Digital Accessibility in Praxis Reading Room

Educators like seeing theory and practical strategies come together. This theory-building paper offers many practical steps educators can take to make their courses more accessible to learners with and without disabilities.

This easy-to-digest podcast outlines things educators need to consider when thinking about what makes a learning environment or a pedagogical approach accessible in post-secondary.

In a special disability-focused issue of the journal, multiple theories and perspectives on accessibility in teaching and learning, and in the workplace, are explored. Oswal’s introduction offers a concise summary of the articles, grounding them in the historical, political and contemporary thinking on disability.

This book is a compendium of contemporary thinking and scholarship on the past, present and future digital practices in post-secondary education relative to learners with disabilities.

This paper offers some examples of “why” and “how” educators could make digital accessibility improvements to their courses. By attempting to map WCAG 2.0, and the POUR framework to UDL–centred pedagogy, Gronseth made a unique contribution to the literature.

This study indicates few educators broach the subject on the first day of class when they review syllabi, policy and other course-structuring topics. It also contrasts a relational and inclusive approach with more typical transactional talk.

This brief paper illustrates what facets of digital accessibility are relevant for educators, and introduces the concept of  “accessible digital content literacy skills,” skills specifically related to reading, identifying, curating, and writing/creating accessible digital content.

This article would be useful to educators beginning to grapple with the legacy of ablism within their courses and institutions. This critical piece of writing argues convincingly that reductionist approaches to accessibility, such as checklist tools, offer educators and institutions a false sense of accomplishment, and a simplistic understanding of learner needs.

This article is included here with my “points of contention” annotations to illustrate how the UDL framework and much UDL literature ignores digital accessibility and accessible social learning experiences, and how uncritical application of UDL principles to address the needs of disabled learners can inadvertently marginalize disabled learners in post-secondary.