Project Proposal

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (2022), 1 in 50 (or 2.0%) Canadian children and youth aged 1 to 17 years were diagnosed with ASD.  This educator toolkit’s design aims to support the creation of inclusive learning environments that foster belonging rather than isolation or exclusion for autistic students. Developed using scholarly research and insights from the autistic community, the toolkit will provide a diverse range of accessible resources. By allowing all students to choose what they need when they need it, this approach promotes a truly inclusive classroom and helps reshape norms for autistic students.

Our goal is to create an accessible, academically informed toolkit for anyone who works with autistic children. The toolkit includes engaging and multimodal content that is easy to navigate and provides customizable resources for educators to meet diverse student needs. Through this project, we aim to challenge ableism and promote accessibility, inspiring lasting change that ensures all students, regardless of ability, can thrive.

Through the approach of encouraging inclusive classrooms as opposed to isolating experiences, we seek to challenge and identify ableism to dismantle systemic barriers that hinder true and holistic inclusion. By ensuring that all resources are flexible and considerate of diverse abilities and learning needs, we aim to create environments that promote full participation. Ultimately, we envision a classroom where every student is fully included, without separation.

As a team, we have chosen to use Google Sites to present our toolkit because it is easily accessible on digital devices and offers a user-friendly platform that can be easily shared and updated in both synchronous and asynchronous ways. We aimed to make the toolkit multimodal, incorporating downloadable resources, video links, and other engaging materials, making it a flexible and dynamic resource. By using a URL, we hope to reach a broader audience beyond just our local school boards, ensuring that the toolkit is available to educators anywhere, at any time, regardless of geography. 

To present our tool as usable, we have used clear language that is academically informed, engaging, and accessible to our target users. As mentioned, we also aimed to make our content beneficial to anyone who advocates for inclusive education or holds influence in shaping educational policies. The customizable documents can help educators make the tools apply to their contexts more effectively. This allows educators to tailor resources according to their teaching style, specific needs, and pedagogical approaches. 

We advocate for the belief that education is a fundamental right, and inclusion should be the default, not just an afterthought. Educators and school administrators are responsible for adapting learning spaces to meet the needs of all students, rather than forcing students to conform to rigid, unadapted environments. This approach both benefits all learners and challenges ableism. In addition, the goals for this toolkit are based on social justice, equity, and the importance of inclusion and diversity in learning environments to create rich and holistic educational spaces. 

Our target users are educators such as classroom teachers, special education resource teachers (SERTs), early childhood educators, and school administrators. Given that our toolkit is a digital resource, we also aim to engage policymakers and key decision-makers at the government level. 

Our claims are backed by academic research and voices from the community that highlight how inclusive approaches not only benefit students with disabilities but promote essential soft skills, such as empathy, adaptability, and community-building. Our toolkit, presented in the form of a Google Site, focuses on real-world experiences and research to ensure the toolkit is grounded in practical, meaningful perspectives.