Accessibility
Accessibility
Accessible Education
Accessible education is the process of designing courses and developing a teaching style to meet the needs of people from a variety of backgrounds, abilities and learning styles.
Learning Disabilities: Guides for Faculty
1. "Learning Disabilities: A Guide for Faculty at Ontario Universities" (pdf) is a response to the fact that "many faculty members have only a limited understanding of LDs, the range of academic accommodations designed to compensate for them, and the underlying rationale for accommodation."
This relatively brief pdf attempts to fill this information gap. Topics covered include the following:
10 Reasons to Caption Videos
A. "Why Caption" (web page) explains 10 benefits of captioning any videos included with course content:
1. "Provide accessibility for Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing viewers."
- "Providing access to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers provides access to these students, broadens your potential audience, but also protects you from potential legal action."
2. "Comply with federal [and provincial] regulations."
3. "Enhance second language learning."
Enhancing Access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students
A. In "Best Practices for Teaching" (web page, links and videos), DeafTEC outlines the "best teaching strategies based on Universal Design ... for instructors teaching ... a mix of hearing, deaf and hard-of-hearing students."
"The goal of these strategies is to improve teaching practice that will provide greater access to learning for deaf and hard-of-hearing students but will benefit all students in the classroom as well" (Many of these practices also benefit deaf and hard-of-hearing participants in meetings, conferences, conversations, poster sessions, etc.)
