Praxis Provocations

CanDARE praxis provocations take a less didactic and more evocative approach to digital accessibility than most of the literature and discourse in this field. Why? The provocations can be used as prompts for respectful discussion or for self-guided reflection. They are meant to prompt ideation; to tease out the kind of unformed, beginnings-of-understandings that have the generative power to change how we see, feel, experience, understand and connect with the world.

That said, the provocations engage with the palpable energy of ableism, marginalization and anti-oppression work. Sometimes, it isn’t comfortable. This section asks big questions. It also holds space for possible responses and for people making change.

black and white photo of a concrete architectural column and two men walking away from camera on steep stairs, evocative of Jay Dolmage's use of the steep steps to the academy metaphor

Provocations: Who is being accommodated?

The current academic accommodations model forces individual learners to prove they are eligible for academic accommodations. And yet, learners are the ones patching up the institutions’ digital accessibility shortcomings.
sepia photo of different kinds of clocks and hourglasses

Provocations: When Would be a Good Time?

“Throughout the world, many [governments and non-governmental] organizations–universities, schools, and private companies–are recognizing that accessibility is a moral and business imperative; many are adopting policies aimed at making Web resources accessible to the more than six hundred million people with disabilities worldwide.” (2002, Rush and Slatin) Recognizing something is a moral imperative … adopting policies…

What if accessibility, digital or otherwise, was regarded as a dynamic, functional experience of education, shared between multiple, equitable beings?