Ensuring the Success of ALL Stakeholders

 Photo by Taras Shypka on Unsplash 

   

    For the past two years, I have served on our district's ADA Advisory Council and represented our district in a statewide Assistive Educational Materials (AEM) Cohort.  Through these committees, I have learned the importance of considering the needs of all stakeholders when developing and procuring digital educational materials.  From community-facing materials such as enrollment guides and playbills to student resources such as instructional videos, accessibility is a topic that until recently has been a "Tier 3" topic--as a district, we've been re-active in this area rather than designing with all stakeholders in mind. Even though Universal Design is not a new concept, it's finally becoming common language across our district.

    The Iris Center at Vanderbilt University (2023) defines assistive technology as "a tool that students can use to address barriers to developmental, functional, or learning skills."  Assistive technology could be devices that physically impaired students use to verbally communicate, as well as text to speech tools that students with a preference for auditory learning use to interact with text in our LMS.  Due to recent legislation that requires districts in our state to screen for dyslexia and an increase in parents knowing and understanding their rights, our district has seen an increase in students who are requiring support.  In her Introduction to UDL (2015), Jennifer Edge-Savage explains that Universal Design is a "framework that incorporates flexible teaching and assessment approaches to address the learning needs and preferences of all students."  So why is it important that districts allocate funds and personnel to this endeavor?  Quite simply...it's the law (ADA National Network, 2022), but more importantly it's the right thing to do.

    A few years ago, I was invited to a classroom to help a teacher in her classroom of students who were identified as "Learning Disabled".  This middle school resource room was made up of seventh and eighth grade students who needed support minutes in their day.  Each student was in a different place on the learning continuum, and it was up to this teacher to help each individual student finish their work, receive remediation, and finish assessments.  Our district had just started using Canvas LMS to manage assignments, and this teacher was asking for additional support to help students to use the accessibility tools found within Canvas.  I was excited for this opportunity because I was aware of how digitally accessible materials could help students to become more independent, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to show these tools to the students.  However, when I got to this classroom, I quickly learned that the content teachers had not designed for accessibility.  Instead of using accessible text materials, screenshots of math problems were included in Google forms as quizzes.  Poorly scanned textbook pages were embedded in Canvas for students to read, and videos did not include captions.  I watched as these students quickly became disengaged in the learning.  They were frustrated and some became disruptive.  This poor teacher was at a loss for how to support these students.  It was at this time, that I realized that we were missing a large population of students.  As a district, we needed to ensure that all students, not most students, could "acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services (National Center on Accessible Educational Materials [AEM], n.d.).

    I set out on a campaign to spread awareness of the accessibility tools that the digital platforms we use offer to students.  Our ADA council worked with our finance department to make sure that when we purchased our next lease for copy machines, they included settings to scan with Optical Character Recognition. As a district, we  subscribed to Don Johnston and added additional Text to Speech subscription tools for teachers and students.  And, I sought out additional tools (Blackboard Ally) within Canvas to help teachers to design with accessibility in mind.  My work still continues as I sit with teams in each building to understand the "why" and the "how" of assistive technology.  But, in the end the needs of all students will be met as we, collectively, dismantle the barriers to learning. Classroom disruptions will be down and students will be empowered to learn in the manner that works best for them.  Teachers will have a higher level of self-efficacy because they know that they are supporting all students.  Overall the learning environment will be more productive for everyone.

References:

ADA National Network. (2022) An Introduction to Digital Accessibility [Video] YouTube. https://youtu.be/Z_eo0cwBYb4 

Edge-Savage, J. (2015) Intro to UDL 2015. [Slideshare]. https://www.slideshare.net/jenniferedgesavage/intro-to-udl-2015 

National Center on Accessible Educational Materials. (n.d.) What is Accessibility? https://aem.cast.org/get-started/defining-accessibility 

Iris Center/Vanderbilt University. (2023) Assistive Technology: An Overview. https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/at/