Webinar Summary: Diversity, Accessibility and Inclusion in the Classroom

This week's webinar was a brief overview of some common issues faculty are facing in classrooms regarding diversity, accessibility and inclusion, and resources to support faculty that want to know more.

ASU is focusing on a mission to build open and accessible communities for students and in the classroom, that can mean that faculty need to be aware of key strategies to support these communities. The first key strategy is to become mindful of challenges that many of our students face in classes, and then start developing activities and classrooms that create comfortable environments. Below are few of the ideas that were shared, and gathered from various ASU resources for faculty.

Example of a microagression

Help diverse international students be successful:

• Model behaviors for group work
• Share examples for papers and projects
• Set clear and specific expectations
• Create assignments that focus on global issues

Make coursepages and online content accessible:

• Use tagging for any images
• Avoid images for math formulas
• Choose colors carefully to avoid those that are difficult for vision impaired students
• Use closed-captioning and transcripts for all videos

Create classrooms that focus on inclusion of all communities:

• Work to pronounce students names correctly and use name cards
• Ask students to share pronouns they prefer in introductions (and model it for your introduction)
• Have an inclusion policy in your syllabus
• Be aware of microaggressions and act quickly to stop them

For more information, please check out the blog posts by Katelyn Cooper and Liz Barnes on inclusion in our science classes. They are also presenting some of their research in our Evidence-based Teaching Seminar series this semester.

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Resource Links:

• Recording of webinar link
• PowerPoint Slides pdf link 
• ASU Transgender Guide for Faculty link
• BlackBoard Accessibility Challenge page link
• ASU Disability Resource Center link
• ASU International Forum for faculty and staff guides
• Examples of Racial Microagressions pdf
• Faculty Focus Guide on Diversity and Inclusion pdf