Chapter 2. Accessibility

Building from the previous chapter on Socially Conscious Pedagogy, this chapter focuses on making your classroom accessible. Creating an accessible, anti-ableist classroom is an ongoing process of developing habits and practices. It won't all happen at once and it's not a box that can checked off. It is important to think about accessibility throughout the process of conceiving, developing, and teaching your courses. This chapter defines accessibility broadly and offers ways to attempt to engage all students, whatever their needs may be. We outline the principles of Universal Design for Learning, which urges educators to integrate choice, variety, and flexibility into course design and procedures, avoiding one-size-fits-all approaches to teaching and learning. As with Socially Conscious Pedagogy, these principles are carried throughout the subsequent chapters on the handbook.

Identifying and Addressing Student Needs

Some students may require accommodations because of specific needs. If a student has registered with the student accessibility office, then the professor should receive notice of their needs and can reach out to the accessibility office for guidance on how to best provide necessary accommodations. For example, if a student is visually impaired, they may need to use additional software or hardware to access course materials both in and out of class. If a student has a mobility impairment, you may be asked to reserve an accessible seat for that student, relax expectations about class arrival time, and make additional accommodations for any out-of-class activities.

Many students with disabilities, however, do not register with accessibility offices. There are a variety of systemic and personal reasons for this—reasons that students should not be forced to share. Your class may also include students with “invisible” disabilities such as chronic illnesses, cognitive and/or learning disabilities, emotional and/or psychological disorders, and speech and language disorders. All of these conditions, as well as mobility, hearing and/or visual impairments, may impact students’ ability to engage in your class and with your materials and assignments between classes. Even when a student does register with the accessibility office, there is no guarantee that that office will make successful contact with all of that student’s professors.

The best way to solicit information regarding students’ learning needs is to invite them to share any difficulties that affect them academically and what they need to succeed in your class. Offer written and verbal prompts at the beginning of the semester, as well as express openness for students to reach out to you to discuss any difficulties throughout your course. When students do reach out, your responses as an instructor should be kind, accommodating, and supportive.

Your campus may have a model accessibility statement that you can integrate into your syllabus, which often references the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). You might also add a personal or additional note that invites students to share their needs and discuss in class how curriculum might be supplemented beyond legally mandated accommodations. Both these additional steps demonstrate a concern for student learning and willingness to adapt to meet student needs.

Approach your course with accessibility in mind

Beginning your course planning with accessibility in mind can save time during the semester and, most importantly, helps ensure that all students have the support they need to meet the goals of your course. Consider how the choices you make in organizing your course (and your classroom space) might present barriers for some students.

How can you be mindful of different types of learning needs in designing the tasks you will ask students to undertake, the materials you will offer them, your choice of educational technology (discussed further in the “Accessibility and EdTech” section of the handbook), and your overall instructional approach?

Some simple ways to eliminate common barriers in the classroom are:

• Include images to accompany your vocal representations.

• Turn on closed-captioning when you show a movie, and make sure any videos you assign are captioned.

• Give students the choice of partners (or explain your reasoning for not doing so) when assigning small groups for group work.

• Give assessment criteria to the audience during student presentations to allow them to maintain their focus and give good feedback to their presenters.

These generic solutions can help you begin improving accessibility in your classroom, but each unique context will dictate what else you need to consider and what strategies you can employ to remove barriers. Keep in mind that the size and time of your course can affect some types of barriers.

Additional guides include CUNY Assistive Technology Service’s guides for accessible media and the Museum Arts and Culture Access Consortium’s Guidelines for Accessible Presentations.

Overall, remember that attentiveness to accessibility is an ongoing process. The more times you teach a course, the easier it will become to find creative or alternative ways to engage students with diverse learning needs.