It Works for Me, Does It Work for You? Accessibility for All

Faculty and students come together in a course with assumptions and judgments that have been formed from our own experiences, as well as how we were taught in the past and how we learned. Often we forget to reflect upon the idea that no one has the same experience as we do, so we assume others are understanding or able to do the same things as we can. Especially in this remote time, we need to pause, ask questions, and seek out feedback in order to make improvements: “Does this work for you?” and “How can I make this work better for everyone?” Through reflection and implementation of changes to your course, you can begin to make your course accessible and inclusive for all.

This post summarizes a virtual lunch and learn we hosted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020. The webinar included two presentations: one from Dr. Sara Brownell, associate professor in the School of Life Sciences, and the other presentation was from Julie Allen, Instructional Designer with ASU Libraries. Future webinars can be found on our website.


To begin, we reflected on the simple definitions of accessibility and inclusion, pulled from Google and Oxford Dictionary. Things that stood out from the definitions are: 

• Accessibility: Do we have new access issues with remote learning- internet access? The ease of use, ease of understanding… this looks different for each person.
• Include: part of the group. Allow someone to share in an activity or privilege… “take into consideration”

Inclusive Teaching

Dr. Sara Brownell shared, "How to make your classroom more inclusive." She reminded us that inclusive teaching is when everyone has an equitable experience in the classroom and the opportunity to succeed. She covered the following five tips:

1. Teach in student-centered, active learning ways, but be mindful of how you are structuring this active learning.
1. Active learning has been shown to decrease performance gaps in large-enrollment STEM classrooms
2. How are you engaging students in the class? Forcing students to participate may not be inclusive.
2. Find out who your students are.
1. Survey at the beginning of the semester, and mention how you're trying to make the class inclusive for them.
2. Be mindful when you're asking them to prepare for class- how many hours they work, what their home life is like. 
3. Have students make name tents to display in class throughout the semester.
1. Students get to know each other
2. 85% of students in a large-enrollment course reported that instructors knowing their names was important to them (Cooper et al., 2017, CBE Life Sciences Education). 
4. Be transparent about your goals and open to hearing about what student concerns and feedback are.
1. Collect anonymous feedback each week
2. Uncover inequities you didn't know existed, and students often have great ideas for making things better.
5. Realize that who you are is probably very different than who your students are.
1. Make sure you aren't teaching to just the top academic students or just students from middle class backgrounds or just the white students.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Julie Allen shared "Universal Design for Learning: An Overview." She discussed neural networks and the three main principles for UDL:

1. Multiple means of representation
2. Multiple means of action and expression
3. Multiple means of engagement

Universal Design for Learning Guidelines are suggestions that can be mixed and matched depending on the learning goals and context. Julie also shared with us a crowd-sourced document titled, "How UDL Can Support Your Transition to Online Teaching." 

Most importantly, Julie explained how students may be experiencing difficulty with their affective neural networks (the why of learning) right now given this uncertain time of remote learning, and the possibility of issues in their personal lives. She suggested the following for engaging the affective network in students:

• Optimizing individual choice: give students discretion on how they practice skills, options for assessments- write a paper or provide an info-graphic. Get to same objective, but give flexibility.
• Minimize threats and distractions: model accepting and supportive classroom climate, build in previews or mini-breaks, take pauses on what they've learned before moving onto next topic.
• Foster collaboration and community: provide prompts for when to ask peers or teachers for help, provide space for peer tutoring or brainstorming, find ways to group students who are interested in the same ideas.

Ally in Canvas

Often faculty don’t have the time to determine and improve their course content and materials for accessibility. One solution is to use the integrated accessibility tool called Ally to review course content, especially with the move to online course environment for all classes. 

In Canvas, you can find Ally by going to the Files area in your course, and clicking on the gauge to see the why and how to improve.

Ally reviews the following content in Canvas:

• Files: PDF, PPT, Word, JPEG, and more
• Announcements 
• Assignment
• Discussion Topics
• Quiz description
• Syllabus
• Pages

Ally’s accessibility checklist is based on WCAG 2.1 AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). This is an international accessibility standard, and most of the new legislation and legal requirements worldwide aligns with this standard.

School of Life Sciences faculty are encouraged to spend some time this summer using Ally. We are in the process of planning an incentive program. We are looking for High ratings for all content in the course. If you're interested in participating, contact the Teaching Innovation Center team. For more information on how to use Ally, visit the ASU UTO LMS Team's website or reach out to your instructional design team. 

Resources

• Video recording of presentation
• General presentation slides (Sarah Prosory)
• Presentation slides (Dr. Sara Brownell)
• Presentation slides (Julie Allen)
• Optional activity, "Check for accessibility!"

References

• Ally Accessibility Checklist
• British Columbia Ministry of Education. (n.d.). UDL Core Principles and the Brain | UDL Resource. Retrieved March 17, 2020, from https://udlresource.ca/2017/12/udl-core-principles-and-the-brain/
• CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org/ 
• Cooper KM, Haney B, Krieg A, Brownell SE. What's in a Name? The Importance of Students Perceiving That an Instructor Knows Their Names in a High-Enrollment Biology Classroom. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2017;16(1):ar8. doi:10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265
• Morin, A. (n.d.). What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? Understood.org. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/universal-design-for-learning-what-it-is-and-how-it-works

Post Author 
Sarah Prosory is an Instructional Designer within the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. She has worked in higher education for 10 years, supporting faculty in law, engineering, and biological sciences.  Her experience includes assisting faculty with in-person, blended, and hybrid courses, as well as making the leap to fully online courses. She provides training to faculty and teaching assistants on how to use educational technologies, and shares best practices in course design to improve the student experience.