) 5 sentences in your TL

✦ Listen to a song in your TL

★ Or setting weekly/monthly goals, so on some days you can do more, and some days you can do less

Learning words and phrases related to your disabilty/ies

★ This is very important if you are going to be/are already in your TL country, yet it is very rarely taught by textbooks or courses.

★ Depending on your disability and TL, you might be able to find disability phrasebooks such as Blue Badge's but if not, you could also try searching for the phrases on Tatoeba or HiNative.

Advice for auditory processing issues

★ Focus on one accent at a time. Try to find a group of youtubers/podcasters from this region/country and get used to it

★ I usually find that when I start watching a new youtuber, I need to watch them with subtitles for a few videos before I get used to their accent

★ Listening to a lot of music in my TL is what has helped me the most. I usually do my best to understand it without looking up the lyrics, and then I listen through while reading the lyrics

★ Don't be afraid to slow the speed down on audio and use subtitles. People often critique this as not preparing you for "real life", but in real life, people will adapt their language or slow down if they realise you are struggling to understand them, and there are often more context clues to help you understand their meaning.

★ Remember that even native speakers with no auditory processing issues have difficulties understanding people at times, especially if they have strong accents :]