Sound is inherently an important part of what we do. Check out this website for further guidelines. Include a clear description of the content and a sense for the function or the importance of that content. When you write an alt text, consider what a student would need if they couldn’t see the visual components at all. Detailed prose explanations will allow all students to develop deeper understandings of the images you include. Finally, consider developing descriptive elements and alternative text (alt text) for images and figures. Also, be sure to check with your institution’s LMS (Learning Management System, for example Blackboard, Desire2Learn, or Moodle) support team to ensure your texts are useable on multiple devices and in various formats (tablet, phone, and personal computer). Another way to enhance the accessibility of your classroom is to allow students to download and manipulate notes as they see fit. Scanned PDFs of articles and books often lack the flexibility that screen readers require. Text formats should be flexible, allowing students to adjust for size and layout when possible. You should ensure that all visual materials contain enough contrast to be visible to everyone, including those with colour-blindness or other visual differences. Remember, though, that contrast is important when preparing slides. Most screen readers, software used by blind and visually impaired computer users, enable access both to online and print text. Begin by stating an openness to learning differences and by providing a diverse range of instructional goals, activities, and assignments, as this approach can often be the best way to set the tone of inclusion for your course.īe it textbooks, online notes, transcripts, or powerpoint presentations, text is a prevalent part of the teaching and learning experience. (More on accessibility and video content, see below.) If you create “learning agreements” with your students on the first day of class, consider making accessibility an important part of these conversations. Also, in the interest of promoting multiple means of representation, present a video announcement on your Learning Management System (LMS) as part of your introductory materials. Instead, promote the possibility for success across your classroom population by placing a statement of inclusion and accommodation requests at the top of your syllabus. Traditionally and all too often, accommodation statements are buried towards the end of the syllabus for a given course, leading students to feel they are an afterthought or a cursory concern for the instructor. However, despite our best efforts as educators to minimize all barriers through inclusive design approaches, there may still be individual accommodations that need to be made in our courses depending on the context and circumstances. Ultimately, the accessible and inclusive classroom can be characterized as differentiated, flexible, and empowering.Įffective inclusive design reduces physical, psychological, and emotional barriers to learning. And finally, instructors should provide multiple means of engagement, which essentially means that students should be offered options that will stimulate and motivate them (CAST, 2012). Second, the pedagogy should provide multiple means of action and demonstration of learning, or allow learners to express what they know in different ways. First: Instructors should provide multiple means of representation, or, in other words, present content and information in various formats. UDL provides three central principles for tackling the question of designing for learner variability. Indeed, UDL “provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone-not a single one-size-fits all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs” (CAST, 2012). A good place to start is with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework that aims to maximize learning for all students. Many music educators today grapple with this daunting question: How do we create and foster accessible teaching and learning experiences? By “accessible” we are referring to approaches that address learner variability by providing multiple opportunities and options for those with sensory, mobility, cognitive, and learning differences.
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