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Moderator: Revati Borkhade, UMass Amherst
Sheryl Burgstahler, University of Washington
Even as we face the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, political upheaval, and worldwide conflict, we educators get charged up when we make connections with our students and support their success. The presenter in this session will provide quick tips that can make on-site, online, and hybrid learning more accessible and inclusive of students with a broad range of characteristics that include disabilities. Learn a few practices to level the playing field and share resources for finding more.
COVID-19 pandemic forces us to quickly develop learning opportunities for students. In our haste to move courses online, many educators have unintentionally erected barriers to many students with disabilities. Participants applying practices presented in this session will have a chance to feel the joy in removing barriers to this group. The speaker will share a Universal Design Framework for designing inclusive online, on-site or hybrid courses. UD is defined by the Center for Universal Design as “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” Besides basic UD principles, the Universal Design for Learning principles developed by CAST to offer further apply UD to pedagogy. Similarly, online learning can be made more accessible by applying the principles that underpin the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The UD Framework builds on these three sets of principles. This presentation will share tips to help faculty and course designers get started in creating more accessible courses and updating courses for their next offerings. A focus will be placed on specific practices that benefit neurodiverse learners. Applying UD tips will contribute to the joy we face our students learn.