Last month, I mentioned that as part of my dissertation study I’ll be asking Big Ten language instructors what their programs and institutions can do to better support them in their accessibility and inclusion efforts (see August 15, 2023 blog entry). This month, I’m writing to those language instructors directly, who may feel very alone right now as they fight the good fight to make their courses accessible for a new semester.
In the absence of greater support from programs and institutions, I remind educators that what is really important is progress, rather than perfection (I wrote very briefly about this in my February 1, 2022 blog entry).
The course you teach may need a lot of work to become not only accessible but also inclusive for disabled language learners. Don’t panic.
First of all, you’re not alone. Many of us have work to do here, myself included.
Second, you don’t have to go from zero to sixty in a minute flat, so to speak (it’s a car metaphor, illustrating attaining maximum achievement in a very short time), as soon as you learn where there’s room for improvement. I am not asking, and hopefully no one else is either, a single human to completely overhaul a course overnight.
My advice is to start small and easy. When I say small, I mean small. I am a firm believer in taking small, achievable, first steps and using that motivation to try the next one, then the next one.
Here’s a pro-tip: it will feel less daunting to start with things that you don’t need outside help to accomplish (e.g., tech support or massive amounts of Googling).
If you don’t already have a sense of what that looks like, here’s one approach that can help you break it down into simple steps:
Step 1: Start with immediate needs
If you have a current accommodations request from a student or other student requests* for support, handle those needs first. Once any immediate student needs are cared for, move on to the next step.
*Have other students, perhaps without documentation, asked for support? Address their needs, too. Students don’t need diagnoses or documentation to ask you for and deserve help.
Step 2: Make good habits
Ask yourself: are there things you can implement right now and get in a habit of doing from now on?
Pick one thing from a checklist like this one (maybe your institution has its own?) to learn more about and try to get in a habit of implementing that one thing consistently and reliably.
For example:
-Are you making good use of white space on a page or slide so you’re not crowding too much information and making it harder to read?
-Are you using text enhancement combinations (bold plus color is more useful to more students than just color) to illustrate important points in a salient way?
Rinse and repeat! Repeat Step 2 as often as you like and concurrently as you move on to Step 3. Keep choosing more simple habits to get into even as you progress into slightly more advanced accessibility moves.
Step 3: Make course edits as you go
Take stock as you’re teaching this semester. Are there any are the existing parts of your course that you’re learning could be improved for next time? Even things like how your learning management system is organized can “count” as accessibility!
If you have time now, make the change now. It will help current students, and you won’t risk forgetting to do it later.
If changes require more time or help than you have right now, make yourself a note to revisit this in your next pre-course design stage before you teach the course again. Make a document right now where you can easily keep notes during the term.
Step 4: Assign yourself ONE piece of homework
Pick an accommodation, any accommodation, to learn more about. (Only one! You’re already doing a lot).
Have you always been afraid of captions because it feels very technical and like something pretty easy to mess up? (I know I was for a long time, and I’m still not excellent at incorporating them). Set aside just a little time to read or watch videos about captions, why they are important, and some of the technological options available to facilitate captions.
Don’t feel you have to do anything yet with the information you learn in your research phase – just learn, if that’s all you have the bandwidth for. It’s important not to take too big a bite out of each step. It’s important to keep your engagement reasonable vis-a-vis your immediate workload. Give yourself a reasonable deadline and don’t be too hard on yourself when you see the deadline slip past you. 🙂
Happy fall semester!
Caitlin Cornell 