Accessibility within education is a topic that instructors are required to consider, there are legal requirements that are regulated by Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the US and other laws. This is an ethical consideration as well as the legal requirement. Accessibility is all about inclusion and allowing for information to be available to ALL individuals.
Accessibility is about providing equal access to information for all learners, regardless of their differences.
Universal Design for Learning is useful in providing a framework for constructing an accessible and inclusive learning environment.
Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning are not just beneficial to students with disabilities, they benefit all students!
Design your course/resources from the beginning with accessibility and inclusion in mind.
National Center on Accessible Educational Matierals. Basic definition of accessibility and different terminology of accessibility in education, additional links throughout on accessibility. https://aem.cast.org/get-started/defining-accessibility
Universal Design for Learning. https://www.cast.org/what-we-do/universal-design-for-learning/
Provides further trainings, podcasts, materials for accessibility. https://www.d2l.com/blog/accessible-education-the-complete-guide/
Accessibility has to be taken into account from the beginning of any instructional design. When creating all parts of a course or learning experience, barriers have to be removed or alternative technologies/resources provided to allow for all learners to be able to access the information. The more people that are able to successfully access your content, the better. This can look like have alternative text to images, closed captions to videos, larger fonts. Within my job, accessibility will take on the learners experience or lack of it as well. While this might be a larger part of some learning theories, it is particularly important in crafting instruction and training on how to advocate and lead to be able to tailor this to each unique student and the knowledge they personally bring with them.
References:
AEM (n.d.) What is accessibility?. National Center on Accessible Educational Materials. https://aem.cast.org/get-started/defining-accessibility
Bhaduri, S. (2023, May 31). Accessibility in learning design: Delivering inclusive learning for your workforce. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/accessibility-in-learning-design-delivering-inclusive-learning-for-your-workforce
CAST. (2024). Universal design for learning. CAST. https://www.cast.org/what-we-do/universal-design-for-learning/
Rao, K. (2021). Inclusive Instructional Design: Applying UDL to Online Learning. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 10(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.59668/223.3753
Wilson, H. (2024, September 16). Accessible education: The complete guide. D2L. https://www.d2l.com/blog/accessible-education-the-complete-guide/