Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility Resources

As I reviewed the principles and guidelines of the UniversalDesign for Learning model, I found that there are a number of things that I am already doing well, or that I can immediately begin adding to improve my practice.  However, there are several items, mostly related to the use of assistive technology and accessibility, that I need to explore further.  Some of the things that I have been doing for a long time are things like activating prior knowledge, pre-teaching vocabulary, scaffolding and chunking information, providing graphic organizers and visuals, involving students in goal-setting, and providing checklists and rubrics. In addition to these, I have always tried to create a welcoming and supportive classroom environment with a well-maintained schedule and varying types of learning activities.  Most of these things can be done without extensive use of technology, however, technology has made it possible to increase accessibility which has made our classrooms more inclusive, making it imperative that teachers know how to locate and use accessibility features and materials. There are some basic accessibility features that I can add to my practice immediately such as changing text size, color and contrast, volume and timing, and embedding hyperlinks for textual support.  In addition to these, I can also begin using social media platforms, interactive web tools, and providing immediate feedback. 

Accessible materials and technologies beyond these basics are areas that I need to research in order to be able to successfully design lessons that meet the needs of all learners.  I located several resources that contain information that I found to be helpful.  The National Center on AccessibleEducational Materials is a website that provides extensive information about accessible educational materials (AEM), accessible instructional materials (AIM), and accessible technologies.  It is a good place to begin learning about accessibility in education as it provides access to videos, webinars, guidelines and best practices for designing for accessibility, and related resources. It also contains information about AEM for remote learning, which will be helpful in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Another source of information that I located is the National Instructional Materials Access Center, (NIMAC) a resource center founded as a result of IDEA 2004 and funded by the US government that houses files that can be downloaded by authorized users that provide instructional materials in accessible formats.  This website explains what NIMAS is and how the process for obtaining materials works.  The information is helpful but it is important to keep in mind that this is a process that takes time and coordination.

The article “School Library Accessibility: The Role ofAssistive Technology” by Janet Hopkins originally published in School Librarian was informative because it is specific to K-12 libraries and the role that the library media specialist plays in helping students with disabilities become independent learners by using assistive technologies.  Ms. Hopkins provides descriptions of the types of assistive technologies that can be used for accessibility and the reasons for using them.

Not every school uses the Google apps for education or Chrome OS or Chromebooks but for those that do, Google provides accessibility flashcards that can be downloaded for free that provide step-by-step instructions for enabling accessibility features such as handwriting recognition, text-to-speech, and Dyslexia/color support.  It also provides instructions for Reader-Pen by Scanning Pens and Clicker Communicator by Crick Software. Google also has a blog devoted to accessibility that provides information about new apps that are available to promote accessibility.   The most recent post from October 2019 discusses the Live Caption, a captioning system for smartphones.  Information like this can be easily provided to teachers, staff, and students to promote the importance of accessibility.

Microsoft also has an education blog and the post from May 18, 2017 provides a series of videos about how to create accessible content using Microsoft products.  Some of the topics covered include how use OneNote to organize information for all subjects to reduce the amount of paper to keep up with, Office Lens to create digital content that can be edited and imported into any of the Microsoft apps, including ImmersiveReader which will then read the digital content aloud, and using Skype and SkypeTranslator.  I watched several of the videos in this series and found them to be very helpful in learning how to create accessible content.

The goal of Universal Design for Learning is to ensure that all students are able to engage in authentic and equitable learning and that all teachers are able to purposefully create content that is equally accessible to everyone.  As librarians and media specialists it is our job to be knowledgeable about the principles of UDL and to be able to provide our learning communities with resources that ensure success for all.

 

Resources:

Enabling accessibility features/flashcards. Google. http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/enabling_accessibility_features.pdf

Hopkins, Janet. (2004). School library accessibility: The role of assistive technology. Teacher Librarian. v31;3.

Kemier, Brian. (2019). If it has audio, now it can have captions. Google Accessibility blog. https://blog.google/products/android/live-caption/?_ga=2.126088328.443909475.1596055049-1212337996.1596055049

Microsoft Education Team. (2017). 10 tips to make your classroom more accessible. Microsoft Education. https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2017/05/10-tips-for-creating-an-inclusive-classroom-today/

National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, http://aem.cast.org/

National Instructional Materials Access Center, https://www.nimac.us/

(2018). Universal design for learning guidelines. CAST.com. http://udlguidelines.cast.org/