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ACCESS.EDU
Land Acknowledgement
My name is Tamaka Fisher. I respectfully acknowledge that I am an uninvited settler, communicating from the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, in particular the Kwantlen and Katzie First Nations. I am grateful for their stewardship of the land and for the privilege of living, recreating, working, and studying in this beautiful place, also called the Fraser Valley, in British Columbia, Canada. The traditional language of the Kwantlen people is Halkomelem: qʼʷa:n̓ƛʼənÌ“, and the word, kwantlen, means ‘tireless runner.’ I am committed to humbly learning about how I can contribute to decolonizing education with my words and actions.
Accessiblity in Higher Education
In the future, accessible course design and delivery will be the norm and and higher education is equitable for students with physical, sensory, mental, intellectual or cognitive impairments. The access.edu app will inform course designers and instructors by providing course-specific universal design for learning (UDL) suggestions. Instructors will also learn basic information about academic barriers and standard accommodations. In addition to using this app to support new course design, instructors could also use this app for ideas to update existing courses. Another potential use for this app could be to inform teacher training, policy development, and onboarding into educational institutions. As educational contexts vary, the app is not meant to be prescriptive and applicable in all scenarios. This app is not meant to be used for diagnosis or medical reference. It is a general mobile open educational resource to support equity in learning. The app does not substitute for consultation with accessibility specialists in your institution, who will be responsible for creating accommodation plans for students. My searches have not found any existing comparable apps available. The following wireframe shows the concept of the app. Wireframes illustrate the user experience (UX) in grayscale. An addition for phase two would be to create augmemented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences so instructors and instructional designers can see what students with exceptionalities experience in the learning space. This presentation has been optimized for mobile use and is meant for a global audience.
Wireframe Images
This is the initial login page. If the user has already registered, they would type in their email and password to login. If the user has forgotten their login information, an email would be sent to the address on file so that the user could reset their password. A new user could register or login as a guest via Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google.
This is the registration page. The user would choose their country. The choice of country would alter the information populated in the legislation and resource sections of the app. The user could then choose the language the app was translated into. They would then enter their email, and password. Next would come the terms and conditions and privacy policy. This app provides general information and suggestions and are not meant to be prescriptive. The app is meant to open dialogue and increase awareness. The general information on exceptionalities is not meant for medical purposes or to diagnose students. Once the user confirms they have read the terms and conditions and privacy policy, they will click submit to gain access to the app. A limitation of this app will be that it will take a large amount of resources and time to add the information from many countries.
There are currently five proposed sections in Access.edu including types of impairment, a section for universal design for learning, common (standard) accommodations, national and state legislation, and a resource section for further inquiry. Resources could include links to web accessiblity best practices, courses on universal design for learning, information about student privacy and confidentiality, how to talk to students about implementing their accommodation plans, equity, diversity and inclusion practices, and links to deeper information on various conditions, including mental health. The first example is conducting a search in the universal design for learning (UDL) section.
Once on the UDL page the user can search by faculty, division, or course. Let’s look at a chemistry lab course.
The user will choose the course delivery type, and in this case, there is only one choice- face to face. The user has chosen activities, rather than assessments.
For chem lab activities there are three choices: watching a demonstration, mixing chemicals, and writing in the lab notebook and writing lab reports. The user has chosen ‘watching a demo.’
A UDL suggestion for this activity is to provide students with a video to review the steps multiple times. This would be particularly helpful for learners with cognitive processing challenges.
So now let’s look at the common, or standard, accommodations section of the app.
In the accommodations section there are several categories to choose from and the completed app will show additional categories. The first category is technology. An example may be the use of a recording app which allows the student to record audio, which can also be transcribed. Students using this accommodation are normally required to agree to specific rules, like destroying the recording at the end of the course. The other categories shown are testing and assessments, attendance flexibility, accessible course materials, assignment flexibility, mobility and ergonomics, and assistants. The user has chosen testing.
On the testing page, there are several categories, and the completed app will show several more. The user has chosen regular breaks.
There are some potential reasons for students needing stop-the-clock-breaks, particularly with longer exams. Students with diseases that cause fatigue, may even need midterms and finals broken up over two days.
We’ll look at impairments, or exceptionalities, for our last section. Legislation and resources are self-explanatory.
On the impairments page is a list of different categories. These are the major types, although there is some crossover with effects on learning. A large percentage of students may have more than one diagnosis. A diagnosis that comes up quite often is a mental health condition. The stigma and bullying that a student may endure during their life related to another condition may result in challenges with mental health. Humans want to be accepted for being their authentic selves, and it’s everyone’s responsibility in higher education to support this type of culture and environment. The user has chosen mental health. After this frame would be another page listing all the major types of mental health conditions, which is not shown in this wireframe.
After the page listing the types of mental health challenges would be the specific type. The user has chosen eating disorders and listed are two potential effects, and two examples of accommodations. In some cases of eating disorders the learner may need to enter an inpatient program with no opportunity to leave for a certain period. Other types of accommodations may need to be created or the student may need to withdraw from the program or be provided with a course extension. The app will not include every conceivable accommodation possible, as each student is unique and situation will arise where there is no precedence. This is why it is important to seek the counsel of accessibility specialists in the institution. The final app will have been produced with extensive research and consultations. It is my hope that the access.edu app contributes to social justice and a more equitable educational landscape for all students.
Resources
TEDx Talks. (2017, February 10). Universal Design for Learning—A Paradigm for Maximum Inclusion | Terence Brady | TEDxWestFurongRoad
TEDx Talks. (Jun 19, 2013). The myth of average: Todd Rose at TEDxSonomaCounty
AHEAD/Association on Higher Education and Disability
Bill-6 2021 Accessible British Columbia Act
https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/bills/billsprevious/2nd42nd:gov06-1
Bill C-81 2021 Accessible Canada Act
https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-81/royal-assent
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada- 94 Calls to Action #62 Education for Reconciliation
https://crc-canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/trc-calls-to-action-english.pdf
Tamaka Fisher completed an undergrad degree in leadership from Trinity Western University and her Career Development Certification from Simon Fraser University. Her previous experience includes being a customized employment specialist helping persons with diversities connect with employment, and her current role is as an accessiblity advisor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Her interests include educational technology, accessibility, ableism, and Indigeneity. She is currently enrolled in the Master of Educational Technology program at the University of British Columbia and this resource is for her third course, ETEC 523 Mobile and Open Learning course taught by Dr. David Vogt, and for our international friends everywhere in education. Welcome.
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August 7, 2022