Video: What digital accessibility practices support low-vision and blind learners?
In this video, a learner with progressive vision impairment explains how he began to lose his vision just as he was starting university. Alongside his first-year subjects, he needed to learn new skills, such as touch typing and keyboard navigation, as well as new technologies.
For example, for situations where he encountered digitally inaccessible text, he learned how to read with ZoomText, which greatly enlarges text on a screen but limits how much you can perceive and comprehend at a time. This reading practice is particularly taxing for the working memory. It can also be frustrating for people who first learned to read as sighted readers. It’s a huge adjustment to go from having the ability to visually scan a page, almost instantly take in a sentence, and predict upcoming words, to have to read … one … word … in … a … sentence … at … a … time.
This learner has also learned to use two different screen reader technologies. Screen readers do far more than read text out loud. They provide a means to operate software and apps on computers, tablets and phones. Screen readers can perform any function that might otherwise be performed via visual means, such as moving a mouse to click a spot on a page, reading labels on buttons, or scanning search results.
As you watch this video:
– Listen for instances where the learner’s cognitive load would likely exceed the expected load for your learners.
– Listen for ways that your digital practices and learning design choices could lighten that load.
– Consider the the value you place on learners having equitable learning experiences in your classes.
What this nine-minute video might not sufficiently convey to educators is how much work it is for learners to:
- learn to use these technologies to navigate every unique learning environment a student will encounter across inconsistently designed LMS sites, websites, online journals, apps, etc.
- build up these tech skills through trial and error in all of these environments each semester
- adapt previously learned vision-centered study skills (highlighting, writing in margins, etc.) and adapt to educators’ assumptions about how learning materials will be used.
- support educators to understand what accommodations might be necessary or choose not to seek accommodations and instead work that much harder.
- build user-testing skills to determine if accessibility hurdles are the result of their own user error or a digitally inaccessible file or environment
- advocate for digitally accessible materials to be made available in a timely manner
- collaborate with and teach sighted learners who don’t know how to create or share digitally accessible files.
Blind and low-vision learners need to learn and employ all of these skills to perceive, navigate and engage with peers and educators in post-secondary.
>>> What follows is a series of reflection prompts for educators, along with sample responses. I’ve shared an example of how I worked with something I learned from the video in the hopes that it might assist educators to connect with the reflection activity.
Reflection
What connections did you make between your digital praxis and the learner experiences in the video?
What will you do differently?
Why?
Connection: Consider blind and low-vision learners’ cognitive load relative to course readings, presentations and assessments.
Duncan appeared very calm and capable but what he described raised flags for me about the extra cognitive load and extra work he takes on compared to other learners. It seems highly inequitable.
What can I do as an educator to mitigate cognitive overload and foster equitable learning experiences? I can:
- Check that my readings are digitally accessible (or ask the library to help me check)
- Prepare my presentation slide decks with alt text, and check them for accessibility before sending them to learners 3 days before class
- Discuss assessments with the learner at the start of the semester, if there are any vision-centered assessments (e.g. PowerPoint presentations, or interpret-the-graph-style questions) discuss meaningful alternatives
- Get resources from the Centre for Accessible Learning about how to describe visuals in class and in course materials
- Without making an example of anyone, discuss digital accessibility literacies with the class and include digital accessibility skills in assessment rubrics so that classmates learn to create and share digitally accessible files for collaboration and community building.
What hurdles might block your path?
We often don’t get much notice about learners with disabilities registering for a class. It would be overwhelming to feel like I had to learn to do all of this, and make all the necessary changes to course materials and assessments, in the first week of class, which is when I might find out.
What would make doing this work more accessible to you?
I can break this up and start now. Learning to do these things bit by bit, regardless of having a blind or low vision learner in my classes means I can learn without being und pressure. There’s no reason to wait, especially since most of these accessibility practices will also assist many of the learners in my classes.
Further Reading:
Almog, N. (2018). “Everyone Is Normal, and Everyone Has a Disability”: Narratives of University Students with Visual Impairment. Social Inclusion, 6, 218.
Jackson, R. M. (2021). Audio-Supported Reading for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired. National Centre on Accessible Educational Materials, 19.
