Substantive Post #3 – Accessibility & Universal Design for Learning

chelseak
Young child experiencing sensory impairment. Photo credit: Unsplash

Remove Impairments to Improve Accessibility

Accessibility ensures that all students, regardless of age, ability, or device, can access content and participate fully in their learning. While reading “Inclusive Design for Social Media: Tips for Creating Accessible Channels”, I was surprised to learn that approximately one billion people have some sort of disability and can’t engage fully with social media content.  The World Health Organization estimates 30% of the global population have sight or hearing impairments.  Adding audio and visual aids improves language barriers, cultural differences, and learning styles to make content more accessible.  I don’t have any hearing or visual impairments but I enjoy subtitles on tv shows so I can watch content in a different language.   

Accessibility also includes the ability to access content regardless of device.  In “Creating Accessible Text (Designing Digital Curriculum)“, Caitlin Cahill describes the importance of using selectable text (rather than images or scans of text) so students can use assistive technology to translate, annotate, and highlight it.  Text font, size and color can also be changed to make it easier for children, persons with reading disabilities, or visual impairments to read.

Inclusive Design Means Design for Everyone

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines use scientific insight to understand how humans learn.  The goal is to create flexible learning environments and spaces to ensure all learners have access to and can participate in their learning.  Guidelines are organized into the following:

Engagement

  • Adding user controls to a multimedia platform increases engagement.  Controlling the speed and sequence of learning, providing choice, and removing extraneous information, promote autonomy. 

Representation

  • Give users options to customize how information is displayed and perceived to better recognize how their background knowledge relates to new concepts.  This is achieved by clarifying language, symbols, and vocabulary in order to highlight the key concepts.  Audio and visual aids may be used to optimize how the user processes information.

Action & Expression

  • Help the user construct and compose their learning by providing multiple options for expression.  This includes text, audio, video, and image options when submitting their work.  Providing different modes of how students communicate decreases barriers, promotes engagement, and addresses bias. Honoring different ways of knowing and how other cultures teach will also make learning more inclusive.
A Navajo grandmother teaching her teenage granddaughters how to weave a traditional blanket on a loom. Photo credit: iStock

Next Steps

To be inclusive, designs must fit a variety of how people interpret and experience the world.  Customizing our world to fit our abilities rather than struggling to adapt to a world that wasn’t designed for you.  Prior to this course I never thought of how my work is perceived by those with sensory impairments.  Everything I created was made to complement my own abilities.  Utilizing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), I am going to incorporate the following into my blog posts: 

  • Add descriptive links rather than typing out a URL
  • For headings, use HTML rather than bold, underlining, or centering text
  • Address my own bias towards a Eurocentric approach to learning
  • Ensure there is adequate contrast between text and background colors
  • Add descriptive alt text to images