Challenge One: Ethical & Legal Considerations
What it is:
Welcome to the first challenge!
The Ethical and Legal Considerations competency means striving to create equitable and inclusive learning spaces for students, in both in-person classrooms and digital spaces. This includes developing course content that follows digital accessibility standards and guidelines. it also means recognizing when learning environments aren’t integrating accessibility strategies and determining what actions can be taken to improve them.
Why it is important:
Accessibility is an ethical responsibility. As stated on Niagara College Canada’s Accessibility Hub, “Accessibility is about equity. Accessibility is about human rights. Inaccessible teaching and learning environments are exclusionary teaching and learning environments.” Educators in post-secondary institutions have a collective and shared responsibility to identify and eliminate barriers, to make our in-person and digital learning environments more accessible for the range of our learners. Proactively taking action to enhance access and remove barriers helps create an inclusive environment that is more equitable for all learners.
Examples:
- Explore how open textbooks can increase access to education and enhance the learning experience: Open Resources: Improving Access for Everyone (blog post)
- Read about strategies to keep in mind when creating content to foster diversity and inclusivity: Diverse and Inclusive Representation in OER (article)
- Learn from Jamie Drozda’s personal experience with accessibility, usability, and inclusive design: Engaging with Technology and Accessible Practice (blog post)
Multimedia Activity
Before we dive into strategies to make our courses more accessible, let’s first explore some barriers. Click on each of the cards to learn about barriers students face when they don’t have reliable access to services or equipment to engage in learning.
The card content was retrieved from Removing Barriers to Online Learning Through a Teaching and Learning Lens.
Learning Activities
1. Learn it for yourself
Now that you’re aware of some possible barriers that students in your classroom may be facing, let’s explore a few key strategies that can help make your classroom practice more accessible for all learners.
As stated on Niagara College Canada’s Accessibility Hub, “Reducing and removing barriers to ensure accessible teaching and learning spaces can feel like a big topic to tackle. However, one of the barriers to consider is the way we think about and approach accessibility. Shifting our thinking from individual accommodations to creating a culture of accessibility for all students makes for a positive and inclusive learning experience for everyone.”
Watch the 9 minute video below titled Improve the Accessibility of Your Online Course to learn about key practices you can integrate in your courses to improve accessibility for all students. Although the video mentions that these practices are for