Empowering: Inclusion

5.1 Accessibility and inclusion

"To ensure accessibility to learning resources and activities, for all learners, including those with special needs. To consider and respond to learners’ (digital) expectations, abilities, uses and misconceptions, as well as contextual, physical or cognitive constraints to their use of digital technologies." DigCompEdu clearly states that is our responsibility as teachers and as educational institutions to reduce barriers to learning and ensure that all of our students, regardless of disability or other constraints, can engage with and equally participate in learning.  This isn't just a legal requirement, but is also an ethical expectation.  Let's look at that this means in practice and the issues that we need to consider.

• The more that we have come to rely on digital resources and technologies the more we need to do to make sure that they are not introducing new barriers to learning for some students. This can include a wide range of challenges from broadband connectivity, affordability of the minimum required equipment, software licences, and adaptations to hardware and software needed for students with particular disabilities not just to access the resources but to engage with them in the ways other students can so that they are fully included.  The 'digital divide Links to an external site.' became very apparent during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in communities with socio-economic disadvantage, or in rural locations. 

• Assistive Technologies Links to an external site. are those which can help students with disabilities or particular learning needs participate in class and/or online. It can cover a huge range of software, hardware, and even non-digital learning aids.  Some common examples include 'screen readers' which convert text to voice. In the past this required sometimes expensive software, but increasingly, at least at a basic level, such capability is being built into browsers, computer operating systems, and mobile devices such as phones. (If you are reading this on-screen currently, see what is available to you - for example Microsoft's Immersive Reader. Links to an external site.)  Other tools change font sizes and types, colour schemes, digitise pen strokes and convert handwriting,  convert audio to text (transcribing), or even convert images to audio description. Meeting the needs of those with dyslexia, colour-blindness, hearing, or visual impairment widens the range of options for all of us, giving multiple ways of accessing and engaging with content. Similarly, good design of learning materials can reduce distractions and clutter on screen something that all of us can appreciate and not just those who need support to focus and concentrate.

• Many LMS/VLEs and office software now also provide accessibility scores and advice on how to make any materials that you are producing or sharing more accessible and amenable to tools such as screen-readers. One example is Anthology Ally. Links to an external site. This is embedded within a LMS/VLE or website and immediately identifies potential difficulties (eg images with no labels, or with poor colour contract) with any content that is uploaded, as well as providing suggestions for improvement.  At the level of an institution or organisation, it also offers statistics regarding the proportion of materials which are accessible/not fully accessible, and for individual teachers this can be incredibly useful as a reminder of some of the, often quite small, changes or steps we can take. Many of us, don't realise that if you are using a word-processing tools such as MS Word, then putting section headings by using the <Headings> option in the format ribbon helps screen readers hugely, in contrast to simply making it a bold or larger font size. In PDFs too, if we save files as 'structured PDFs' or 'OCR' versions, that also makes them far more accessible. [You can find some useful suggestions in the 'Thrives' poster produced by Queen's University Belfast Download 'Thrives' poster produced by Queen's University Belfast]  A large part of accessibility, then, is about raising awareness and so much can be achieved with just a little forethought.

• In recent years, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles (see below) developed by CAST Links to an external site. have gained considerable traction and are the basis for many workshops and training courses in all levels of education. They are persuasive because they reiterate the point we've referred to here, that by considering our students as a diverse population, with differing needs and preferences then we can design and produce learning materials  which are accessible and inclusive from the outset - a distinct shift from the previous perspective of having to produce separate bespoke versions of resources to 'accommodate' particular disabilities or learning needs. Yes, we will still need some specialist supports, but the point is one of considering diversity as the norm, rather than some students being exceptions.  What UDL suggests is that when designing curricula we should seek to provide: 
  • Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge,
  • Multiple means of expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, and
  • Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn.

There has been some critique of UDL, in particular over the weak research base Links to an external site. for some of the claims of its advocates (from psychological and neuroscience research perspectives), but nonetheless as a set of guiding principles for a more equitable approach to learning and supporting students to succeed, it is recognised to have value.

• Multiple ways of engaging with learning, and of differing pathways, choice of mode and media, the design of physical and digital spaces, are valuable in the context of the growing recognition of neurodiversity Links to an external site., not just amongst students, but staff also.

 

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Photos by Sigmund, Links to an external site.Compare Fibre, Links to an external site.  Links to an external site.Austin Distel Links to an external site. on Unsplash and Canva